The top reported proficiency rate is 53% in English language arts. The lowest is 33% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Jack Hille Middle School
Jack Hille Middle School serves students in grades 6 through 8 in Oak Forest, a south-suburban Cook County community about 20 miles south of Chicago's Loop. The school draws from a residential neighborhood setting characterized by modest homes and tree-lined streets, with the broader area undergoing transit-oriented redevelopment around the nearby Metra station at Cicero Avenue and 159th Street.
The school's enrollment sits at a modest size for a middle school, distributed fairly evenly across the three grades. The student body reflects the residential character of Oak Forest itself: roughly half white students, approaching a third Hispanic students, a tenth Black students, with smaller Asian and multiracial populations. Free and reduced-price lunch data were not available in the records reviewed.
State test results from Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) show a mixed academic picture. In English language arts, performance is stronger in the sixth-grade cohort, with a majority meeting or exceeding state proficiency standards. By seventh grade, proficiency drops to about half the tested students, and in eighth grade it falls further, to roughly mid-level. Math proficiency is consistently lower than ELA across all grades, ranging from the high thirties in sixth grade down to around a quarter of students in eighth grade. Science results, reported only for the eighth-grade cohort on the state assessment, show roughly a third of students meeting proficiency standards. These are below-midpoint performance levels when measured against other districts in Cook County. Participation rates were high across all tested grades, hovering around or above 99 percent, suggesting the results reflect the school population fairly completely rather than missing large groups of students.
The school's academic profile points to a secondary institution where students encounter typical middle-grade curriculum but where achievement gaps widen as students move through the grades, particularly in mathematics. A parent may want to look into what support structures the school offers for students who are not yet proficient, especially in math, and how the school approaches the transition from sixth to seventh grade, where proficiency begins to decline noticeably.
Oak Forest itself is a largely car-dependent suburb, though the city is actively working to create a more walkable center around the Metra commuter rail station. The community's civic anchors include the Acorn Public Library and parks operated by the Oak Forest Park District, with Central Park serving as the district's main recreation hub. Recent development activity, including mixed-use housing and retail projects near the Metra station, signals modest growth and investment in the area, though the longtime presence of Cook County Oak Forest Hospital was removed from the local economy when the facility closed; the hospital's large campus is currently being demolished with redevelopment to follow through 2027. The housing market in the area supports modest-value homes typical of established south suburbs.
No data on chronic absenteeism, graduation rates, special education identification, or English learner populations were available for this school. As a middle school serving only grades 6 through 8, state testing is limited to those grades, and graduation data do not apply. District-level information about Forest Ridge SD 142 curriculum initiatives or operational changes was not found in public sources reviewed.
See more original research from School Decision →