Summary:
The South Central CUD 401 district in Illinois has only one high school, South Central High School. The school has faced declining performance in recent years, with its statewide ranking dropping from 342 out of 697 Illinois high schools in 2023-2024 to 542 out of 699 in 2022-2023.
Academically, South Central High School struggles, with significantly lower proficiency rates than the state average in both SAT Mathematics (21.2% vs. 26.1%) and SAT English Language Arts (19.2% vs. 31.1%). The school also has a low proficiency rate in the ISA Science End of Course exam (22.2% vs. 52.2%). These academic challenges may be exacerbated by the school's high chronic absenteeism rate of 24.9%, which is much higher than the state average.
Despite the school's academic and performance challenges, it has a relatively low student-teacher ratio of 11.3 and higher per-student spending of $12,971 compared to the state average. However, the school serves a high-poverty student population, with 58.25% of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch. The district and school leaders may need to re-evaluate their resource allocation and implement targeted interventions to address the unique needs of the student population and improve academic outcomes at South Central High School.
Thank you for your feedback!