Summary:
Zip code 60044 has one middle school, Lake Bluff Middle School, serving grades 6–8 with 305 students; because it is the only school listed, there is no school-to-school comparison or meaningful area-wide range. Most importantly, the school’s results are above state proficiency in every reported subject: by 27 percentage points in ELA, 23 in math, and 17 in grade 8 science.
There is no distinct top or bottom school: Lake Bluff leads the list by default, not because it was compared with another local middle school. In 2025–26, about 84% of students were proficient in ELA, compared with 56% statewide; math proficiency was about 63%, versus 40% statewide; and grade 8 science proficiency was about 69%, versus 52% statewide. ELA was also about 3 points above the district result, while math was about 3 points below it and science matched the district. Within the grades, grade 7 math stood out at about 75% proficient, 35 points above the state; grade 6 math was about 54%, 18 points above the state.
Results improved modestly in ELA and math from 2024–25 to 2025–26, while science declined: ELA rose about 2 points and math about 1, but science fell about 3. Since state results rose faster in each subject, the school’s lead narrowed by about 2 points in ELA, 1 in math, and 10 in science. SchoolDigger rated Lake Bluff 4 stars and ranked it 122nd of 1,126 statewide in 2025–26, compared with 5 stars and 89th of 1,368 in 2024–25. The school had a 9.9 student–teacher ratio in 2024–25; its reported low-income measure was 17% free/reduced lunch eligible in 2021–22, an older figure that provides context rather than an explanation of results.
Thank you for your feedback!