Creekside Middle School, Woodstock IL

Original Research by School Decision on Creekside Middle School

Creekside Middle School serves grades five through eight in Woodstock, a preserved county seat and Chicago exurb in McHenry County. The school enrolls a student body that is about half white, with a substantial Hispanic population and smaller shares of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data and special population counts were not available, so a reader will want to ask the district directly about the school's economic and special needs composition.

The school's performance picture is uneven across grades and subjects. In English language arts, Creekside shows strength in the middle and upper grades: seventh graders reached proficiency at a notably higher rate than the county median, and eighth graders performed well above it. Sixth-grade ELA proficiency was also solid. Math presents a different story. Seventh grade showed the school's strongest math result, approaching or at the county median, but sixth and eighth grade proficiency rates were well below that threshold. Grade-level data for third through fifth grades in both subjects was not reported, which is typical for a school that does not serve those grades in the testing cycle or does not administer those assessments to those cohorts at this school.

In science, eighth-grade proficiency sat below the county median. Fifth-grade science data was not available. Overall, Creekside's proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places it in the top quartile among McHenry County's school districts, a genuine strength. Participation rates were consistently high across all tested grades, ranging from 97 to 99 percent.

The school is situated in a town with a lively walkable downtown anchored by a historic courthouse square, Metra commuter rail access, and event-driven street life. The city has announced major residential growth for the first time in roughly a decade, with subdivisions and downtown multifamily projects in planning stages. The district itself has taken a notable affordability step for families: in the most recent tax cycle, officials reduced the property tax levy and used fund balances to manage debt, with estimates that a homeowner would see a meaningful decrease in the school district portion of their bill. At the same time, the district has launched micro-internship and internship programs at the high school level to build career pathways, a structural addition to its academic offerings.

Creekside's math performance in grades six and eight is below county norms and may warrant closer attention from families prioritizing math readiness; a parent might explore with the school what instructional approaches are in use and what support options exist for students not meeting proficiency. The strong ELA results in grades seven and eight, combined with solid overall proficiency ranking, suggest the school is finding traction in literacy instruction at the upper middle grades. The enrollment is typical in size for a middle school serving this grade span in a community of this scale.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 39% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 757%

School 57% · District 45% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 846%

School 46% · District 46%

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 668%

School 68% · District 71% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 781%

School 81% · District 76% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Grade 879%

School 79% · District 77% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Science

Grade 854%

School 54% · District 53% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

This schoolWoodstock CUSD 200, 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.