River Trails Middle School

River Trails Middle School serves grades 6 through 8 in Mount Prospect, Illinois, with an enrollment of 500 students. A 12.2-to-1 student-teacher ratio keeps instruction personal through the middle school years. The school earns an Exceptional rating, scoring 9.1 out of 10 overall.

Academic performance reaches 8.7 out of 10, and the growth score — measuring how much students advance relative to expectations — matches the composite at 9.1. That growth number matters: it signals forward momentum across the full student body, not just strong outcomes for already high-performing kids. Those scores translate into clear statewide standing.

River Trails ranks #15 out of 684 middle schools in Illinois, and outperforms 97 percent of all Illinois public schools across every grade level. Within Mount Prospect, it holds the top position among the city's nine public schools — meaning local families have access to the highest-performing public option in town. For parents evaluating sixth-grade placement, the combination of a low student-teacher ratio, an 8.7 academic score, and a 9.1 growth score puts River Trails in a tier very few Illinois middle schools reach.

Families weighing options across the northwest Chicago suburbs will find few public schools that match it on all three dimensions simultaneously.