The top reported proficiency rate is 51% in English language arts. The lowest is 19% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Clinton Jr High School
Clinton Junior High School serves students in grades six through eight in Clinton, Illinois, a small county-seat town in central DeWitt County. The school is a traditional public junior high with an enrollment of around five hundred students across the three grades. The town itself is stable and rural, organized around a historic courthouse square downtown, with the dominant local employer being the Clinton Clean Energy Center, a nuclear power station. A power purchase agreement signed publicly reported in 2025 between the plant operator and Meta secures the facility's operations through the coming decades and anchors the local economy.
The most recent state assessment data available shows a mixed academic profile. In English language arts, performance is stronger, with about half the sixth-grade students and a substantial majority of eighth graders meeting proficiency standards. Seventh grade falls in between. In mathematics, proficiency is considerably lower. Sixth-grade math proficiency is in the low double digits; seventh and eighth grades show roughly double that level, though still modest compared to ELA. Science proficiency in eighth grade, the only grade tested, hovers around one-third of students. It is worth noting that Illinois changed proficiency benchmarks on these assessments, so year-to-year comparisons are not reliable; a parent may want to ask the school directly about how recent results compare to the school's own baseline.
When Clinton Junior High is positioned against other districts in De Witt County, its overall proficiency index falls into the bottom range among the county's district cohort. The comparison reflects the raw numbers: the school's mean proficiency across tested subjects and grades is below the median. This suggests families should look closely at what academic supports or interventions the school offers, particularly in mathematics. The school has not yet reported data on chronic absenteeism or graduation rates, which are typical reporting gaps for a junior high that does not serve ninth grade students.
The district itself recently completed a major facilities overhaul. Publicly reported in 2024, Clinton CUSD 15 undertook the first public K-12 design-build construction project in Illinois, delivering infrastructure improvements and community-focused spaces across two phases. That kind of capital investment is tangible: it shapes the daily experience of students and signals a commitment to modernized buildings and spaces.
Demographically, the school's enrollment is predominantly white, with small shares of Hispanic, multiracial, and Black students, and minimal Asian enrollment. Precise free-and-reduced-lunch eligibility data was not available, nor were counts of students with individualized education plans or English learners, so a parent seeking that detail should contact the school directly. The student body is drawn from a rural county where housing values are modest relative to national benchmarks and where the local economy rests on a single major employer. That stability offers some security but also means economic vulnerability if employment at the plant were disrupted.
Clinton Junior High appears to be a neighborhood school in a town that offers a small-town rhythm: a manageable student body, traditional junior high organization, and steady-state conditions. The ELA results suggest the school has relative strength in literacy, while the math numbers raise questions about whether additional support or different approaches are in place for that subject. A family considering this school would be wise to ask about tutoring or intervention programs, specific math strategies in place, and how the school tracks progress in lower-performing cohorts. The facilities investment is a positive sign of district commitment. The setting is rural and car-dependent, with limited public services beyond what the small city itself provides.
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