The top reported proficiency rate is 31% in Science. The lowest is 19% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Schuyler Industry Middle School
Schuyler Industry Middle School serves grades five through eight in Rushville, a small county seat in west-central Illinois where civic life orbits the Schuyler County Courthouse and a compact downtown. The school draws from a community of modest scale—the student body is small for its grade band—with enrollment distributed fairly evenly across the middle years. The student composition is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Black, Hispanic, and multiracial students; specific free-and-reduced-price-lunch rates were not available in the data.
State assessment results show consistent patterns across both math and English language arts. In math, proficiency improves modestly in grade five before declining sharply in grades six through eight, where proficiency sits in the low teens. English language arts proficiency in grade five is stronger, at around two in five students meeting state criteria, but falls steeply in grade seven before recovering somewhat in grade eight. Science proficiency in grade five and grade eight, both around three in ten students, follows a similar modest trajectory. Participation rates in testing are very high across grades. The state changed its proficiency cut scores recently, which means these results are not directly comparable to prior years; a parent may want to look into current performance trends with the school directly.
Rushville itself is a relaxed, family-oriented small town surrounded by rolling hills and farmland. Housing stock is older, mostly single-family homes of varied architectural styles, and the median home price sits modestly below state and national benchmarks. The major employers are public-sector and healthcare: the state-run Treatment and Detention Facility, Sarah D. Culbertson Memorial Hospital (a twenty-two-bed critical access hospital), Schuyler County government, and the school district itself. Broader employment is concentrated in retail trade, public administration, and educational services. Population is roughly flat to slightly declining, and housing inventory turns over slowly, suggesting a stable but not growing local market. Downtown amenities are walkable—the courthouse square, historic brick buildings, locally owned shops and restaurants, the Princess Theater, and the Phoenix Opera House—but street life is modest and event-driven rather than continuous. The city has no fixed-route public transportation; nearly everyone drives.
The school's academic performance shows students meeting grade-level proficiency benchmarks at rates well below state medians. No prior-year trend data were available due to the state's recent cut-score adjustment, so current momentum cannot be assessed from the numbers provided. The data sections on this page carry specific proficiency counts and test participation figures; the prose here reflects the broader character of attainment. Parents considering this school should ask the district about underlying instructional supports, intervention structures, and any recent initiatives to address proficiency gaps in math, which appears to be an area of particular challenge as students progress through the middle grades.
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