Summary:
Schools in zip code 62959 include eight public schools spanning elementary through high school: five elementary schools, one junior high and two high schools, in Marion CUSD 2 and Crab Orchard CUSD 3. The clearest area-wide strength is in the elementary results: all five schools scored above the state in both all-grades IAR subjects in 2025–2026. Their average was 65% in ELA and 58% in math, compared with 56% and 40% statewide.
Washington Elementary led the elementary group in both all-grades subjects, with 70% proficient in ELA and 66% in math. Longfellow Elementary stood out in grade 5: 91% in ELA, compared with 55% statewide, and its grade-5 math and science results were also above state results. Crab Orchard Elementary led grade-5 science at 80%, 33 percentage points above the state, while its all-grades math result of 45% was the group’s lowest. At the high-school level, Marion High School led in ACT ELA at 52%, versus 33% at Crab Orchard High School. Marion Junior High was slightly above state in ELA but below state in math.
Recent results show progress and some narrowing advantages. Elementary ELA averaged about the same from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, while the state improved, shrinking the average school-to-state gap from 12 to 9 percentage points; in math, the average fell from 59% to 58%, and the gap narrowed from 21 to 18 points. Marion Junior High’s ELA rose 14 points to 58%, moving from below state to 2 points above. By contrast, Crab Orchard High’s ACT ELA fell 23 points to 33%. SchoolDigger’s 2025–2026 percentile rankings also vary: Washington Elementary ranked 82nd, the highest among these schools, while Marion High ranked 36th, the lowest. Elementary student-teacher ratios are close, from 12.9 to 13.3. Their free/reduced lunch eligible figures for 2024–2025 range from 20% at Crab Orchard Elementary to 67% at Longfellow, with Washington at 58%; these figures do not follow a simple pattern with test results.
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