Henry W Cowherd Middle School

Set in Aurora, Illinois, Henry W Cowherd Middle School is a sizable middle school, one of the schools within Aurora East USD 131. It teaches 807 students across grades 6 through 8. That puts it 75% larger than the typical public school in Illinois, which averages around 462 students.

Aurora East USD 131 comprises 18 schools with combined enrollment of 12,187 students; Henry W Cowherd Middle School is among them.

In terms of who attends, Henry W Cowherd Middle School lists that 83% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. Other groups include 13% Black. The wider county runs roughly 33% Hispanic, putting the school's mix visibly more Hispanic than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, On paper, Henry W Cowherd Middle School has 62 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 13.0:1. That tracks the state average closely. An estimated 67% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, Kane County runs at roughly 48%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, Henry W Cowherd Middle School is in the bottom 10% of Illinois public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 32.8%; Henry W Cowherd Middle School posts 15.5%, -17.3 points below that line.

In the broader community, community-level numbers for Kane County indicate the typical household earns roughly $103,163 per year, roughly 38% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. Henry W Cowherd Middle School is one of 167 public schools in Kane County (combined enrollment of about 87,252 students).

Oak Park Elem School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Henry W Cowherd Middle School. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Henry W Cowherd Middle School at 6th of 9; the average score across the group is 27.4%.

Geographically, the school is in a suburban area.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked down 15%: 950 students in 2018 compared to 807 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 14.5:1 in 2018 to 13.0:1 today.

On this page, the feed for Henry W Cowherd Middle School typically covers open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.