Thayer J Hill Middle School, Naperville IL

Original Research by School Decision on Thayer J Hill Middle School

Thayer J Hill Middle School is a suburban middle school in Naperville serving roughly eight hundred students in grades six through eight within Indian Prairie School District 204. The student body is diverse: roughly a third are Asian, another third are white, and the remainder are split among Black, Hispanic, and other backgrounds, with no single racial group forming an overwhelming majority.

Illinois Assessment of Readiness data for the 2024-25 school year shows a school with mixed academic performance across its grade bands. English language arts results are stronger than math. In sixth grade, roughly two-thirds of students achieved proficiency in ELA while roughly forty-five percent did so in math, suggesting a gap between literacy and quantitative reasoning. That gap narrows as students progress: by eighth grade, roughly three-quarters meet the ELA standard while just over half meet the math standard. Science results from eighth grade show roughly two-thirds of students proficient. Across all tested grades and subjects, the school's overall proficiency index sits below the midpoint when compared to other districts in DuPage County, the county's comparison set. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand the specific instructional strategies in math and the support structures available for students who have not yet reached proficiency.

State testing data was not available for sixth-grade science or for fifth grade across all subjects, as those grades fall outside the state's mandatory testing framework. Chronic absenteeism and four-year graduation rate data were not available because the school serves only middle grades. Free-or-reduced-price-lunch data and specific counts of students with individualized education plans or English learner status were not provided.

The school sits in Naperville, a large suburb about twenty-eight miles west of Chicago and the third-largest city in Illinois. Naperville has a thriving downtown anchored by the Riverwalk, a two-mile brick path along the DuPage River with fountains, sculptures, and bridges, along with shops, restaurants, and cultural sites like Naper Settlement. Downtown neighborhoods and areas near the Riverwalk are walkable, with pedestrian access to the downtown Metra station and schools mixed between downtown and outlying suburban locations. Median home values in the area are solid, and the rental market is active. The city is on a slow growth trajectory with new residential developments underway, including walkable downtown infill and subdivisions in south Naperville.

The district approved a substantial referendum in November 2024 that brings capital improvements to schools across the district over roughly twenty years, with older middle schools like Thayer J Hill slated for modernization. The district is also rolling out a new ELA curriculum across all middle schools built around CommonLit, emphasizing writing and critical thinking. Both of these district-wide changes will shape the school environment over the coming years.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 645%

School 45% · District 56% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 751%

School 51% · District 61% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 852%

School 52% · District 59% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 30 pts above state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 665%

School 65% · District 72% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 766%

School 66% · District 72% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 874%

School 74% · District 80% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Science

Grade 866%

School 66% · District 70% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

This schoolIndian Prairie CUSD 204, 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.