St Joseph Middle School, Saint Joseph IL

Original Research by School Decision on St Joseph Middle School

St Joseph Middle School is a regular public school serving grades five through eight in the small village of Saint Joseph, in eastern Champaign County, Illinois. The school enrolls about three hundred students, with the fifth-grade cohort smaller than the eighth-grade cohort.

The student body is predominantly white, with a small number of students of Hispanic, Asian, Black, and multiracial backgrounds. Enrollment and demographic data for students in special education programs or English learners was not available in the school records reviewed.

In English language arts, the school shows strength in the upper grades. Sixth-grade students achieved high proficiency overall. Seventh and eighth graders also performed well on the state assessment. Fifth-grade proficiency was more modest. Math results tell a different story across grade levels. Sixth and seventh graders showed solid proficiency, with seventh grade notably strong. Fifth and eighth graders performed more unevenly. Science testing data was available for fifth and eighth grades; eighth-grade proficiency was more solid than fifth-grade results. Across all tested subjects and grades where proficiency data was available, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among districts in Champaign County.

The school is located within Saint Joseph's residential street grid rather than on an isolated campus, placing it near the village center. Saint Joseph itself is a small bedroom community about eleven miles from Champaign-Urbana. Most housing stock predates the 1980s; the village has seen modest population decline in recent years and has not added new subdivisions recently. Home values and rental costs in the area sit below both state and national benchmarks. The median home price reflects affordability that is reasonable relative to national norms; a family looking at a mortgage would find monthly costs moderate by national standards.

In June 2022, district voters approved a referendum that increased the education fund tax rate. Though this raised property-tax bills, the overall district tax rate still declined because middle school bonds were retired early—ahead of schedule due to county sales-tax revenue directed to school facilities. The new education-fund revenue is dedicated to teachers, programs, and class size, representing a lasting structural change in how the district is funded.

The district serves as a local employment hub in Saint Joseph alongside small agricultural operations. Residents more commonly commute to larger employers in Champaign-Urbana, including hospitals, manufacturing plants, and the university. Saint Joseph itself is anchored by the Kickapoo Rail Trail, a multi-use path that connects the village to Urbana and draws foot traffic through downtown along Main Street. The village is actively marketing available development land to potential residential and commercial builders, with traffic and proximity to the metro area central to its economic pitch.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 34 pts above county median

Grade 666%

School 66% · District 66%

▲ 42 pts above state median · ▲ 40 pts above county median

Grade 775%

School 75% · District 75%

▲ 47 pts above state median · ▲ 43 pts above county median

Grade 864%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 41 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 566%

School 66% · District 66%

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

Grade 691%

School 91% · District 91%

▲ 41 pts above state median · ▲ 47 pts above county median

Grade 788%

School 88% · District 88%

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 42 pts above county median

Grade 887%

School 87% · District 87%

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

Science

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 51%

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

Grade 865%

School 65% · District 65%

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

This schoolSt Joseph CCSD 169, 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.