Thornwood High School

As a high-enrollment high school in South Holland, Illinois, Thornwood High School serves 1,843 students from grades 9 through 12, part of Thornton Twp HSD 205. Enrollment runs roughly 121% bigger than the state mean of about 834.

Thornton Twp HSD 205 comprises 3 schools with combined enrollment of 4,509 students; Thornwood High School is among them.

Looking at the student body, Thornwood High School reports that 82% of students identify as Black, making the school strongly Black-majority. Beyond that, the school reports 14% Hispanic, 2% White. By comparison, Cook County as a whole is about 22% Black, so the school skews considerably more Black than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 143 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 12.9:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 13.8:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 74% of students at Thornwood High School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Thornwood High School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 29.1% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 15.6%.

Around the school, census data for Cook County shows median household income runs about $83,498, roughly 43% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Cook County's 1406 public schools (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students), Thornwood High School is one campus in the mix.

McKinley Elem School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.5 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Thornwood High School comes 8th of 8 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 32.0%.

The campus sits in a suburban setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count climbed 7%: 1,730 students in 2018 compared to 1,843 in 2025.

On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.