Pleasant Plains Middle School, Pleasant Plains IL

Original Research by School Decision on Pleasant Plains Middle School

Pleasant Plains Middle School serves students in grades five through eight in a rural village setting in Sangamon County, about a short drive northwest of Springfield. The school has a small enrollment spread across the four grade levels, with all grades represented in roughly equal numbers. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with very few students of other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Data on free-and-reduced-price lunch eligibility and special populations such as English learners or students with IEPs was not available.

The school's recent test performance shows a mixed picture across subjects and grades. In English language arts, proficiency is stronger in the upper grades. Grade five proficiency sits around the midpoint, while grades six through eight show more solid performance, with grade eight reaching above the midpoint. Science proficiency is consistent across the tested grades, sitting in the moderate range in both grade five and grade eight.

Mathematics performance is more uneven. Grade five shows moderate proficiency at about the midpoint, but grade six drops sharply. Grade seven rebounds to near the midpoint, while grade eight falls again to low proficiency. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly regarding how mathematics instruction transitions between grades six and eight. Participation in state assessments was very high across all tested grades, indicating that results reflect the full cohort rather than a subset of students.

When positioned against other districts in Sangamon County, Pleasant Plains Middle School's overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint among county districts. This reflects solid performance in English language arts and science, tempered by weaker mathematics results in the middle grades.

Pleasant Plains sits in a small, rural community with a stable population and modest housing values somewhat below both state and national benchmarks. The village has very little housing inventory and minimal economic growth. The district itself showed no major recent changes in publicly reported data regarding referendums, tax measures, or curriculum decisions. The community's dominant employers are an agricultural fertilizer company and the school district itself, reflecting the rural, agricultural character of the area. Civic life is centered on close-set anchors like the public library branch and community building, with no public transit service. This is a small-town environment where families are likely to know one another and where the school is a central community institution.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 552%

School 52% · District 52%

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

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 29%

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 752%

School 52% · District 52%

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 827%

School 27% · District 27%

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 69%

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 760%

School 60% · District 60%

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 866%

School 66% · District 66%

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Science

Grade 563%

School 63% · District 63%

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

Grade 860%

School 60% · District 60%

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

This schoolPleasant Plains CUSD 8, 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.