The top reported proficiency rate is 83% in English language arts. The lowest is 68% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on F E Peacock Middle School
F E Peacock Middle School sits in Itasca, a small DuPage County village that mixes a walkable historic downtown with office and industrial parks. The school serves the area's sixth through eighth grades and draws from the surrounding residential neighborhoods. At the middle school level, academic assessment data available for the school covers math, English language arts, and science in grades six through eight.
In English language arts, the school's proficiency runs strong across its middle grades. Sixth-grade students meet proficiency at a solid rate, while seventh and eighth graders push into the upper range, with eighth grade reaching particularly high levels. The pattern shows consistent strength in literacy. Math proficiency is more variable. Sixth graders perform at a solid clip, but seventh-grade proficiency drops noticeably, before recovering substantially at eighth grade. This dip in seventh-grade math deserves attention; a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand whether it reflects the curriculum, student readiness, or other factors. Eighth-grade science proficiency is strong. Testing participation across the school is very high, above expected thresholds.
Compared to other districts across DuPage County, Peacock's overall proficiency index sits in the top quartile among schools. This is a genuine strength and reflects solid instruction across the school's tested subjects and grades.
The school's enrollment is modest at under four hundred students, with roughly equal three-way distribution across the three grades. The student body is predominantly White, with a notable population of Hispanic students, and smaller populations of Asian, multiracial, and other students. The school enrolled no Black, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander students in the current count. Data on students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, students with disabilities, and English learners was not available.
Itasca SD 10, the parent district, completed a curriculum overhaul within the past several years aimed at alignment and rigor, and in 2024 all three district schools earned the state's top 'Exemplary' designation for serving no underperforming student groups. The district also executed a bond referendum approved by voters in 2020, which funded facility upgrades and security improvements across all schools; the bond's tax impact has affected district households since 2022 and continued through construction projects into 2025.
The village itself is undergoing downtown revitalization. A new five-story mixed-use development with apartments and ground-floor retail is under construction near the Metra station and is expected to complete in 2027. The village hosts events including an annual Itascafest and July 4 fireworks, and operates a compact downtown along Walnut Street with local merchants and a riverwalk. Single-family homes in the area are moderately priced relative to the broader region, with median home values in the mid-range, and rental rates modest by DuPage standards. The housing market has modest year-over-year growth in values.
Peacock is a neighborhood middle school serving the local student population in a stable, residential village with increasingly active downtown life and a district making deliberate moves to strengthen academics across all three schools.
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