Summary:
Zip code 61739 has one high school, Prairie Central High School, serving grades 9–12 and enrolling 487 students. With no other high schools in the list, it is not possible to compare local schools with one another. The clearest concern is mathematics: in 2025–2026, Prairie Central was below state proficiency in all three tested grades, averaging 28% proficient compared with 39% statewide, a 12-point gap.
Prairie Central’s strongest result was 10th-grade science, where 57% were proficient versus 48% statewide, 9 points higher. Its weakest was 9th-grade math: 27% proficient compared with 42% statewide, 15 points lower. Results also varied by grade in other subjects: 11th-grade English Language Arts was 52% versus 50% statewide, while 9th-grade English Language Arts was 51% versus 62%. The school’s 2025–2026 graduation rate was strong at 97%, 7 points above the state’s 90%; however, chronic absenteeism was also higher, at 30% versus 24% statewide and 18% in the district.
Across the nine test results, the school’s average moved from 44% in 2024–2025 to 43% in 2025–2026, while the state average shifted from 48% to 47%; the school’s overall gap widened from about 4 to 5 points below the state. Individual results were mixed: 10th-grade math rose by 10 points, but 9th-grade science fell by 17 points. SchoolDigger’s ranking also declined, from 265th of 697 schools (62nd percentile, 3 stars) in 2023–2024 to 341st of 620 (45th percentile, 2 stars) in 2025–2026. For context, the student-teacher ratio was 11.7 in 2024–2025, and 40% of students were free/reduced lunch eligible that year; these figures describe the school, not what explains its results.
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