The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in Science. The lowest is 38% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Glenn Westlake Middle School
Glenn Westlake Middle School serves the small village of Lombard, a suburban community about twenty miles west of downtown Chicago known for its residential character, historic downtown, and prominent retail corridor. The school sits in Lombard School District 44, which recently added the Connect 44 Center, a STEAM and athletic facility integrated into the Glenn Westlake campus that supplements middle school curriculum during the day and opens to the community after hours. The district also transitioned to full-day kindergarten a few years ago, a shift that reshapes early elementary schedules for families in the area.
The school enrolls a typical-sized middle school population across grades six through eight. The student body reflects suburban Chicago's diversity: a majority white enrollment, with meaningful representation of Hispanic, Asian, and Black students. A subset of the enrollment speaks languages other than English, though the data on that proportion was not available. Free-or-reduced-price lunch counts were also unavailable, making it difficult to assess economic need within the school's boundaries.
On state testing, Glenn Westlake shows uneven proficiency across grades and subjects. In English language arts, the sixth grade performs strongest, with more than half the students proficient or above on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness. Seventh and eighth grades fall below that mark, with eighth grade at roughly half proficient. Math proficiency is lower overall: sixth grade reaches only about a third proficient, seventh grade slightly higher at closer to two-fifths, and eighth grade dips to about a third. Science testing is available only for eighth grade, where the school reaches just over half the students at proficiency. When results across all tested grades and subjects are averaged together, Glenn Westlake's overall proficiency sits in the bottom quartile relative to other schools in DuPage County. Test participation is very high, running in the mid-to-high nineties, so low proficiency is not a measurement artifact.
This proficiency pattern raises a straightforward question for a parent considering the school: whether the curriculum, instruction, or support systems are meeting the needs of the students taking these tests. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, asking about interventions, summer support, and whether staff have identified where students lose ground between grades and between subjects.
State assessment data does not include breakouts by student demographics or special populations, so it is not possible to determine whether proficiency gaps reflect particular student groups or whether the school is reaching all learners evenly. Similarly, discipline, attendance, or course-level details were not available, limiting visibility into the day-to-day school environment.
The school opened with state testing infrastructure and serves middle grades, so it reports on assessments; no graduation data apply because the school does not serve high school. Demographic counts on students receiving special education services and English learners were not disclosed.
Lombard itself is a stable residential village with modest housing value appreciation over the past year and a rental market that has moved only slightly. The area has seen active development, particularly around the Yorktown retail corridor, with new multifamily housing and commercial leasing. The historic downtown near the Metra rail station preserves a small-town character, but much of the village is auto-oriented suburban. Schools are campus-style sites rather than downtown anchors. For families in Lombard, proximity to commuter rail to Chicago and the school's new integrated STEAM and athletics facility are real amenities; the question of whether Glenn Westlake is moving its test results upward or holding at the current level is one a parent should ask directly.
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