Peoria Heights CUSD 325

The two schools in Peoria Heights CUSD 325 serve 703 students in Peoria Heights: Peoria Heights Grade School serves PK–8, and Peoria Heights High School serves grades 9–12. The clearest overall concern is that most reported proficiency results trail state levels: grade-school all-grades math was 17% versus 40% statewide, while high-school ACT science was 25% versus 48%.

Peoria Heights Grade School has a notable bright spot in fifth grade: ELA proficiency was 65% versus 55% statewide, and science was 52% versus 48%. Its largest reported shortfall was eighth-grade ELA, at 33% versus 63% statewide, a 30-point gap. At Peoria Heights High School, ninth-grade ELA was closest to the state among its reported results—52% versus 62%, or 9 points below—while 10th-grade science was 31% versus 48%, or 17 points below. Since the schools serve different grades and report different assessments, their achievement results are not direct school-to-school comparisons.

Results have generally improved in matched comparisons: grade-school all-grades ELA rose 9 points and math rose 2 points, while all available same-grade, same-test high-school comparisons improved; ninth-grade ELA rose 13 points. Grade-school fifth-grade science climbed 41 points, moving from 30 points below the state to 5 points above. Attendance differs sharply: chronic absenteeism was 21% at the grade school and 35% at the high school, compared with 24% statewide; the high school’s graduation rate was 82% versus 90% statewide. Both schools have one star in SchoolDigger’s current ratings. Their SchoolDigger percentile rankings moved from 34th to 36th for the grade school and from 23rd to 20th for the high school over the reported three-year period. For context, both reported free/reduced lunch eligible shares in 2024–2025—66% at the grade school and 67% at the high school—and student-teacher ratios were 13.1 and 10.8, respectively.