1
What's the vibe like in the hallways at Prairie-Hills Junior High School right now?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
766
Middle
DISTRICT 275 · STATE 462
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PRAIRIE-HILLS ESD 144·NCES 172472002673
Prairie-Hills Junior High School
16315 Richmond, Markham, IL 60428 · (708) 210-2860 · Cook County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL766 STUDENTS
C
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 27% of Illinois public middle schools
- DTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- BBeats 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
25.5:1
30 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 18.5:1 · STATE 13.0:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
94%
720 students
DISTRICT 96% · STATE 56%
Community
5
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 | 223 | 29% |
| Grade 7 | 268 | 35% |
| Grade 8 | 275 | 36% |
Student demographics
37%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 37% · 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
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within Prairie-Hills ESD 144. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
IAR + ISA 2024-25 . % Proficient (Levels 4-5)English Language Arts
28.2%
IL avg 51.0% . +4.6pp since 2023
Math
11.8%
IL avg 37.9% . +5.9pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 28 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 12 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 5 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 6 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 28.2% | 11.8% |
| 2023-24 | 23.6% | 5.9% |
% 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
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
21.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
17.2%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+3.9pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 21% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 17% typical for Illinois schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Illinois's top nor bottom 10%.
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 Prairie-Hills Junior High School
Prairie-Hills Junior High School's state test result (21.1% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prairie-Hills Junior High School this school | 766 | 94.0% | 21.1% |
| Memorial Jr High School Lansing | 854 | 99.2% | 27.1% |
| Coolidge Middle School Phoenix | 460 | 99.3% | 29.6% |
| Kennedy Middle School Rockford | 393 | 90.3% | 6.3% |
| Mason/Clark Middle School East Saint Louis | 540 | 98.1% | 10.8% |
| Sterling Middle School Peoria | 374 | 88.5% | 9.4% |
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 Prairie-Hills Junior High School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 21.1% | #515 of 578 | #99 of 116 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 11.8% | #576 of 640 ▲ 17 | #131 of 146 ▲ 5 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 28.2% | #580 of 640 ▼ 29 | #134 of 146 ▼ 11 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 766 | #98 of 691 | #24 of 148 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 25.5:1 | #558 of 558 | #138 of 138 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 37.2% | #351 of 560 | #98 of 138 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 94.0% | #29 of 581 | #16 of 117 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -15.5% | #159 of 440 | #38 of 97 |
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
766
-191 (-20%) vs 2020
+2% since 1990-91, when it was 752
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 | 766 | 30 | 25.5:1 | 94% (720) |
| 2023-24 | 820 | 52.2 | 15.7:1 | 95% (782) |
| 2022-23 | 825 | 34.5 | 23.9:1 | 93% (767) |
| 2020-21 | 957 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 906 | 62.8 | 14.4:1 | 95% (858) |
| 2015-16 | 855 | 63 | 13.6:1 | 96% (822) |
| 2010-11 | 607 | 40 | 15.2:1 | 89% (539) |
| 2000-01 | 576 | 30 | 19.2:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 752 | 37 | 20.3:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Prairie-Hills Junior High School.
Since 2017-18: students down 15% (906 to 766); teachers down 52% (62.8 to 30).
About Prairie-Hills Junior High School
A large middle school in Markham, Illinois, Prairie-Hills Junior High School is part of Prairie-Hills ESD 144. The school covers grades 6 through 8 and reported 766 students in 2024-25. On average, middle schools in Illinois enroll around 462, and this school is 66% bigger than that mark.
The district for Prairie-Hills Junior High School is Prairie-Hills ESD 144, with 9 schools and 2,473 students.
Federal enrollment data show Prairie-Hills Junior High School is 77% Black. The next largest groups are 19% Hispanic. The school's Black share is 55 points above the 22% share among Cook County residents. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 37%.
Prairie-Hills Junior High School has a student-to-teacher ratio of 25.5:1, with 30 full-time-equivalent teachers. The average for middle schools in Illinois is 13.0:1, so this school has more students per teacher. A common income measure, free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, is 94% at Prairie-Hills Junior High School. On average, public schools in Cook County report 66%.
Prairie-Hills Junior High School earns a C on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 27% of Illinois public middle schools.
A school with Prairie-Hills Junior High School's lunch-eligibility share in Illinois is predicted to score 17.2%. Prairie-Hills Junior High School scores 21.1%, 3.9 points above that line.
In Cook County, where the school is located, the median household earns about $83,498 a year, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Public schools in Cook County number 1,406, with about 697,934 students.
Prairie-Hills STEAM Academy sits about 0.1 miles from Prairie-Hills Junior High School. Prairie-Hills Junior High School has at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Among 8 nearby schools that report test results, Prairie-Hills Junior High School ranks 3rd on proficiency.
Under the NCES locale system, Prairie-Hills Junior High School is Suburb: Large.
Enrollment fell by 20% across 4 years, from 957 in 2020-21 to 766 in 2024-25.
You can use this page to share news and ask questions about fundraisers, report cards, and school supplies. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
Cook County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
5,182,090
Census ACS
Median income
$83,498
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
43%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
10%
Below federal line
Schools in county
1,406
697,934 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Prairie-Hills ESD 144
- Mae Jemison SchoolElementary · 368 students
- Highlands Elementary SchoolElementary · 311 students
- Markham Park Elementary SchoolElementary · 292 students
- Chateaux SchoolElementary · 249 students
- Fieldcrest Elementary SchoolElementary · 217 students
- Nob Hill Elementary SchoolElementary · 164 students
Other schools in Markham
- Barack H Obama Learning AcademyElementary · 466 students
- Markham Park Elementary SchoolElementary · 292 students
- Prairie-Hills STEAM AcademyElementary · 102 students
- Primary Learning CenterElementary · 4 students
Nearby schools
- Prairie-Hills STEAM Academy0.1 mi · 102
- Primary Learning Center0.4 mi · 4
- Markham Park Elementary School0.9 mi · 292
- Jesse C White Learning Academy1.0 mi · 425
- Highlands Elementary School1.0 mi · 311
- Nob Hill Elementary School1.1 mi · 164
Frequently asked questions
About Prairie-Hills Junior High SchoolHow large is Prairie-Hills Junior High School?
Prairie-Hills Junior High School enrolls approximately 766 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Prairie-Hills Junior High School serve?
Prairie-Hills Junior High School serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Prairie-Hills Junior High School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Prairie-Hills Junior High School is approximately 25.5:1 (30 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Prairie-Hills Junior High School?
Prairie-Hills Junior High School reports a student body of 1% White, 19% Hispanic, 77% Black, 1% Asian, 2% Two or more.
Who oversees Prairie-Hills Junior High School?
Prairie-Hills Junior High School is overseen by Prairie-Hills ESD 144 in Cook County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.