The top reported proficiency rate is 39% in English language arts. The lowest is 19% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Liberty Junior High School
Liberty Junior High School serves all sixth through eighth graders in Burbank School District 111, a working- and middle-class southwest Chicago suburb. The school opened in its current comprehensive form following a significant 2021 expansion that brought sixth grade into the junior high building, marking a shift from the district's earlier elementary-through-eighth-grade structure. That expansion added science labs, classrooms, and specialized spaces, giving Liberty a modern facility for the grade band it now houses.
Burbank itself is a built-out, substantially foreign-born suburb with a dense residential core and commercial activity concentrated along its eastern and western arterials. The town sits within a major manufacturing, transportation, and distribution corridor serving the broader southwest Chicago region and is located roughly a short distance from Midway Airport and major highways. Housing values have been rising modestly year over year, and homes sell faster than the national average, though new construction is sparse. Civic and recreational anchors include the Burbank Park District, the Prairie Trails Public Library, and a seasonal water park.
State testing data for Liberty show uneven achievement across subjects and grade levels. English Language Arts proficiency is stronger, particularly in eighth grade, where roughly a mid-level percentage of students met proficiency. Sixth-grade ELA is more moderate, and seventh-grade ELA sits lower. Mathematics proficiency is substantially weaker across the grade band, with sixth, seventh, and eighth graders all showing low proficiency rates. Eighth-grade science proficiency is also low. These results place Liberty in the bottom quartile for overall proficiency when compared to other schools in Cook County. It is worth noting that the district recently adopted a new English Language Arts curriculum, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Into Literature, paired with digital writing and personalized practice platforms aligned to state testing formats. A parent may want to look into further with the school whether this curricular shift is beginning to affect instruction and whether any additional math support or intervention is in place given the low proficiency numbers.
The student body is substantially Hispanic, followed by a large white enrollment, with smaller Asian, Black, multiracial, and American Indian enrollments. The school is a regular public school operating as part of the district. No data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility, English learner enrollment, or special education enrollment were available. Staff information, course catalog, and discipline data were also not available. Given that this is a public middle school, a parent may wish to contact the school directly about available academic supports, electives, arts offerings, sports and clubs, and special services.
Liberty occupies a standard junior high position in the district pipeline: families transition their child from elementary school into a larger, departmentalized middle school environment, with ELA and math taught by separate teachers and a full range of subject teachers by grade. As a comprehensive public school in a dense suburb, it likely draws its full attendance boundary rather than through choice, though contacting the district about enrollment and boundary questions would clarify what options exist for families in or moving to the area.
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