Harold B Dawson Middle School

Harold B Dawson Middle School is one of the small middle schools in West Peoria, Illinois, run under Peoria SD 150, with 331 students on its rolls from grades 5 through 8. That puts it 28% smaller than the typical public school in Illinois, which averages around 462 students.

Within Peoria SD 150, which oversees 25 schools and 13,312 students, Harold B Dawson Middle School is one campus in the system.

In terms of who attends, Harold B Dawson Middle School reports that the largest single group is Black, at 67% of enrollment; the rest comes out to 13% multiracial, 11% White, 7% Hispanic. That is visibly more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 17%.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, Harold B Dawson Middle School has 21 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 15.8:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 13.0:1 average. Around 92% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Peoria County runs at roughly 57%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Harold B Dawson Middle School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 18.3%, the actual is 11.3%, a residual of -7.0 points.

Zooming out to the county, census data for Peoria County shows median household income runs about $65,108, roughly 35% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. In all, Peoria County runs 81 public schools (combined enrollment of about 27,827 students), of which Harold B Dawson Middle School is one.

The closest other public school is Whittier Primary School, roughly 0.9 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Harold B Dawson Middle School at 4th of 8; the average score across the group is 16.4%.

Geographically, the school is in a residential area.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 9%: 362 students in 2018 compared to 331 in 2025. The White share of enrollment fell from 15% to 11% over that span. Class-load math has rose: from 13.3:1 in 2018 to 15.8:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, recent activity here tends to focus on enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.