Best Middle Schools in Freeport, IL

The city of Freeport, Illinois is home to two middle schools: Freeport Middle School and Carl Sandburg Middle School. Both schools have struggled with consistently low academic performance, high chronic absenteeism rates, and poor rankings compared to other Illinois middle schools.

Test scores at both Freeport Middle School and Carl Sandburg Middle School are significantly below the state average in both English Language Arts and Mathematics. In the 2024-2025 school year, only 27.1% of students at Freeport Middle School were proficient or better in ELA, compared to the state average of 53.1%. The mathematics proficiency rates were even lower, with Freeport Middle School at 14.9% and Carl Sandburg Middle School at 13.9%, compared to the state average of 38.5%. Both schools have been ranked in the bottom half of Illinois middle schools, with Freeport Middle School ranked 1081 out of 1368 in 2024-2025.

Chronic absenteeism is also a significant issue, with 25.4% of students chronically absent at both Freeport Middle School and Carl Sandburg Middle School in 2024-2025. The schools also serve a population with significant socioeconomic challenges, as evidenced by the high percentages of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch. Despite the relatively high per-student spending and low student-teacher ratios, the schools have not shown meaningful improvement in their performance over time, suggesting that simply increasing funding or reducing class sizes may not be enough to address the underlying issues. The challenges faced by these two middle schools appear to be part of a district-wide problem, as the Freeport School District 145 as a whole is ranked 753 out of 811 in Illinois and is rated 0 stars out of 5 by SchoolDigger.