Summary:
Chester CUSD 139 has two schools serving Chester-area students from prekindergarten through grade 12: Chester Elementary School (PK–8) and Chester High School (grades 9–12). Because they serve different grade levels, their overall scores are not a like-for-like school ranking. The clearest shared concern is math: elementary students scored 23% across grades versus 40% statewide, while the high school’s grades 9–11 average was 26% versus 39% statewide.
The elementary school’s strongest results are in upper-grade ELA: grade 8 reached 67%, 4 points above the state, and grade 7 reached 67%, 9 points above. Grade 5 science also stood out at 53%, 5 points above the state. Its clearest low point was grade 3 math, at 16% versus 49% statewide—a 33-point gap; all six tested elementary grades were below the state in math. At the high school, grade 9 science was closest to the state result, at 46% versus 47%, while grade 10 math was the largest listed high-school gap: 15% versus 36%, or 21 points below. These grade-specific strengths and shortfalls are more informative than naming either school the district’s top performer.
Recent results show improvement in some areas, not a uniform trend. Elementary all-grades ELA rose 5 points from 2024–25 to 2025–26 and its gap to the state narrowed; math fell 2 points and its gap widened. Grade 5 science rose 17 points, moving from 5 points below the state to 5 above. High-school grade 11 ACT results improved by 9 points in ELA, 15 in math, and 5 in science; grade 10 PreACT scores fell in all three subjects. SchoolDigger rates the elementary school 1 star, at the 26th percentile, and the high school 2 stars, at the 30th percentile. In 2024–25, enrollment was 640 and 335, respectively; the elementary school’s student–teacher ratio was 13, compared with 15.5 at the high school. Both report free/reduced lunch eligible for 2024–25: 59% at the elementary school and 39% at the high school.
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