Rankin Elem School, Pekin IL - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Rankin Elem School

Rankin Elem School is a small K-8 regular public school in Pekin, Illinois, serving kindergarten through eighth grade in Rankin CSD 98. The school enrolls fewer than two hundred students across its grade span, with slightly higher concentration in the middle grades, particularly eighth grade. The school sits in a community with a very homogeneous student body that is predominantly white, alongside a small number of students from Hispanic and multiracial backgrounds. Specific data on free-or-reduced-price-lunch status, special education enrollment, or English learner populations was not available.

Testing data from the 2024-25 school year shows performance that varies notably by subject and grade level. In reading, the school achieves higher proficiency in the middle grades and above, with seventh and eighth graders both demonstrating strong performance. Reading proficiency in third grade is weaker, while fourth and fifth grades show mid-range results. Mathematics tells a different story: proficiency rates are lower in the elementary grades, particularly in grades three through five, before improving in grades six and seven. Eighth-grade math proficiency sits at a moderate level. Science testing, offered only in grades five and eight, shows low proficiency in fifth grade and modest proficiency in eighth. Across subjects, test participation was universal, which is a baseline strength.

This school sits above the midpoint among Tazewell County school districts on an overall proficiency index that combines performance across tested subjects and grades. That positioning reflects genuine strength in certain grade and subject combinations, especially upper-middle-grades reading, though the uneven profile by grade and subject suggests that academic experience differs considerably depending on where a student falls in the K-8 span. The school's parent district, Rankin CSD 98, has earned the Illinois State Board of Education's Exemplary Designation for three consecutive years and five times in the last six opportunities, marking the district as a sustained top performer statewide rather than a one-time result.

Pekin itself is a mid-sized Illinois River city with industrial heritage, working-class residential neighborhoods, and a downtown anchored by Mineral Springs Park and a civic business district along Court Street. The housing market is active with meaningful growth; home values are appreciating, and the city is actively developing new residential and mixed-use projects, creating demand for school seats. Median rental costs are modest relative to national benchmarks, and home prices are notably affordable in state context.

Rankin Elem has a regular school structure and feeds into Pekin Community High School. No information on specialized programs, career pathways, advanced offerings, or school-level policies around discipline or attendance was available. A parent may want to look further into the school's curriculum approach in the lower elementary grades where math proficiency is lower, as well as what supports or interventions are in place for those grades.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 338%

School 38% · District 38%

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 32%

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 23%

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 645%

School 45% · District 45%

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 758%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 468%

School 68% · District 68%

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 555%

School 55% · District 55%

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

Grade 665%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 779%

School 79% · District 79%

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

Grade 878%

School 78% · District 78%

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Science

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 23%

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 31 pts below county median

Grade 839%

School 39% · District 39%

even with state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

This schoolRankin CSD 98, 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 6Lower-income46%Higher-income33%12 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income0%Higher-income7%7 pp gap