The top reported proficiency rate is 71% in English language arts. The lowest is 57% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Nichols Middle School
Nichols Middle School serves the sixth through eighth grades as a standard public school in the Evanston/Skokie School District in Evanston, Illinois. The school enrolls a diverse peer group reflecting the lakefront city's racial and ethnic composition: roughly a third of the enrollment identifies as white, a substantial minority as Hispanic and Black, with smaller populations identifying as Asian or multiracial. The student body represents a mix of neighborhood backgrounds and experiences.
The school reported state testing results for spring 2025 across math, English language arts, and science in the grades it serves. In English language arts, proficiency rates are stronger, running in the high-to-mid range, particularly in sixth and eighth grades where roughly three out of four students scored at proficient or above. Math proficiency is lower, clustering around the mid-50s for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Science results in eighth grade sit around 60 percent. Across all tested areas, the school's participation rates are very high, with near-universal test-taking, which means these proficiency figures represent nearly the full student body. In the context of other district schools across Cook County, Nichols scores above the median and in the top quartile for overall proficiency.
Reading and writing, measured by the English results, appear to be a relative strength. Math competency lags by comparison, which is consistent with national patterns and merits attention; families considering acceleration pathways in math may want to understand the school's and district's current approach. It is worth noting that District 65 restructured its middle school math in 2021, eliminating separate accelerated pathways and instead placing all students on a common advanced sequence using the Desmos curriculum. That change affects how the school approaches differentiation for higher-performing math students.
The school sits in a neighborhood of moderate single-family homes, apartment buildings, and rentals in Evanston, a densely developed lakeside city near Chicago with active street life, frequent public transit including CTA Purple Line and Metra stations, and abundant civic infrastructure including parks, libraries, and community centers. Housing in the Evanston zipcode runs in the mid-range for the Chicago area; purchase prices are substantial but below state and national medians, and rental costs are moderately elevated for the region. The broader county housing market is in balanced-to-soft conditions, with elevated inventory and moderate demand.
The district Nichols belongs to is managing significant structural change. At the end of the 2025-26 school year, two elementary schools closed, including the Dr. Bessie Rhodes School, the district's only entirely bilingual school. A new Foster Elementary is opening in 2026-27, which will reshape attendance zones and feed patterns across the district. The district has raised property tax levies at the maximum allowable rate in recent years and is publicly weighing a new operating tax referendum because a prior capital referendum has not closed a structural deficit. These dynamics mean families should expect ongoing boundary and program adjustments and a district navigating tight finances.
Nichols itself is a standard-model neighborhood middle school in a district where all students now progress through a common advanced math sequence rather than separate tracks. The student body is economically and ethnically mixed, reflecting the city. Proficiency is solid overall, with notable strength in literacy and more modest math results. A parent or resident considering this school should weigh its position as a middle performer with particularly strong reading outcomes, its role within a district managing closures and consolidation, and the neighborhood context of an accessible, transit-rich, but moderately expensive urban setting.
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