Summary:
Zip code 62966 has four schools in Murphysboro CUSD 186, serving kindergarten through grade 11, and the reported free/reduced lunch eligible shares range from 93% to 97% in school year 2024–2025. All supplied 2025–2026 test results are below state results, but the size of the gaps varies by subject and grade. The clearest area-wide concern is math: sixth graders at Murphysboro Middle School scored 14% versus 36% statewide, 22 points below; fifth graders at Carruthers Elementary School scored 15% versus 36%, 21 points below. Math is also below the state at the high school, so it stands out as the most consistent academic challenge across the schools.
Murphysboro High School is closest to state results in its latest comparisons: its 11th-grade ELA was 45% versus 50% statewide, and science was 44% versus 48%, gaps of 5 and 4 points; math was 28% versus 40%, a 12-point gap. The elementary and middle schools are nearly even in all-grades ELA—42.5% at Carruthers and 42.6% at the middle school—but both are below the 56% state result. Carruthers’ all-grades math result, 25%, is 4 points higher than the middle school’s 21%. The schools serve different grade spans, so these figures do not establish a like-for-like overall ranking.
Recent ELA results improved relative to the state at both Carruthers and the middle school: the gap narrowed by 5 points at Carruthers and 3 points at the middle school from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026. Math did not follow that pattern: Carruthers’ gap widened by 5 points, and the middle school’s widened slightly, from 18.5 to 18.8 points. SchoolDigger’s 2025–2026 statewide percentiles are 32 for the high school, 19 for Carruthers and 16 for the middle school; the high school’s percentile fell from 54 the year before. Student-teacher ratios range from 11.7 at Gen John A Logan Attendance Center to 14.6 at Carruthers. Logan serves kindergarten through grade 2, and no test scores are supplied for it.
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