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What do you wish you knew before starting at Henry W Cowherd Middle School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
807
Middle
DISTRICT 653 · STATE 462
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·AURORA EAST USD 131·NCES 170468000040
Henry W Cowherd Middle School
441 N Farnsworth Ave, Aurora, IL 60505 · (630) 299-5900 · Kane County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL807 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 1% of Illinois public middle schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- FBeats 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
13.0:1
62 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.6:1 · STATE 13.0:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
67%
541 students
DISTRICT 64% · STATE 56%
Community
6
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 | 261 | 32% |
| Grade 7 | 256 | 32% |
| Grade 8 | 290 | 36% |
Student demographics
29%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
Henry W Cowherd 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
22.0%
IL avg 51.0% . +6.2pp since 2023
Math
7.7%
IL avg 37.9% . +1.9pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 22 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 8 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 2 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 22.0% | 7.7% |
| 2023-24 | 15.8% | 5.8% |
% 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
15.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
32.8%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-17.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 15% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 33% 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 Henry W Cowherd Middle School
Henry W Cowherd Middle School's state test result (15.5% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Henry W Cowherd Middle School this school | 807 | 67.0% | 15.5% |
| Miguel Juarez Middle School Waukegan | 651 | 69.6% | 12.7% |
| C F Simmons Middle School Aurora | 792 | 64.4% | 20.3% |
| K D Waldo Middle School Aurora | 729 | 70.0% | 12.7% |
| Mannheim Middle School Melrose Park | 768 | 65.4% | 33.0% |
| Stevenson Middle School Melrose Park | 682 | 62.8% | 36.5% |
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 Henry W Cowherd Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Kane County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 15.5% | #553 of 578 | #21 of 23 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 7.7% | #612 of 640 ▼ 17 | #25 of 26 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 22.0% | #611 of 640 ▼ 7 | #24 of 26 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 807 | #85 of 691 | #9 of 26 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.0:1 | #284 of 558 | #9 of 25 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 29.1% | #406 of 560 | #19 of 25 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 67.0% | #121 of 581 | #5 of 23 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -15.1% | #163 of 440 | #14 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
807
-139 (-15%) vs 2020
+40% since 2000-01, when it was 577
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 | 807 | 62 | 13.0:1 | 67% (541) |
| 2023-24 | 850 | 65.2 | 13.0:1 | 72% (615) |
| 2022-23 | 883 | 64.5 | 13.7:1 | 72% (638) |
| 2020-21 | 946 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 950 | 65.4 | 14.5:1 | 73% (696) |
| 2015-16 | 989 | 65 | 15.2:1 | 64% (630) |
| 2010-11 | 996 | 72 | 13.8:1 | 72% (722) |
| 2000-01 | 577 | 30 | 19.2:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Henry W Cowherd Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 15% (950 to 807); teachers down 5% (65.4 to 62).
About Henry W Cowherd Middle School
Henry W Cowherd Middle School is a middle-grades school in Aurora, Illinois, according to federal school records. Classes run from 6 through 8, and the school has 807 students. The average for middle schools in Illinois is about 462 students, so this school is 75% larger than average.
Henry W Cowherd Middle School is run by Aurora East USD 131, whose 18 schools enroll 12,187 students.
About 83% of the student body at Henry W Cowherd Middle School is Hispanic. Beyond that, enrollment is 13% Black. In Kane County overall, about 33% of residents are Hispanic. Henry W Cowherd Middle School's diversity index is 29%, against a US figure of 70%.
With 62 full-time-equivalent teachers in 2024-25, the ratio at Henry W Cowherd Middle School was 13.0:1. That matches the 13.0:1 average for middle schools in Illinois fairly closely. A measure often used for student poverty, free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, stands at 67%. Across public schools in Kane County, the average is 48%.
Henry W Cowherd Middle School is graded F by allk12, scoring above 1% of Illinois public middle schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
Henry W Cowherd Middle School trails its predicted average proficiency rate on state tests by 17.3 points (15.5% versus 32.8%), a bottom-10% result in Illinois on BeatsExpectations.
Federal survey data for Kane County show that the median household income is $103,163, about 38% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 6% of residents are in poverty. Kane County is home to 167 public schools and about 87,252 public school students.
The nearest other public school, Oak Park Elementary School, is about 0.3 miles away. Inside a five-mile radius, there are at least 8 other public schools. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 27.4%; Henry W Cowherd Middle School's is 15.5%, ranking 6th of 9.
In the federal locale system, Henry W Cowherd Middle School is coded Suburb: Large, for schools in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Enrollment declined 15% from its 2020-21 level of 946.
Discussion on this page can cover school events, clubs, and volunteer needs. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
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
- C F Simmons Middle SchoolMiddle · 792 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
- Oak Park Elementary School0.3 mi · 353
- C I Johnson Elementary School0.6 mi · 269
- Edna Rollins Elementary School0.7 mi · 508
- W S Beaupre Elementary School1.0 mi · 226
- L D Brady Elementary School1.1 mi · 310
- C F Simmons Middle School1.1 mi · 792
Frequently asked questions
About Henry W Cowherd Middle SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Henry W Cowherd Middle School?
Henry W Cowherd Middle School enrolls approximately 807 students in grades 06-08.
What grades does Henry W Cowherd Middle School serve?
Henry W Cowherd Middle School serves grades 06-08.
How many teachers does Henry W Cowherd Middle School have?
Henry W Cowherd Middle School employs 62 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 13.0:1.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Henry W Cowherd Middle School?
At Henry W Cowherd Middle School, the student body is approximately 2% White, 83% Hispanic, 13% Black, 1% Asian, 1% Two or more.
Is Henry W Cowherd Middle School public or private?
Henry W Cowherd Middle School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Aurora East USD 131.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.