The top reported proficiency rate is 3% in English language arts. The lowest is 0% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Cairo Jr/sr High School
Cairo Jr/Sr High School serves grades seven through twelve in a single public school setting in Cairo, Illinois, a small river town at the southern tip of the state. The school enrolls a small student body and reflects its community's deep economic challenges. Nearly all its students are economically disadvantaged, and the student body is predominantly Black, with smaller shares of white students and students identifying as multiracial or Hispanic.
The school's state assessment results reveal very low proficiency across tested subjects and grade levels. In seventh-grade math and English language arts, proficiency rates were in the low single digits, and by eighth grade, proficiency dropped to zero in both math and science. Seventh-grade English language arts showed zero proficiency as well. These results place the school at the bottom of the comparison set among districts in Alexander County, with an overall proficiency index substantially below the county median.
State testing data for the elementary grades served at the school—third through sixth—was not available, likely because those grades are not tested under Illinois's standard assessment schedule, so parents cannot see how the younger cohorts are progressing. A graduation rate for the high school was not provided in the available data, leaving that outcome unmeasured in this record.
The school has recently partnered with OneGoal, a college and career readiness program. A cohort of juniors began as Fellows in the 2023-24 school year and advanced to senior-year programming in 2024-25. This is the clearest recent curricular change in the district. For a school where economic disadvantage is nearly universal among the student body, embedding a structured, multi-year pathway to postsecondary planning represents a tangible commitment to college and career access that extends across the critical junior and senior years.
Cairo itself is experiencing severe economic decline. The town's population has fallen dramatically from its twentieth-century peak, and its historic downtown along Commercial Avenue shows widespread abandonment and decay. The housing market is deeply depressed, with home values well below the state and national benchmarks. Employment is concentrated in retail, healthcare, and small local businesses, with no single large private employer. A planned riverport project, intended to bring hundreds of jobs, has been repeatedly delayed and remains uncertain. An affordable housing crisis emerged after two public housing complexes were demolished, though a new 3D-printed housing initiative broke ground in 2024.
For families considering this school, the reality is straightforward: this is a setting shaped by severe community economic stress and corresponding academic struggle at the school level. The OneGoal partnership offers real structure for college and career readiness, and the school remains the only secondary option in the district. A parent would want to discuss directly with the school how academic supports are organized across grades, what happens before OneGoal's junior-year entry point, and what outcomes the earlier cohorts have seen as they move toward graduation.
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