Best Middle Schools in Illinois

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Find the best Illinois middle schools with SchoolDigger.com! Focused on test scores for accurate rankings, our user-friendly site simplifies your search. Empower your decisions by exploring top-rated schools, only on SchoolDigger.com - the ultimate guide to K-12 schools!

Year after year, SchoolDigger is always the first to publish Illinois test scores and rankings. Other sites use stale test score data that are several years old! Be in the know with the very latest performance metrics.

The list is updated annually upon the release of the IAR test scores by the Illinois State Board of Education. The most recent update was on Wednesday, October 30, 2024.

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School															Students/Teachers											Per Pupil Expenditures (2024)							Ranking (2024 vs 2023)
ID	Rank (of 1363)	School	Type	Grades	Address	City	Zip	County	District	Is Charter	Is Magnet	Is Virtual	Is Title I	Phone	# Students	Full-time Teachers	Student/ Teacher Ratio	Free/Disc Lunch Recipients	White	Black	Hispanic	Asian	American Indian	Pacific Islander	Two or More Races	Per Pupil Expenditures: Total	Personnel from Federal Funds	Non-Personnel from Federal Funds	Total from Federal Funds	Personnel from State and Local Funds	Non-Personnel from State and Local Funds	Total from State and Local Funds	Average Standard Score (2024)	Average Standard Score (2023)	Rank (2023)	Rank Change from 2023	SchoolDigger Rating (2024)
170993000840	1291	Hefferan Elementary School	Public	PK, KG-8	4409 W Wilcox St	Chicago	60624	Cook County	Chicago Public Schools District 299	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(773) 534-6192	181	20	9	99.4%	3 (1.7%)	162 (89.5%)	14 (7.7%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (0.6%)	$28,458			$4,932			$23,526	12	22.5	1061	230
170993000441	1292	Jordan Elementary Community School	Public	PK, KG-8	7414 N Wolcott Ave	Chicago	60626	Cook County	Chicago Public Schools District 299	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(773) 534-2220	510	42	12.2	91.2%	43 (8.4%)	124 (24.3%)	277 (54.3%)	46 (9.0%)	2 (0.4%)	3 (0.6%)	15 (2.9%)	$21,251			$3,745			$17,506	11.9	13.6	1260	32
170993000830	1293	Harvard Elementary School	Public	PK, KG-8	7525 S Harvard Ave	Chicago	60620	Cook County	Chicago Public Schools District 299	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(773) 535-3045	364	21	17.7	94.2%	0 (0.0%)	343 (94.2%)	20 (5.5%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	$23,659			$3,997			$19,662	11.9	12.9	1285	8
170993000646	1294	Cameron Elementary School	Public	PK, KG-8	1234 N Monticello Ave	Chicago	60651	Cook County	Chicago Public Schools District 299	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(773) 534-4290	634	49	12.9	97.2%	2 (0.3%)	101 (15.9%)	526 (83.0%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (0.2%)	1 (0.2%)	3 (0.5%)	$18,105			$3,326			$14,778	11.9	15.8	1207	87
173123005326	1295	Von Steuben Middle School	Public	5-8	801 E Forrest Hill Ave	Peoria	61603	Peoria County	Peoria School District 150	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(309) 672-6561	240	17	13.9	87.9%	34 (14.2%)	159 (66.3%)	14 (5.8%)	2 (0.8%)	1 (0.4%)	1 (0.4%)	29 (12.1%)	$18,914			$3,273			$15,641	11.9	12.1	1300	5
171860002156	1296	Jesse C White Learning Academy	Public	PK, KG-8	16910 S Western Ave	Hazel Crest	60429	Cook County	Hazel Crest School District 152-5	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(708) 825-2190	432	29	14.8	99.5%	1 (0.2%)	384 (88.9%)	28 (6.5%)	0 (0.0%)	3 (0.7%)	0 (0.0%)	16 (3.7%)	$22,472			$6,708			$15,764	11.9	17.4	1170	126
170993000782	1297	Gale Elementary Community Academy	Public	PK, KG-8	1631 W Jonquil Ter	Chicago	60626	Cook County	Chicago Public Schools District 299	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(773) 534-2100	299	24	12.5	87.6%	17 (5.7%)	170 (56.9%)	87 (29.1%)	19 (6.4%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	6 (2.0%)	$25,562			$4,384			$21,178	11.8	13.5	1264	33
170468000149	1298	K D Waldo Middle School	Public	6-8	56 Jackson St	Aurora	60505	Kane County	Aurora East Unified School District 131	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(630) 299-8400	794	64	12.4	71.8%	25 (3.1%)	56 (7.1%)	702 (88.4%)	0 (0.0%)	2 (0.3%)	0 (0.0%)	9 (1.1%)	$20,059			$3,064			$16,995	11.8	12.7	1290	8
170993000816	1299	Gillespie Elementary School	Public	PK, KG-8	9301 S State St	Chicago	60619	Cook County	Chicago Public Schools District 299	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(773) 535-5065	342	28	12.4	85.1%	0 (0.0%)	326 (95.3%)	13 (3.8%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (0.3%)	1 (0.3%)	1 (0.3%)	$20,759			$3,179			$17,580	11.7	17.3	1173	126
170804006001	1300	Estelle Sauget School of Choice	Public	PK, KG-8	1700 Jerome Ln	Cahokia	62206	St. Clair County	Cahokia CUSD 187	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(618) 332-4741	249	14	17.7	83.5%	18 (7.2%)	215 (86.3%)	4 (1.6%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	12 (4.8%)	$20,939			$9,323			$11,616	11.7	11.2	1314	14

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Other SchoolDigger ranking lists for Illinois

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New! SchoolDigger ranking lists for IL student subgroups:

Female Students Male Students Asian Students African American Students Hispanic Students White Students Multi-racial Students English Language Learner Students Special Education Students Low Socio Economic Status Students Homeless Students Disabled Students Military Connected Students

About our rankings:

Schooldigger calculates school rankings based on IAR English Language Arts, IAR Mathematics test scores released by the Illinois State Board of Education.
These rankings were last updated on October 30, 2024, and are based on the most recent test scores available. We update rankings as we receive new test scores from the Illinois State Board of Education, usually on a yearly basis.
Our sources of data include the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education and the Illinois State Board of Education.
For more information about our ranking process, please see our Ranking FAQ. Details about our methodology are here.

Educational resources:

Charter Schools vs Regular Public Schools: Understanding the Key Differences

Public School Districts and Their Services: A Comprehensive Guide

SchoolDigger data sources: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois State Board of Education.