Memorial Jr High School

Memorial Jr High School, an expansive intermediate school in Lansing, Illinois, overseen by Lansing SD 158, works with 854 students, covering grades 6 through 8. That puts it 85% bigger than the typical public school in Illinois, which averages around 462 students.

Lansing SD 158 runs 5 schools in total, collectively educating 2,547 students. Memorial Jr High School is one of those campuses.

On demographics, Memorial Jr High School logs that the largest single group is Black, at 59% of enrollment. The remainder is composed of 28% Hispanic, 6% White, 6% multiracial. That is noticeably more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 22%.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 55 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 15.5:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 13.0:1 average. About 99% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is noticeably above Cook County's rate of about 66%.

With demographic context factored in, Memorial Jr High School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 14.2% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 27.1%.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (Cook County) shows that median household earnings sit near $83,498, about 43% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. Across Cook County's 1406 public schools (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students), Memorial Jr High School is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Lester Crawl Primary Ctr, roughly 0.5 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Memorial Jr High School comes 6th of 8 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 35.3%.

Geographically, the school is in a residential area.

Five-year trend. Memorial Jr High School's enrollment has ticked down 9% since 2018, when it stood at 937 (now 854). Over the same period, the White share fell from 15% to 6%. Class-load math has narrowed: from 17.3:1 in 2018 to 15.5:1 in 2025.

On this page, members of the Memorial Jr High School community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.