Best Public Schools in Carlyle, IL

Carlyle has three public schools serving preschool through grade 12, with 926 students across Carlyle Elementary, Carlyle Junior High, and Carlyle High. The clearest overall pattern is stronger-than-state results in elementary and junior-high IAR tests alongside weaker high-school English results. The two IAR schools averaged 67% in English language arts (ELA), compared with 56% statewide, and 48% in math, compared with 40% statewide. At the high school, ELA was below state results in all three reported grades: 11th-grade ACT was 38% versus 50%, 10th-grade PreACT was 49% versus 54%, and 9th-grade PreACT was 55% versus 62%. The most important finding for families is that Carlyle’s earlier-grade strengths do not carry through consistently to high school.

Carlyle Elementary stands out in all-grades math, with 57% proficiency versus 40% statewide and 39% at junior high—a gap of 18 points between the two schools. Carlyle Junior High leads in all-grades ELA at 68%, compared with 65% at elementary and 56% statewide. Its ELA results were above state results in every reported grade, but fifth-grade math is a clear exception: 29% versus 36% statewide, a 7-point shortfall. Carlyle High has mixed results: 11th-grade ACT math and science were above state results, while its ACT English result and all six reported 9th- and 10th-grade PreACT results were below state.

Recent changes reinforce that uneven picture. Elementary results rose from 56% to 65% in ELA and from 52% to 57% in math between 2024–2025 and 2025–2026. Junior-high ELA eased from 70% to 68%, while math improved from 34% to 39%; its math gap with the state narrowed from 5 points below to 1 point below. High-school results fell across most comparable measures, and SchoolDigger’s ranking percentile dropped from 74 to 45 over three years. The schools’ student-teacher ratios ranged from 10.4 at high school to 13.7 at junior high; free/reduced lunch eligible figures for 2024–2025 ranged from 52% to 57%. These measures offer context but do not explain achievement differences.