Pontiac-W Holliday School District 105

Pontiac-W Holliday School District 105 includes two schools serving preschool through grade 8: William Holliday Elementary School (PK–5, 418 students) and Pontiac Junior High School (grades 6–8, 212 students); the data include no high school. The clearest concern is math at Pontiac Junior High, where 17% of students were proficient in 2025–26, 22 percentage points below the state rate.

Pontiac Junior High stands out for all-grades English language arts (ELA): 58% were proficient, 2 points above the state’s 56%. Its math result was the lowest standout, at 17% versus 40% statewide. At William Holliday, all-grades ELA was 42% versus 56% statewide, and math was 30% versus 40%. Its fourth-grade math result was a bright spot: 47%, 5 points above the state rate; third- and fifth-grade math were 22 and 18 points below their state rates. Science was below the same-grade state rate at both schools: fifth grade at William Holliday was 10 points below, and eighth grade at Pontiac Junior High was 10 points below. Because the schools serve different grades, their test results are not like-for-like comparisons; Pontiac Junior High’s sixth- and eighth-grade math results are suppressed.

All-grades ELA and math proficiency rose at both schools from 2024–25 to 2025–26, and both narrowed their math gaps with the state. Pontiac Junior High’s ELA improved by 9 points, moving from 4 points below the state to 2 points above; its math improved by 4 points but remained 22 points below. William Holliday’s ELA rose 4 points and math rose 4, while its state gaps narrowed by 1 and 3 points, respectively. SchoolDigger’s rankings declined over the longer 2023–24 to 2025–26 period: William Holliday fell 5 percentile points to 25, and Pontiac Junior High fell 16 to 36; their latest star ratings were 1 and 2, respectively. In 2024–25, student-teacher ratios were 12.6 at William Holliday and 14.7 at Pontiac Junior High. Free/reduced lunch eligible students made up 65% and 52%, respectively, that school year. These are contextual differences, not explanations for test results.