Freeport Middle School

Located at 701 W Empire St, in Freeport, Illinois, Freeport Middle School is a mid-sized middle-grades school that serves 515 students (grades 7 through 8), operated by Freeport SD 145.

Across the 8 schools in Freeport SD 145 (3,703 students total), Freeport Middle School accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Freeport Middle School lists that the most-represented group is White (41%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Other groups include 24% Black, 19% Hispanic, 14% multiracial. That is visibly less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 80%.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 37 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.1:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 13.0:1 average. Roughly 59% of students at Freeport Middle School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. Set against Stephenson County (around 50%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

After controlling for student poverty, Freeport Middle School is in the bottom 10% of Illinois public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 37.5%; Freeport Middle School posts 23.6%, -14.0 points below that line.

Across the wider county, ACS estimates for Stephenson County put the typical household earns roughly $64,043 per year, about 21% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 9%. In all, Stephenson County runs 23 public schools (combined enrollment of about 6,092 students), of which Freeport Middle School is one.

Nearest neighbor: Freeport High School, around 0.1 miles off. 7 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Freeport Middle School ranks 4th on composite proficiency, beneath the local average of 26.2%.

Geographically, the school is in a town-based area.

Five-year trend. Freeport Middle School's enrollment has contracted 24% since 2018, when it stood at 678 (now 515). Over the same period, the Black share fell from 30% to 24%.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.