Enrollment
156
Middle
DISTRICT 231 · STATE 462
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·FORD HEIGHTS SD 169·NCES 171095005419
Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center
800 E 14th St, Ford Heights, IL 60411 · (708) 758-1400 · Cook County
GRADES 05–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL156 STUDENTS
C-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 20% 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.
- BBeats 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
12 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 19.3:1 · STATE 13.0:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
99%
154 students
DISTRICT 97% · STATE 56%
Community
0
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 5 | 43 | 28% |
| Grade 6 | 42 | 27% |
| Grade 7 | 36 | 23% |
| Grade 8 | 35 | 22% |
Student demographics
13%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 8% · 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
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within Ford Heights SD 169. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
QUIET COMMUNITY
Be the first to start a discussion at Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center.
START A DISCUSSIONTest scores
IAR + ISA 2024-25 . % Proficient (Levels 4-5)English Language Arts
30.3%
IL avg 51.0% . +15.9pp since 2023
Math
6.0%
IL avg 37.9% . +1.2pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 30 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 6 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 16 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 1 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 30.3% | 6.0% |
| 2023-24 | 14.4% | 4.8% |
% 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
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
16.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
14.5%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+1.8pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 16% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 15% typical for Illinois schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Illinois's top nor bottom 10%.
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 Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center
Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center's state test result (16.3% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center this school | 156 | 98.7% | 16.3% |
| Roosevelt Junior High School Dolton | 130 | 100.0% | 23.6% |
| Lincoln Junior High School Dolton | 168 | 98.8% | 12.8% |
| Madison Jr High School Madison | 124 | 97.6% | 18.4% |
| School of Fine Arts Calumet City | 224 | 99.1% | 12.8% |
| Washington Junior High Riverdale | 118 | 100.0% | 16.9% |
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 Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 16.3% | #544 of 578 | #109 of 116 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 6.0% | #624 of 640 ▼ 18 | #141 of 146 ▼ 4 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 30.3% | #564 of 640 ▲ 47 | #129 of 146 ▲ 9 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 156 | #606 of 691 | #144 of 148 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 98.7% | #18 of 581 | #12 of 117 |
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
156
-7 (-4%) vs 2020
-49% since 1990-91, when it was 308
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 | 156 | 11.9 | 13.1:1 | 99% (154) |
| 2023-24 | 139 | 12.5 | 11.1:1 | 96% (134) |
| 2022-23 | 153 | 12 | 12.8:1 | 92% (140) |
| 2020-21 | 163 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 169 | 14.9 | 11.3:1 | 95% (161) |
| 2015-16 | 156 | 17 | 9.2:1 | 98% (153) |
| 2010-11 | 214 | 19 | 11.3:1 | 99% (211) |
| 2000-01 | 178 | 19 | 9.4:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 308 | 26 | 11.8:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center.
Since 2017-18: students down 8% (169 to 156); teachers down 20% (14.9 to 11.9).
About Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center
As a small middle school, Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center serves students in Ford Heights, Illinois. It serves 156 students in grades 5 through 8. For comparison, middle schools in Illinois average about 462 students.
Besides Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center, Ford Heights SD 169 runs 1 other school. The district enrolls 462 students.
Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center enrolls a student body that is 93% Black. Other reported shares: 7% Hispanic. That compares with about 22% Black among all Cook County residents. Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center has a diversity index of 13%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
The teaching staff at Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center is 11.9 full-time-equivalent teachers, and the ratio is 13.1:1. Across middle schools in Illinois, the average ratio is about 13.0:1. About 99% of students, or 154, qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The 66% average for public schools in Cook County is 33 points lower.
Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center is graded C- by allk12, scoring above 20% of Illinois public middle schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
The allk12 BeatsExpectations score for Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center is +1.8 points: 16.3% actual, 14.5% predicted.
Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center is located in Cook County, where median household income is about $83,498, about 43% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 10% of residents are in poverty. Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center is one of 1,406 public schools in Cook County, which together enroll about 697,934 students.
The nearest other public school, Medgar Evers Primary Acadmc Cntr, is about 0.7 miles away. The count of other public schools within five miles is at least 8. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 24.2%; Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center's is 16.3%, ranking 6th of 8.
The National Center for Education Statistics classifies the school's location as Suburb: Large, meaning it is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
The student count in 2024-25 was 156, 4% below the 163 of 2020-21.
Posts about school safety, transportation, and start times are welcome on this page. Questions from prospective families are welcome too.
Cook County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
5,182,090
Census ACS
Median income
$83,498
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
43%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
10%
Below federal line
Schools in county
1,406
697,934 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Ford Heights SD 169
- Medgar Evers Primary Acadmc CntrElementary · 306 students
Other schools in Ford Heights
- Medgar Evers Primary Acadmc CntrElementary · 306 students
Nearby schools
- Medgar Evers Primary Acadmc Cntr0.7 mi · 306
- Bloom Trail High School1.5 mi · 1,218
- Wagoner Elementary School1.5 mi · 466
- Lincoln Elementary School1.7 mi · 84
- Jefferson Elementary School1.9 mi · 157
- Garfield Elementary School2.0 mi · 248
Frequently asked questions
About Cottage Grove Upper Grade CenterHow many students attend Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center?
Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center enrolls approximately 156 students in grades 05-08.
What age range does Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center serve?
Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center serves students from grade 05 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center?
Approximately 13.1:1 students per teacher at Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center.
How diverse is Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center?
Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center reports a student body of 7% Hispanic, 93% Black.
Is Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center public or private?
Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center is a public K-12 school, overseen by Ford Heights SD 169.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.