The top reported proficiency rate is 58% in English language arts. The lowest is 19% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Cobden Jr High School
Cobden Jr High School serves grades six through eight in a small, rural village in Union County in Southern Illinois. The school has an enrollment of fewer than a hundred students, with the student body roughly three-quarters white and a growing Hispanic share reflecting the community's agricultural labor heritage and the farm-worker tradition memorialized in the school's "Appleknockers" mascot. Free-and-reduced-price lunch data and special education enrollment figures were not available, which is common for very small schools in this region.
State testing data show uneven performance across grades and subjects. In English language arts, the school's seventh graders performed substantially better than students in other grades, with a strong majority meeting or exceeding proficiency standards. Sixth and eighth grade English results were more moderate, sitting in the lower-to-middle range. Mathematics proficiency tells a more challenging story. Sixth grade math proficiency was notably low, while seventh grade showed meaningful improvement. Eighth grade math proficiency dropped sharply, with fewer than one in five students meeting the standard. Science proficiency for eighth graders was similarly weak. Grade three through five data were not available, which reflects the school's actual grade band: this is a junior high serving only grades six through eight, so earlier grades are not tested here. The school's overall proficiency index, when viewed against other districts in Union County, falls below the county median, suggesting lower-than-midpoint academic performance in the immediate peer group.
Test participation rates were high across the grades where data were reported, indicating the school is administering assessments. The variation in performance across individual grade levels suggests that student cohort differences and possibly instructional changes matter significantly year to year in a school this small.
Cobden Junior High sits in a place shaped by agriculture, orchards, and farm labor. The town itself is shrinking slowly, with a housing stock that is older and stable rather than expanding. The district made a visible investment in its high school facilities when it rebuilt a condemned gymnasium and opened a new athletic complex in late 2023, along with renovated commons and weight room spaces. For a small community where school sports and the gym serve as civic anchors, that represents a material commitment to student life and a return to playing home games after a two-year displacement.
The school offers a straightforward junior high pathway without specialized programs or magnet designations. No information was available on course breadth, advanced offerings, extracurricular breadth, or student support staffing. A parent considering this school should view it as a traditional neighborhood junior high in a rural, economically modest setting where academic performance is below county average and warrants closer conversation with the school about literacy and numeracy support, particularly in the upper grades. The setting offers a small-school environment where individual students are known, but resources and peer achievement levels differ from larger or more prosperous districts.
See more original research from School Decision →