Summary:
ZIP code 61761 has three high schools serving 3,685 students: Normal Community High School and Normal Community West High School serve grades 9–12 and account for 3,669 students, while YBMC Charter School serves grades 11–12 and has 16 students. Chronic absenteeism at the two larger schools is high: 33% at Normal and 35% at West, compared with about 24% for the district and state, even though both schools’ graduation rates exceed the state’s 90%. The clearest overall academic finding is that Normal Community leads West in all nine current test comparisons and is above the state in all nine.
Normal Community stands out academically: its advantage over West ranges from 6 to 20 percentage points, and it averages 10 points above the state across the nine tests. West averages 1 point below the state; its math results are below state results in all three grades, including 34% in grade 9 versus 53% at Normal and 42% statewide. West’s graduation rate is stronger, at 93% versus Normal’s 91%, and its dropout rate is lower, at 1% versus 2%. YBMC’s reported 2025–2026 dropout rate is 30%, compared with 2% at each of the district and state levels. YBMC’s current ACT proficiency figures are state-suppressed, so it cannot be ranked against the other schools on current test results.
Recent test changes were mixed: from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, Normal’s average change was up 1 percentage point, while West’s was down 1 point; the average state-relative result across both schools improved by about 1 point. SchoolDigger ranks Normal 111th of 620 schools (82nd percentile) and West 253rd of 620 (59th percentile) for 2025–2026; YBMC’s most recent listed rank is 698th of 698 for 2024–2025. The two larger schools have the same student–teacher ratio, 15.1, and their free/reduced lunch eligible measures are 33% at Normal and 39% at West, both for sy 2024–2025. YBMC’s free/reduced lunch eligible measure is 61% for sy 2021–2022, so it comes from a different year.
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