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)
170993000860	1	Keller Elementary Gifted Magnet School	Public	1-8	3020 W 108th St	Chicago	60655	Cook County	Chicago Public Schools District 299	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(773) 535-2636	221	13	16.6	35.7%	31 (14.0%)	55 (24.9%)	31 (14.0%)	92 (41.6%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	12 (5.4%)	$19,373			$2,635			$16,737	99.6	99.7	2	1
170993004944	2	Edison Elementary Regional Gifted Center	Public	K-8	4929 N Sawyer Ave	Chicago	60625	Cook County	Chicago Public Schools District 299	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(773) 534-0540	265	18	14.7	10.6%	151 (57.0%)	7 (2.6%)	29 (10.9%)	43 (16.2%)	1 (0.4%)	1 (0.4%)	33 (12.5%)	$17,672			$2,627			$15,045	99.5	98.6	12	10
170993000714	3	Young Magnet High School	Public	7-12	211 S Laflin St	Chicago	60607	Cook County	Chicago Public Schools District 299	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(773) 534-7500	2,221	133	16.6	34.8%	534 (24.0%)	400 (18.0%)	632 (28.5%)	548 (24.7%)	4 (0.2%)	15 (0.7%)	88 (4.0%)	$16,374			$2,084			$14,289	99.5	99.2	6	3
170993000692	4	Decatur Classical Elementary School	Public	K-8	7030 N Sacramento Ave	Chicago	60645	Cook County	Chicago Public Schools District 299	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(773) 534-2201	329	22	14.9	14.9%	142 (43.2%)	13 (4.0%)	43 (13.1%)	98 (29.8%)	1 (0.3%)	0 (0.0%)	31 (9.4%)	$17,841			$2,429			$15,412	99.4	99.8	1	3
170993000832	5	Hawthorne Elementary Scholastic Academy	Public	K-8	3319 N Clifton Ave	Chicago	60657	Cook County	Chicago Public Schools District 299	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(773) 534-5550	616	42	14.8	14.4%	329 (53.4%)	24 (3.9%)	130 (21.1%)	80 (13.0%)	3 (0.5%)	0 (0.0%)	50 (8.1%)	$16,594			$2,196			$14,398	99.3	99	8	3
173840003918	6	Sunset Ridge Elementary School	Public	4-8	525 Sunset Ridge Rd	Northfield	60093	Cook County	Sunset Ridge School District 29	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(847) 881-9459	251	33	7.5		202 (80.5%)	5 (2.0%)	8 (3.2%)	19 (7.6%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	17 (6.8%)	$33,175			$689			$32,486	99.2	98.5	13	7
173123000973	7	Reservoir Gifted School	Public	5-8	3706 N Grand Blvd	Peoria	61614	Peoria County	Peoria School District 150	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(309) 672-6563	292	17	17.6	31.8%	178 (61.0%)	40 (13.7%)	31 (10.6%)	7 (2.4%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	36 (12.3%)	$13,413			$1,306			$12,107	99.2	99.2	7
170993000942	8	Lane Technical High School	Public	7-12	2501 W Addison St	Chicago	60618	Cook County	Chicago Public Schools District 299	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(773) 534-5400	4,525	269	16.8	36.7%	1,647 (36.4%)	305 (6.7%)	1,579 (34.9%)	468 (10.3%)	21 (0.5%)	27 (0.6%)	478 (10.6%)	$14,612			$1,956			$12,656	99.2	98.2	15	7
173451006242	9	Thurgood Marshall School	Public	5-8	4664 N Rockton Ave	Rockford	61103	Winnebago County	Rockford School District 205	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(815) 490-5400	483	28	17.1	30.0%	286 (59.2%)	20 (4.1%)	59 (12.2%)	85 (17.6%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (0.2%)	32 (6.6%)	$18,472			$609			$17,863	99.2	99.3	5	4
170993006081	10	Skinner North Elementary School	Public	K-8	640 W Scott St	Chicago	60610	Cook County	Chicago Public Schools District 299	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(773) 534-8500	512	30	17	13.1%	137 (26.8%)	27 (5.3%)	37 (7.2%)	248 (48.4%)	4 (0.8%)	1 (0.2%)	57 (11.1%)	$15,326			$2,021			$13,306	99.1	99.6	4	6

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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:

Student-Teacher Ratios and their Impact on Class Sizes & School Selection

High school students working on a science experiment

Magnet Schools: Unleashing the Power of Education

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.