High Schools in Earlville CUSD 9

Earlville Junior/Senior High School is the only high school in Earlville CUSD 9, serving grades 9–12 with 97 students. Its graduation rate is a concern: 77% in 2025–2026, compared with 90% statewide, a 13-point gap. Chronic absenteeism is more favorable against the state—15% versus 24%—though it is 3 points above the district rate. The clearest recent bright spot is that the school’s 11th-grade ACT proficiency rates were above Illinois rates in all three subjects in 2025–2026.

There are no other local high schools to rank against it, so Earlville is both the area’s highest- and lowest-performing school in the school-level data. Compared with the state, its latest 11th-grade ACT results were ahead by 7 points in ELA, 10 in math and 6 in science. Its PreACT results were more mixed: average state-relative gaps were strongest in math, at 10 points above the state, and science, at 6 points above; ELA averaged 3 points above. However, grade 9 PreACT ELA was 4 points below the state, and grade 9 science was 1 point below.

ACT results improved notably from 2024–2025: the average gap across the three subjects shifted from 8 points below Illinois to 8 points above. PreACT moved in the opposite direction across five grade-subject comparisons, with its average gap narrowing from 15 points above the state to 5 points above; grade 9 ELA and science fell below state rates in the latest results. SchoolDigger ranked Earlville 165th of 620 schools, at the 73rd percentile with four stars in 2025–2026, up from 492nd of 697 and the 29th percentile in 2023–2024, but below its 79th-percentile standing in 2024–2025. Context figures include a 7.5:1 student-teacher ratio and 38% free/reduced lunch eligible in 2024–2025. Because this is a one-school list, it cannot show how Earlville compares with nearby schools.