Bushnell Prairie City CUSD 170

Bushnell Prairie City CUSD 170 serves grades PK–12 through three schools: an elementary school, a junior high, and a high school. The clearest concern across the reported 2025–2026 results is that every school’s reported test measures fall below state results, with the elementary school’s all-grades ELA result especially low: 18% proficient, compared with 56% statewide.

The schools have different strengths: Bushnell-Prairie City Junior High School leads the elementary school in all-grades IAR ELA, at 37% versus 18%—a 19-point difference—while Bushnell-Prairie City Elementary School leads in math, at 31% versus 20%, an 11-point difference. Both remain below state results; the elementary school’s ELA gap is 38 points, while the junior high’s largest all-grades gap is 20 points in math. At Bushnell-Prairie City High School, ninth-grade PreACT ELA is a relative bright spot at 59%, just 3 points below the state, and science is 44%, also 3 points below. However, high-school chronic absenteeism is 42%, versus 24% statewide, and graduation is 83%, versus 90% statewide.

Results over time are mixed: the two IAR schools’ average math gap to the state narrowed by 7 points from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, while their average ELA gap widened by 3 points. High-school ninth-grade PreACT scores improved by 13 points in ELA, 18 in math, and 23 in science; eleventh-grade ACT ELA and science fell by 9 and 3 points. SchoolDigger gives all three schools one star; its latest rankings place the elementary and junior high at the 11th percentile and the high school at the 30th. For context, 2024–2025 student-teacher ratios range from 7.3 at the high school to 9.9 at the elementary school, and the reported free/reduced lunch eligible measure ranges from 57% at the high school to 65% at the elementary school.