Reservoir Gifted School, Peoria IL

Original Research by School Decision on Reservoir Gifted School

Reservoir Gifted School is a school of about three hundred students in grades five through eight serving Peoria as part of District 150. It is a gifted program, meaning the school serves students identified through the district's selection process rather than a neighborhood attendance zone. The school sits on the North Grand Boulevard corridor.

On state assessments, the school posts strong results across its grades and subjects. In English language arts, proficiency runs at or above the low to mid-nineties across grades five through eight, with eighth grade at full proficiency. Math proficiency ranges from the low eighties in grade eight to the mid-nineties in grade five, a pattern consistent with the cumulative nature of mathematics. Science proficiency in the tested grades (five and eight) sits in the mid-to-high eighties. All students participated in testing. Against the set of districts in Peoria County, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile, a substantial distinction. The data covers the 2024-25 school year and reflects the current student body at the school.

The enrollment is about evenly split across the four grade bands, with grade five slightly larger and grade eight smallest. Racially and ethnically, the school is majority white with Black, multiracial, and Hispanic students each representing meaningful shares and a small Asian enrollment. The school's free-or-reduced-price-lunch status and counts for students with individualized education plans and English learners were not available in the public data.

A parent considering Reservoir should understand that this is a selective school by design. Entry depends on identification through the gifted referral process, which makes it structurally different from neighborhood schools. This shapes both the peer group and the academic context: students here are selected for cognitive ability, and that cohort composition appears evident in the assessment results. For families whose children are identified for gifted services, or for families seeking to pursue such an evaluation, the school offers high-level instruction and a deliberately assembled peer group. For families outside that pathway, it would not be an option.

The broader district context matters. District 150 recently undertook a major overhaul of K-5 reading curriculum, replacing materials in place for many years with a science-of-reading approach. That shift is driven partly by data showing that a substantial share of students across the district read below grade level, a gap the new program aims to address. Reservoir's own reading results are strong, but families should be aware that the district itself is in the midst of a pedagogical reset in early literacy that will ripple through the system for years.

Peoria's housing market remains affordable relative to state and national benchmarks, though inventory is tight. The city itself is in a redevelopment phase concentrated in downtown and the Warehouse District; new single-family construction has been modest in recent years. Public transit is available through CityLink, a regional system with 18 routes. The riverfront, Glen Oak Park with the zoo, and the PlayHouse Children's Museum are civic anchors; West Bluff and the emerging Warehouse District offer walkable neighborhood character, while most of the city functions as car-dependent suburbs and neighborhoods.

State testing results were not available for grades three and four at Reservoir, likely because the school does not serve those grades or does not report them separately; the school's official grade band is five through eight with one student listed in grade nine, possibly a data artifact or an unusual placement. No data on graduation rates appears, as this is a middle school and the school does not serve through grade twelve.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 595%

School 95% · District 16% · ▲ 79 pts above district

▲ 65 pts above state median · ▲ 63 pts above county median

Grade 688%

School 88% · District 14% · ▲ 74 pts above district

▲ 64 pts above state median · ▲ 69 pts above county median

Grade 792%

School 92% · District 20% · ▲ 72 pts above district

▲ 64 pts above state median · ▲ 62 pts above county median

Grade 881%

School 81% · District 13% · ▲ 69 pts above district

▲ 58 pts above state median · ▲ 65 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 599%

School 99% · District 29% · ▲ 70 pts above district

▲ 47 pts above state median · ▲ 51 pts above county median

Grade 698%

School 98% · District 27% · ▲ 70 pts above district

▲ 47 pts above state median · ▲ 55 pts above county median

Grade 796%

School 96% · District 25% · ▲ 71 pts above district

▲ 45 pts above state median · ▲ 56 pts above county median

Grade 8100%

School 100% · District 35% · ▲ 65 pts above district

▲ 47 pts above state median · ▲ 53 pts above county median

Science

Grade 587%

School 87% · District 18% · ▲ 69 pts above district

▲ 50 pts above state median · ▲ 58 pts above county median

Grade 891%

School 91% · District 21% · ▲ 69 pts above district

▲ 51 pts above state median · ▲ 60 pts above county median

This schoolPeoria SD 150, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.