Middle Schools in Wheeling CCSD 21

The Wheeling CCSD 21 district in Illinois is home to three middle schools serving grades 6-8. Based on the available data, Cooper Middle School stands out as the top-performing school in the district, with higher academic proficiency rates and a stronger statewide ranking compared to the other two middle schools.

Cooper Middle School boasts a statewide ranking of 400 out of 1,363 Illinois middle schools and a 4-star rating from SchoolDigger. In the 2023-2024 school year, 46.9% of Cooper students were proficient or better in English Language Arts, compared to 28.7% for the district and 41.2% for the state. In math, 34.5% of Cooper students were proficient or better, versus 24.6% for the district and 28.4% for the state. Cooper also had the highest science proficiency rate at 63.7%, outpacing the district's 50.6% and the state's 53.2%.

In contrast, Oliver W Holmes Middle School and Jack London Middle School lag behind Cooper in academic performance, with lower proficiency rates and lower statewide rankings. The data suggests a potential correlation between socioeconomic status, as measured by free/reduced lunch rates, and academic outcomes, with the schools serving more economically disadvantaged populations generally performing worse. Additionally, the school with the highest spending per student, Jack London Middle School, also has the lowest student-teacher ratio, which could contribute to better learning environments and outcomes.