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Parents: what's one thing you'd want the South Middle School administration to hear?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
812
Middle
DISTRICT 918 · STATE 462
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·ARLINGTON HEIGHTS SD 25·NCES 170414000105
South Middle School
400 S Highland Ave, Arlington Heights, IL 60005 · (847) 398-4250 · Cook County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL812 STUDENTS
A-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 77% of Illinois public middle schools
- ATest 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
12.1:1
67 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.7:1 · STATE 13.0:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
16%
127 students
DISTRICT 16% · 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 | 282 | 35% |
| Grade 7 | 257 | 32% |
| Grade 8 | 273 | 34% |
Student demographics
29%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 42% · 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
Test scores
IAR + ISA 2024-25 . % Proficient (Levels 4-5)English Language Arts
74.2%
IL avg 51.0% . +1.8pp since 2023
Math
51.8%
IL avg 37.9% . +4.1pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 74 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 52 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 2 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 4 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 74.2% | 51.8% |
| 2023-24 | 72.4% | 47.7% |
% 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
65.9%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
62.5%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+3.4pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 66% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 62% 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 South Middle School
South Middle School's state test result (65.9% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Middle School this school | 812 | 15.6% | 65.9% |
| Old Quarry Middle School Lemont | 856 | 19.7% | 74.2% |
| Lake Zurich Middle - S Campus Lake Zurich | 599 | 15.4% | 78.8% |
| Herrick Middle School Downers Grove | 626 | 10.5% | 73.3% |
| Liberty Middle School Edwardsville | 888 | 19.3% | 55.8% |
| Lincoln Jr High School Naperville | 774 | 14.0% | 73.8% |
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 South Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 65.9% | #61 of 578 | #12 of 116 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 51.8% | #131 of 640 ▼ 32 | #40 of 146 ▼ 6 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 74.2% | #135 of 640 ▼ 59 | #39 of 146 ▼ 15 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 812 | #80 of 691 | #19 of 148 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.1:1 | #187 of 558 | #66 of 138 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 28.9% | #409 of 560 | #112 of 138 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 15.6% | #559 of 581 | #115 of 117 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -10.2% | #242 of 440 | #57 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
812
-20 (-2%) vs 2020
+29% since 1990-91, when it was 630
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 | 812 | 67.3 | 12.1:1 | 16% (127) |
| 2023-24 | 813 | 67.5 | 12.0:1 | 16% (130) |
| 2022-23 | 850 | 67.5 | 12.6:1 | 16% (137) |
| 2020-21 | 832 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 904 | 65.8 | 13.8:1 | 11% (100) |
| 2015-16 | 831 | 68 | 12.2:1 | 7% (59) |
| 2010-11 | 891 | 61 | 14.6:1 | 11% (98) |
| 2000-01 | 851 | 60 | 14.2:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 630 | 40 | 15.8:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for South Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 10% (904 to 812); teachers up 2% (65.8 to 67.3).
About South Middle School
South Middle School is a middle-grades school in Arlington Heights, Illinois, according to federal school records. Its 812 students are spread across grades 6 through 8. The school's enrollment is 76% bigger than the 462 average for middle schools in Illinois.
Arlington Heights SD 25 enrolls 5,423 students in 9 schools, including South Middle School.
White students make up 84% of enrollment at South Middle School. Other students are 9% Hispanic and 6% Asian. That is higher than the 44% White share among all Cook County residents. Pick two students at random and there is a 29% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
The school employs the equivalent of 67.3 full-time teachers, for a ratio of 12.1:1. That is 0.9 students per teacher below the 13.0:1 average for middle schools in Illinois. The free or reduced-price lunch rate at South Middle School is 16%. For comparison, public schools in Cook County average 66%.
Measured against Illinois public middle schools, South Middle School receives an A-. The grade weighs proficiency most heavily, then how results compare with what the school's low-income share predicts, then the three-year change.
Schools in Illinois with a similar free or reduced-price lunch share are predicted to score about 62.5%. South Middle School scores 65.9%.
Within Cook County, the median household income is $83,498, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Besides South Middle School, Cook County has 1,405 other public schools.
Of nearby public schools, Westgate Elementary School is the closest, at about 0.6 miles. In all, at least 8 other public schools sit within five miles of South Middle School. Among its closest neighbors with test data, South Middle School is 4th of 8 on proficiency.
NCES describes the area around South Middle School as Suburb: Large, meaning in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
The school's size has been steady, with 832 students in 2020-21 and 812 in 2024-25.
Conversations here can range across enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news. Reviews and ratings from people who know the school are welcome.
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 Arlington Heights SD 25
- Thomas Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,024 students
- Olive-Mary Stitt SchoolElementary · 671 students
- Westgate Elementary SchoolElementary · 633 students
- Ivy Hill Elementary SchoolElementary · 593 students
- Dryden Elementary SchoolElementary · 521 students
- Windsor Elementary SchoolElementary · 490 students
Other schools in Arlington Heights
- John Hersey High SchoolHigh · 2,040 students
- Thomas Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,024 students
- Olive-Mary Stitt SchoolElementary · 671 students
- Westgate Elementary SchoolElementary · 633 students
- Ivy Hill Elementary SchoolElementary · 593 students
- Dryden Elementary SchoolElementary · 521 students
Other South Middle schools
17 other US public schools in 14 states are named South Middle. South Middle School is the 5th largest of the 18.
- South Middle SchoolEDINBURG, TX · 1,246 students
- South Middle SchoolWaukee, IA · 1,092 students
- SOUTH MIDDLE SCHOOLBRENTWOOD, NY · 975 students
- SOUTH MIDDLE SCHOOLNAMPA, ID · 836 students
- South MiddleEau Claire, WI · 797 students
Nearby schools
- Westgate Elementary School0.6 mi · 633
- Dryden Elementary School0.9 mi · 521
- Windsor Elementary School1.1 mi · 490
- Carl Sandburg Middle School1.4 mi · 468
- Juliette Low Elementary School1.4 mi · 274
- Kimball Hill Elementary School1.6 mi · 524
Frequently asked questions
About South Middle SchoolHow many students attend South Middle School?
South Middle School enrolls approximately 812 students in grades 06-08.
Is South Middle School an elementary, middle, or high school?
South Middle School is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
How many teachers does South Middle School have?
South Middle School employs 67 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 12.1:1.
What is the student diversity at South Middle School?
Student demographics at South Middle School are roughly 84% White, 9% Hispanic, 1% Black, 6% Asian, 0% Two or more.
Who oversees South Middle School?
South Middle School is overseen by Arlington Heights SD 25 in Cook County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.