Crab Orchard CUSD 3

Crab Orchard CUSD 3 has two schools: Crab Orchard Elementary School, serving PK–8, and Crab Orchard High School, serving grades 9–12. The clearest overall contrast is that the elementary’s 2025–2026 all-grades results were above state levels, while the high school’s reported ELA results were below state levels in every tested grade.

The elementary stands out most for its 2025–2026 IAR results: ELA proficiency was 65%, 9 percentage points above the state, and math was 45%, 5 points above. Its fifth-grade science result was especially strong: 80%, 33 points above the state. At the high school, ELA was below state results in ninth grade (60% versus 62%), 10th grade (41% versus 54%) and 11th grade (33% versus 50%); ninth-grade science was a counterpoint, at 50% versus 47% statewide. Because the schools serve different grades and use different assessments, these scores are not direct school-to-school comparisons.

Results over time are mixed: the high school’s 11th-grade ACT ELA proficiency fell 23 percentage points, from 57% to 33%, while its ninth-grade math rose from 16% to 35% and ninth-grade science from 33% to 50%. Elementary fifth-grade science also increased, from 70% to 80%, while eighth-grade science remained below the state at 44% versus 52%. Other measures offer useful context: the high school’s 2025–2026 graduation rate was 94%, 4 points above the state, but chronic absenteeism was 24%, compared with 16% at the elementary. SchoolDigger ranked the elementary in the 68th percentile (551 of 1,737 schools) and the high school in the 38th percentile (382 of 620). In 2024–2025, free/reduced lunch eligibility was 20% at the elementary and 39% at the high school; student-teacher ratios were 14.8 and 13.1, respectively.