Summary:
Marion, Illinois, has eight listed schools—five elementary schools, one middle school and two high schools—serving students from prekindergarten through grade 12, with 3,878 students across Marion CUSD 2 and Crab Orchard CUSD 3. The clearest overall strength is elementary performance: the four Marion CUSD 2 K–5 schools average 65% in ELA and 61% in math, above state results of 56% and 40%, respectively.
Washington Elementary leads the four Marion CUSD 2 elementary schools in all-grades ELA at 70% and math at 66%; its results are 14 and 26 points above state results, respectively. Longfellow Elementary has the strongest grade-5 ELA and math results among the elementary schools, at 91% and 71%. In contrast, Crab Orchard Elementary has the lowest elementary all-grades math result, 45%, though its ELA is 65% and it leads grade-5 science at 80%. At the high-school level, Marion High School leads in grade-11 ACT ELA, 52% to 33% at Crab Orchard High School; Crab Orchard has the higher graduation rate, 94% versus 85%.
Recent changes are mixed: the four Marion CUSD 2 K–5 schools’ average all-grades results fell 2 points in ELA and 3 points in math from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, while Crab Orchard Elementary rose 8 points in ELA and 6 in math. Marion Junior High School improved 14 points in ELA, reaching 58%—above the state’s 56%—but its 36% math result remains below the state’s 40%. SchoolDigger’s 2025–2026 statewide rankings place Washington highest among these schools at the 82nd percentile, followed by Longfellow at the 74th; both rankings have fallen since 2023–2024. As context, free/reduced lunch eligible figures for school year 2024–2025 range from 20% at Crab Orchard Elementary to 67% at Longfellow; these different school profiles do not form a simple pattern with results.
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