Summary:
ZIP code 61103 has two middle schools in Rockford School District 205: West Middle School, serving grades 6–8 with 793 students, and Thurgood Marshall School, serving grades 5–8 with 514 students. Their 2025–2026 results show a sharp divide in reported achievement: Thurgood Marshall is far above Illinois averages, while West is below them in the reported subjects.
Thurgood Marshall stands out at the top: its all-grades proficiency was 97% in English language arts (ELA) and 94% in math, compared with 30% and 11% at West. The school-to-school gaps were 67 percentage points in ELA and 83 points in math; Illinois results were 56% and 40%, respectively. The difference also holds within the same grades: in eighth grade, the schools were 97% versus 35% in ELA, 85% versus 13% in math, and 96% versus 32% in science. The biggest same-grade gap was seventh-grade math, at 98% for Thurgood and 9% for West.
West’s scores improved from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, rising 8 points in all-grades ELA and 3 points in math, but remained below state results. Thurgood’s already high scores stayed high: ELA slipped 1 point while math rose 1 point. SchoolDigger ranked Thurgood 9th of 1,126 Illinois middle schools, in the 99th percentile with 5 stars; West ranked 1,083rd, in the 4th percentile with 0 stars. Attendance also differs sharply: chronic absenteeism was 8% at Thurgood and 60% at West, versus 24% statewide. As context, in 2024–2025, free/reduced lunch eligible students made up 32% at Thurgood and 79% at West; student-teacher ratios were 17.8 and 16.8, respectively. All-grades results reflect different grade spans, and the test-score history covers two years.
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