The top reported proficiency rate is 82% in Science. The lowest is 70% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Twin Groves Middle School
Twin Groves Middle School is a regular public middle school serving grades six through eight in Buffalo Grove, a quiet residential suburb northwest of Chicago that straddles Lake and Cook counties. The school draws from a community of single-family homes built largely in the post-World War II era and from 1980s-90s growth, alongside corporate parks and retail corridors along McHenry Road. Housing values in the area have risen modestly, and the community is undergoing selective redevelopment with new mixed-use projects, though the village remains auto-oriented and low-density in character.
The school's enrollment is small for its grade band, with a student body that is substantially Asian, followed by white, with smaller Hispanic, mixed-race, and Black populations. The specific counts of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch and students with disabilities or English learner status were not available in the data.
On state testing for the 2024-25 school year, Twin Groves' proficiency rates in English language arts are strong. Sixth and seventh graders show proficiency rates in the low-to-mid eighty percent range, while eighth graders land at seventy-nine percent. Mathematics proficiency is solid as well, hovering in the upper sixties to low seventies percent across grades six through eight. Science proficiency at eighth grade reaches eighty-two percent. Across the tested middle-school grades and subjects, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among Lake County's school districts, a genuine strength. These numbers reflect both solid instruction and engagement; participation rates across grades and subjects are in the high eighties to mid-nineties percent.
The district has made two tangible curricular investments in the middle-school experience. An optional Spanish-English Dual Language Program, entered through a kindergarten lottery, is expanding grade-by-grade through the elementary years and feeds into middle school. More immediately relevant, the school opened a new learning space called the Collaboratory in fall 2024, featuring a makerspace, 3D printing lab, and recording studios that classrooms across content areas use. This kind of hands-on, project-oriented infrastructure is a real asset for learners who engage well with making, design thinking, and media work.
The school sits within Kildeer Countryside CCSD 96, a district of several elementary and two middle schools that have maintained stable enrollment and have not made major revenue or structural changes in recent years. Buffalo Grove itself has had essentially flat population since the early 2000s, though several redevelopment projects are underway, including The Clove mixed-use district and residential infill that will likely bring young families into the area over the next few years.
No data was available on chronic absenteeism, graduation rate (which does not apply to a middle school), detailed special-education or English learner enrollment, or discipline. The school's website was not provided, so information about clubs, athletics, or day-to-day culture comes only from what the proficiency and demographic data reveal. For families considering this school, the takeaway is a middle school with above-average proficiency across tested subjects, a notably diverse peer environment, a new investment in STEM-and-media learning, and enrollment small enough that students often know one another across grades. Whether its size, pedagogy, and extracurricular offerings fit a particular learner would be worth exploring directly with the school.
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