1
Best kept secret at C F Simmons Middle School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
792
Middle
DISTRICT 653 · STATE 462
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·AURORA EAST USD 131·NCES 170468000144
C F Simmons Middle School
1130 Sheffer Rd, Aurora, IL 60505 · (630) 299-4150 · Kane County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL792 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 3% of Illinois public middle schools
- DTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Illinois public middle schools
Student : Teacher
13.1:1
60 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.6:1 · STATE 13.0:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
64%
510 students
DISTRICT 64% · STATE 56%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 266 | 34% |
| Grade 7 | 244 | 31% |
| Grade 8 | 282 | 36% |
Student demographics
18%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 23% · STATE 69% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
C F Simmons Middle School→East High School
Based on grade levels within Aurora East USD 131. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
IAR + ISA 2024-25 . % Proficient (Levels 4-5)English Language Arts
26.4%
IL avg 51.0% . +5.5pp since 2023
Math
11.1%
IL avg 37.9% . +3.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 26 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 11 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Illinois schools, those numbers are about 51 and 38. Reading and writing scores are up about 6 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 3 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 26.4% | 11.1% |
| 2023-24 | 20.9% | 7.8% |
% Proficient (Levels 4-5), all students and all tested grades.
Source: IAR + ISA. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of IL schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
20.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
34.3%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-14.0pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 20% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 34% typical for Illinois schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like C F Simmons Middle School
C F Simmons Middle School's state test result (20.3% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| C F Simmons Middle School this school | 792 | 64.4% | 20.3% |
| Stevenson Middle School Melrose Park | 682 | 62.8% | 36.5% |
| Mannheim Middle School Melrose Park | 768 | 65.4% | 33.0% |
| Henry W Cowherd Middle School Aurora | 807 | 67.0% | 15.5% |
| K D Waldo Middle School Aurora | 729 | 70.0% | 12.7% |
| Miguel Juarez Middle School Waukegan | 651 | 69.6% | 12.7% |
Matched among Illinois middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where C F Simmons Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Kane County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 20.3% | #523 of 578 | #19 of 23 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 11.1% | #583 of 640 ▼ 16 | #22 of 26 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 26.4% | #594 of 640 ▼ 29 | #22 of 26 ▼ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 792 | #90 of 691 | #10 of 26 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.1:1 | #294 of 558 | #10 of 25 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 17.6% | #494 of 560 | #25 of 25 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 64.4% | #141 of 581 | #6 of 23 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -20.0% | #98 of 440 | #8 of 21 |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
792
-146 (-16%) vs 2020
+38% since 1990-91, when it was 576
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 792 | 60.3 | 13.1:1 | 64% (510) |
| 2023-24 | 737 | 65.5 | 11.3:1 | 75% (555) |
| 2022-23 | 795 | 62 | 12.8:1 | 72% (574) |
| 2020-21 | 938 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 990 | 68.1 | 14.6:1 | 72% (715) |
| 2015-16 | 1,026 | 66 | 15.6:1 | 63% (643) |
| 2010-11 | 973 | 67 | 14.5:1 | 82% (795) |
| 2000-01 | 741 | 57 | 13.0:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 576 | 44 | 13.1:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for C F Simmons Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 20% (990 to 792); teachers down 11% (68.1 to 60.3).
About C F Simmons Middle School
C F Simmons Middle School is a high-enrollment middle-grades school in Aurora East USD 131, located in Aurora, Illinois. Classes run from 6 through 8, and the school has 792 students. The average for middle schools in Illinois is about 462 students, so this school is 71% larger than average.
The district for C F Simmons Middle School is Aurora East USD 131, with 18 schools and 12,187 students.
Hispanic students are the large majority at C F Simmons Middle School, with 91% of enrollment. Next come 6% Black. That compares with about 33% Hispanic among all Kane County residents. The chance that two students picked at random at C F Simmons Middle School belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 18%.
The count of teachers at C F Simmons Middle School is 60.3 full-time equivalents, for a ratio of 13.1:1. Middle schools in Illinois have a similar average ratio of 13.0:1. Around 64% of the school's students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. It compares with 48% for public schools in Kane County.
Measured against Illinois public middle schools, C F Simmons Middle School receives an F. The grade weighs proficiency most heavily, then how results compare with what the school's low-income share predicts, then the three-year change.
BeatsExpectations places C F Simmons Middle School in the bottom 10% of Illinois schools. The measure fits a line through proficiency and free or reduced-price lunch share for each state, and this school sits 14.0 points below it (20.3% actual, 34.3% predicted).
In the county around the school, Kane County, median household income is about $103,163, about 38% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 6%. A total of 167 public schools operate in Kane County, serving about 87,252 students.
The closest other public school is Nicholas A Hermes Elementary School, about 0.4 miles away. There are at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Nearby schools average 21.2% on proficiency, and C F Simmons Middle School is below that at 20.3%.
Its location is classified as Suburb: Large by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Federal counts put enrollment at 938 in 2020-21 and 792 in 2024-25, a 16% decrease.
Parents and students can post about enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news at C F Simmons Middle School. Questions from prospective families are welcome too.
Kane County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
517,255
Census ACS
Median income
$103,163
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
38%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
167
87,252 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Aurora East USD 131
- East High SchoolHigh · 4,020 students
- Henry W Cowherd Middle SchoolMiddle · 807 students
- K D Waldo Middle SchoolMiddle · 729 students
- Olney C Allen Elementary SchoolElementary · 712 students
- C M Bardwell Elementary SchoolElementary · 679 students
- Nicholas A Hermes Elementary SchoolElementary · 607 students
Other schools in Aurora
- East High SchoolHigh · 4,020 students
- West Aurora High SchoolHigh · 3,641 students
- Waubonsie Valley High SchoolHigh · 2,849 students
- Metea Valley High SchoolHigh · 2,766 students
- Francis Granger Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,011 students
- Fischer Middle SchoolMiddle · 861 students
Nearby schools
- Nicholas A Hermes Elementary School0.4 mi · 607
- Mabel O Donnell Elementary School0.8 mi · 360
- Oak Park Elementary School1.0 mi · 353
- Henry W Cowherd Middle School1.1 mi · 807
- Benavides Steam Academy1.2 mi · 326
- C I Johnson Elementary School1.3 mi · 269
Frequently asked questions
About C F Simmons Middle SchoolHow large is C F Simmons Middle School?
C F Simmons Middle School enrolls approximately 792 students in grades 06-08.
Is C F Simmons Middle School an elementary, middle, or high school?
C F Simmons Middle School is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
How many students per teacher at C F Simmons Middle School?
Approximately 13.1:1 students per teacher at C F Simmons Middle School.
How diverse is C F Simmons Middle School?
C F Simmons Middle School reports a student body of 1% White, 91% Hispanic, 6% Black, 1% Asian, 1% Two or more.
Who oversees C F Simmons Middle School?
C F Simmons Middle School is overseen by Aurora East USD 131 in Kane County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.