Pleasant Plains CUSD 8

The Pleasant Plains CUSD 8 district in Illinois is home to three schools: Farmingdale Elementary School, Pleasant Plains High School, and Pleasant Plains Middle School. These schools serve students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and provide a range of educational opportunities in the Pleasant Plains area.

Pleasant Plains High School stands out as a top-performing school, ranking 105 out of 698 Illinois high schools in 2024-2025 and earning a 4-star rating from SchoolDigger. The school boasts a high graduation rate of 89% and a low dropout rate of 2.4%, along with strong performance on standardized tests, with 66.7% proficiency in English Language Arts and 56.6% in Science for 11th graders. In contrast, Farmingdale Elementary School stands out as a high-performing elementary school, consistently outperforming the district and state averages in both English Language Arts and Mathematics across all grade levels.

While the schools in the Pleasant Plains CUSD 8 district have many strengths, there are also areas for improvement. All three schools have a concerning chronic absenteeism rate of 25.4%, which is an issue the district should address. Additionally, the variation in free/reduced lunch rates across the schools suggests the need for the district to examine the equity of resource allocation and support for students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.