The top reported proficiency rate is 68% in English language arts. The lowest is 48% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Haven Middle School
Haven Middle School serves grades six through eight in Evanston as part of Evanston CCSD 65. The school sits in a mixed-character lakeside city just north of Chicago, with a residential fabric of tree-lined streets, historic homes, and apartment buildings anchored by Northwestern University and a vibrant downtown anchored around Fountain Square, Davis Street, and the Main-Dempster Mile. Evanston is notably walkable, with frequent public transit via CTA Purple Line stops and Metra stations, public beaches on Lake Michigan, and robust civic infrastructure across libraries, community centers, and parks. The housing market is appreciating and rental costs are rising; the city is pursuing significant new housing development focused on transit-adjacent projects near downtown.
Haven's enrollment is relatively modest for a middle school, distributed evenly across its three grades. The school population is majority white, with meaningful shares of students who are Black, Hispanic, Asian, or multiracial. Data on students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch and on English learners and special education were not available, so a reader cannot assess economic or language diversity from the metrics provided.
On state assessments, Haven shows a clear grade-level pattern. In sixth grade, about a little more than half of students met proficiency in math, and about seven in ten in English language arts. Performance improves in seventh grade, where math proficiency rises and English language arts proficiency reaches the mid-to-high range. Eighth grade marks a notable decline, particularly in math, where proficiency drops to around four in ten, and science proficiency sits at roughly one in two. This pattern is characteristic of middle schools where transition to high school-level content becomes more demanding. Eighth-grade math proficiency in particular represents a softer spot, and a parent may want to look into how the school supports students through that transition and what support structures exist for learners who struggle with secondary mathematics.
When compared to other schools across Cook County, Haven's overall proficiency sits above the midpoint, suggesting the school performs better than a typical peer school in the county, though the eighth-grade math numbers pull overall results down somewhat.
English language arts proficiency is a relative strength. Participation rates across subjects are very high, indicating nearly all students take the assessments as required. The school does not serve grades below six, which explains why no primary-grade testing data appear.
District context matters for Haven families. Evanston CCSD 65 is currently executing a significant structural restructuring. The district is closing Kingsley Elementary and the Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies at the end of this school year, reshaping elementary attendance boundaries and feeder patterns for years. A new Foster Elementary will open in fall 2026 in the Fifth Ward to absorb displaced families and host the relocated Two-Way Immersion program. The district restructured middle school math starting in 2021 by eliminating district-wide placement testing, removing accelerated Math 6/7 and most regular eighth-grade geometry, and placing all middle schoolers on a common advanced sequence designed to move faster than Common Core standards. The district replaced its long-used Lucy Calkins literacy curriculum in 2023 with new materials after criticism that the prior program did not reliably teach foundational reading. The district has raised property tax levies to their legal maximum in recent years and is weighing a new operating tax referendum, likely for the March 2026 ballot, to close a structural budget deficit. Property taxes and program stability are dependent on whether that referendum passes.
For families considering Haven, the school represents a mid-county performer with solid English language arts results and a notable eighth-grade math dip that reflects both the district's philosophy of unified advanced sequencing and the general difficulty students face as secondary mathematics content intensifies. The broader district is in flux: boundary changes, school closures, and curriculum shifts will continue to shape the student experience. Families should understand the district's ongoing restructuring and, given the eight-grade math pattern, ask directly about tutoring, intervention, and support systems available to students encountering difficulty with secondary mathematics.
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