The top reported proficiency rate is 52% in Science. The lowest is 36% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on John L Nash Middle School
John L Nash Middle School serves students in grades five through eight in Clifton, a small rural village in northern Iroquois County. The school sits on a shared campus with Central High School, on the outskirts of the village's residential core, serving a community of about three hundred students.
The enrollment is small but stable, with about sixty to seventy-five students per grade. The student body is predominantly white, with a modest Hispanic presence. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and students with special needs were not available, so a parent may want to look into those categories directly with the school.
In state testing, the school shows an uneven academic profile that falls below the midpoint among Iroquois County's districts. In mathematics, proficiency rates decline through the grades, dropping from around forty percent in grade five to roughly thirty percent by grade eight. English language arts performance is less consistent but generally lower; grade six stands out at around forty-eight percent proficient, while grade seven dips to roughly thirty-seven percent, and grade eight recovers to about fifty-four percent. Science proficiency rates in grade five and grade eight both sit near fifty percent. The school's overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades falls below the county median, indicating a school where many students are working below grade-level standard in core academics.
Participation in state testing is very high, hovering near ninety-eight to one hundred percent across grades and subjects, so absences are not masking the results. State testing data does not provide average scale scores for this school, so a clearer picture of how far below proficiency students sit, or how learning is distributed within each cohort, is not available from this public reporting. A parent may want to ask the school about its approaches to remediation and skill-building, particularly in mathematics, where the gaps are most apparent.
The school is open and operational. No civil rights violations, discipline data, or staffing and attendance patterns were reported. The district brief found no major recent referendums, tax shifts, or curriculum changes in Central CUSD 4 over the past several years, so the school landscape appears stable rather than in active transition.
Clifton itself is a very small, rural community with an agricultural character, home to grain silos and open country. The village sits within the Kankakee-Bourbonnais-Bradley Metropolitan Statistical Area, with Kankakee roughly fourteen miles away via Interstate 57. Population has been flat to declining over the past decade. Housing inventory is small, with median home values below the state and national benchmarks, and mortgage and rental affordability are both favorable relative to national norms. The school campus is the village's major civic anchor, along with the village park, library, and community building near the village center.
A family considering this school should understand that it is a small-town setting with lower-than-county-average academic performance, particularly in mathematics. The rural locale and modest enrollment offer a close-knit community feel, but students working significantly below grade level may need to understand what supports the school provides and whether their own learning needs align with what is available here.
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