Bluffs Junior High School, Bluffs IL

Original Research by School Decision on Bluffs Junior High School

Bluffs Junior High School serves approximately a small student body in grades six through eight in a rural west-central Illinois village. The school's enrollment is tiny, reflecting the very small population of Bluffs itself, which has been in steady decline over decades. The student body is entirely white, and free-or-reduced-price-lunch eligibility data was not available.

Academic performance presents a mixed picture with sharp contrasts across grade levels and subjects. In English language arts, eighth graders show notably strong proficiency, while sixth graders hover around the midpoint and seventh graders fall somewhat below. Mathematics is much weaker across the board, with proficiency rates ranging from very low in sixth grade to modest improvement by eighth grade, though eighth-grade performance remains low. Eighth-grade science proficiency is solid. The school participated fully in state testing; no data gaps reflect nonparticipation. The strength in eighth-grade English and science alongside weakness in math suggests either that the curriculum or instruction in upper grades shifts by subject, or that student progress is uneven. A parent may want to explore with the school what drives this subject-specific disparity and what math support looks like in the lower grades.

When compared to the two other districts in Scott County, this school's overall proficiency index falls in the bottom quartile, meaning it trails its nearest county neighbors. A graduation rate is not applicable because the school serves only through grade eight.

Bluffs sits in a very small village with limited walkability and sparse commercial life. The school campus is compact and co-located with the elementary and high school on a single site within the village footprint. The area is car-dependent, employment is mostly regional (with Jacksonville about a short distance away as a labor center), and the village is classified as rural. Housing is older and the population has declined steadily; no major new residential development is documented. For a family considering this school, the academic environment is highly intimate, the peer group is small and homogeneous, and the broader community is economically modest and geographically isolated. State testing data from earlier grades (three, four, and five) were not reported by the school, likely because those grades are not assessed by the state in Illinois, so longitudinal academic trends cannot be traced from entry into the school.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 68%

School 8% · District 8%

▼ 16 pts below state median

Grade 720%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 815%

School 15% · District 15%

▼ 7 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 650%

School 50% · District 50%

even with state median

Grade 740%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 885%

School 85% · District 85%

▲ 31 pts above state median

Science

Grade 869%

School 69% · District 69%

▲ 30 pts above state median

This schoolScott-Morgan CUSD 2, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 7Lower-income15%Higher-income14%1 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income23%Higher-income7%16 pp gap