 Academically, Chicago schools are subpar at best. Their elementary age students are below the national average in both math and reading. The situation is so bad that the school system brags about a graduation rate of only 82%, also considerably below the national average. Granted, it's an improvement from the catastrophic 60% graduation rate of 2007, but still not very good. All in all, suffice it to say that Chicago public schools have problems, major problems.