Summary:
Effingham has five public schools serving kindergarten through grade 12, from the Early Learning Center through Effingham High School, with 2,140 students in all. Test results are available for Central Grade, Effingham Junior High and Effingham High; the two other schools have no test results in this data. Attendance is a positive across the list: chronic absenteeism ranges from 8% at Central Grade to 18% at the Early Learning Center, below the 24% state rate at every school. The clearest achievement standout is Effingham Junior High’s eighth grade, while Central Grade’s fifth-grade results are the clearest weak spot.
Effingham Junior High’s eighth-grade results were 82% in ELA, 47% in math and 70% in science—19, 12 and 18 points above state results, respectively. Central Grade’s fifth-grade results were 50% in ELA, 31% in math and 40% in science, 5, 6 and 7 points below state results. Central’s third- and fourth-grade ELA results were above state results, so its profile varies by grade. At Effingham High, ninth-grade PreACT results were above state results in all three subjects, but eleventh-grade ACT results were below state results in ELA, math and science by 2, 6 and 3 points.
Recent trends also differ by school. From 2023–2024 to 2025–2026, SchoolDigger’s percentile for Effingham Junior High rose from 55 to 66, while Central Grade’s fell from 60 to 45 and Effingham High’s from 78 to 62. Between the latest two IAR years, Junior High’s all-grades ELA rose 22 points and math rose 6; Central’s ELA rose 3, but math fell 3. As context, in 2024–2025 free/reduced lunch eligibility was 44% at Junior High, 47% at Central and 37% at Effingham High; their student-teacher ratios were 13.0, 12.8 and 14.2, respectively. These figures describe different school communities and do not explain test results.
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