New Simpson Hill Dist 32, Tunnel Hill IL

Original Research by School Decision on New Simpson Hill Dist 32

New Simpson Hill District 32 serves pre-K through eighth grade in Tunnel Hill, a very small unincorporated rural community in northwestern Johnson County in southern Illinois. The school enrolls a small student body distributed evenly across its grade bands, with the population concentrated in the early elementary years.

The academic record shows a mixed profile across tested grades and subjects. In English language arts, the school demonstrates relative strength at the early grades, with third graders reaching solid proficiency. Performance holds reasonably in grades four and five, then softens in the middle grades. By seventh grade, fewer than half the students reach proficiency in English language arts, though the rate stabilizes somewhat by eighth grade. In mathematics, the pattern is more uneven. Third graders achieve proficiency at a higher rate, but fourth grade shows a marked drop, followed by some recovery in fifth grade. From sixth grade forward, mathematics proficiency falls to consistently low levels, with seventh grade recording particularly weak results. Science testing is limited to grades five and eight, and proficiency rates in both are low, suggesting science instruction may benefit from additional attention or resources. All students participate fully in state assessments.

Relative to other districts in Johnson County, this school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile, a position worth understanding in context: it reflects strong early-elementary performance, particularly in reading, that anchors the overall average even as the school struggles with older grades, especially in mathematics and science.

The enrollment composition is predominantly white, with a small share of multiracial students and minimal diversity otherwise. Free-and-reduced-price lunch rates and special education enrollment data are not publicly reported for this school, so a parent may want to look into those details directly with the school if they are relevant to their situation. The school does not report English learner populations or chronic absenteeism metrics.

Tunnel Hill itself is a very small rural settlement oriented around the Tunnel Hill State Trail, a rails-to-trails recreational path. The community has minimal commercial services and no functioning downtown; civic life for residents connects to nearby Johnson County towns. Housing in the local zip code is relatively modest in price, and the area is characterized by low population density, an older median age than the state average, and limited growth activity. Employment in the region is anchored by state government, chiefly the Illinois Department of Corrections facility in Vienna, along with county government offices.

This is a one-building district serving a rural area with a stable but small enrollment and rural family demographics. Parents choosing this school are committing to a deeply local, small-school environment with particular strengths in early literacy but clear proficiency gaps in upper-elementary and middle-grade mathematics and science instruction.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 377%

School 77% · District 77%

▲ 31 pts above state median

Grade 446%

School 46% · District 46%

▲ 9 pts above state median

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 35 pts above state median

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 29%

▲ 5 pts above state median

Grade 725%

School 25% · District 25%

▼ 4 pts below state median

Grade 837%

School 37% · District 37%

▲ 14 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 389%

School 89% · District 89%

▲ 45 pts above state median

Grade 464%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 13 pts above state median

Grade 654%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 746%

School 46% · District 46%

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 53%

▼ 1 pts below state median

Science

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 832%

School 32% · District 32%

▼ 8 pts below state median

This schoolNew Simpson Hill SD 32, 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.