Lexington Jr High School, Lexington IL

Original Research by School Decision on Lexington Jr High School

Lexington Jr High School serves grades six through eight in Lexington, a small rural city in McLean County anchored by a walkable downtown and Route 66 heritage tourism. The school is the middle tier of a consolidated district campus on East Wall Street, just blocks from the downtown core. The setting is entirely residential and small-town: the school enrolls a relatively small cohort drawn almost entirely from the local white population, with virtually no racial diversity reported and only a handful of students identifying as Hispanic or multiracial.

State test results show strength in language arts but significant softness in math at the sixth-grade level. In English language arts, performance is robust across the seventh and eighth grades, with proficiency well above the state baseline in both. Seventh-grade science proficiency is also solid. In mathematics, however, the picture fractures by grade. Seventh graders show solid proficiency; sixth graders struggle markedly, with less than a third meeting proficiency standards. Eighth-grade math proficiency sits in the low-to-mid range. This grade-level variation suggests that either different cohorts of students face different skill foundations, or that the curriculum sequencing or instructional approach shifts significantly between sixth and seventh grade before changing again. A parent would want to ask the school directly about what accounts for this dip in sixth-grade math and whether targeted support exists for students entering the school.

The school participates in Illinois state assessments across all tested grades, and testing participation is near universal. Relative to other districts in McLean County, Lexington Jr High's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among its county peers, a genuine strength.

The enrollment is small—about a third of the school enrolls in each grade level—creating an intimate peer environment typical of rural middle schools. Free-or-reduced-price-lunch eligibility data and special education enrollment counts were not available, so a parent seeking those details should ask the district directly. The broader household economic context is modest but stable: median home values in the district's zip code sit slightly below the state average, and the housing market is appreciating slowly. The Bloomington-Normal labor market, anchored by Illinois State University and major employers in insurance and manufacturing, shapes employment options for families in the wider region, though Lexington itself remains rooted in agriculture and small downtown retail.

A material recent change for the district is a new McLean County school facilities sales tax approved by voters in April 2025, which will fund facility upgrades, school safety, and mental health services across all county districts including Lexington, while directing a portion of revenue toward property tax relief over several years. For families considering the area, this signals sustained public investment in schools paired with some property tax stability.

The math proficiency gap at sixth grade is the clearest area where a parent should seek detail from the school about curriculum design and student support systems.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 627%

School 27% · District 27%

▲ 3 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 763%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 40%

▲ 17 pts above state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 682%

School 82% · District 82%

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 784%

School 84% · District 84%

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

Grade 879%

School 79% · District 79%

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Science

Grade 878%

School 78% · District 78%

▲ 39 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

This schoolLexington CUSD 7, 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-income8%Higher-income46%38 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income8%Higher-income27%20 pp gap