Meadowbrook Elem School vs Wescott Elementary School

Meadowbrook Elem School holds a 0.7-point edge over Wescott Elementary School in overall rating — 9.5 versus 8.8 out of 10 — but the more significant gap lies in state context. Meadowbrook Elem School ranks #28 of 3,813 Illinois elementary schools, while Wescott Elementary School ranks #130 of the same pool. Both are high-performing schools sitting well inside the top 5 percent statewide, but Meadowbrook's positioning puts it in a tier very few schools in the state reach.

The academic scores tell a notably different story than the overall ratings suggest: both schools post identical academic scores of 9.9/10, meaning students at either school are meeting and exceeding grade-level benchmarks at roughly the same rate. Where Meadowbrook Elem School separates itself is in growth — a 9.1/10 compared to Wescott Elementary School's 7.8/10, a 1.3-point gap. Growth scores measure how much individual students advance year over year beyond what their starting point predicts, so Meadowbrook is accelerating learning at a meaningfully faster rate even when students enter with similar preparation.

Enrollment at the two schools is nearly identical — Wescott Elementary School at 485 students and Meadowbrook Elem School at 482 — so class-size comparisons come down to staffing. Wescott runs a student-teacher ratio of 10.5:1 versus Meadowbrook's 12.1:1, giving Wescott families roughly 15 percent more teacher contact per child on paper. Both ratios are well below national averages, and neither represents a red flag, but families prioritizing the smallest possible class setting will find it at Wescott. Both schools serve grades KG–05 and sit 1.2 miles apart in Northbrook, Illinois, making the choice a genuine comparison rather than a geographic tradeoff.

Both campuses share the same grade span, serve nearly the same number of students, and operate in the same district context. The clearest distinguishing factor remains the growth score differential: Meadowbrook Elem School's 9.1 signals a stronger instructional system for moving kids forward year over year, while Wescott Elementary School's lower student-teacher ratio and equivalent academic ceiling mean students who need individualized attention may still thrive there.