The top reported proficiency rate is 83% in English language arts. The lowest is 58% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Central Middle School
Central Middle School serves eighth-grade students in Burlington, a very small rural village in western Kane County, about 60 miles west of downtown Chicago. The school sits in a tight-knit agricultural community surrounded by cornfields, with Burlington Park and a compact Main Street forming the civic core. Across the street stands Central High School, keeping secondary education anchored in the village itself.
The school enrolls a student body that is majority white, with a substantial share identifying as Asian, and smaller populations of Hispanic and Black students. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not available. English learner and special education enrollment counts were not provided.
In English language arts, eighth graders showed strong performance, with about four in five students achieving proficiency on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness. Math results were lower, with about three in five students proficient. Science proficiency stood between the two, at roughly two in three. Participation rates in all three subjects were very high, above 99 percent. Testing data for grades three through seven were not available, making it impossible to assess whether this cohort's performance is typical for the district or whether student progress tracks differently across earlier grades. Illinois revised its proficiency cut scores in 2024-25, so year-to-year trend comparisons are not reliable.
Among Kane County districts, Central Middle School's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile, reflecting stronger academic results than most of its neighbors in the county. The school has no graduation rate because it serves only eighth grade.
The district itself faces significant constraints. Voters rejected two separate referendums in 2024 to fund a new high school—one for a roughly 195-million-dollar proposal in March and another in November. With elementary schools and Central High School already using mobile units to handle continued enrollment growth from new residential development in the area, the district has indicated it may respond by teaching music, art, and health from carts or alternate spaces and by limiting expansion of vocational programs. These resource decisions will shape the academic and extracurricular experience available to eighth graders as they move to high school.
Housing in the 60109 zip code is moderately priced, below the state average for Illinois, reflecting the rural character and distance from Chicago. The community has seen only modest population changes in the village proper, but the school district has absorbed a meaningful influx of new students in recent years due to new single-family homes and townhouses, with more growth anticipated. The village completed a realignment of Plank Road to support economic development along a major county arterial.
Central Middle School occupies a locale with strong local identity and stable, family-oriented values. A parent may want to look into whether the school's current math performance reflects a specific intervention opportunity or is typical for the district at this grade level, and to understand how the ongoing capacity challenges and possible program limits might affect the eighth-grade experience and preparation for high school.
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