NCES CCD 2024-25 17 schools IL

Best-Resourced Schools in Champaign, IL

Compiled from official source data by .

17 public K-12 schools in Champaign from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
17
Schools
10,154
Students
35.6/100
Avg Resource Index
14.7:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Lean reported-resource profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Champaign has more public-school enrollment than 81% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Champaign's average Resource Investment Index falls in the lower portion of the 4,487-city comparison set. The index is a resource snapshot, not an academic grade: it reflects the federal staffing, counselor, gifted-program, and attendance fields available for local campuses. The most useful next step is to open the individual schools below and identify which component is pulling each score down, because the same city average can hide very different campus-level constraints.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

11 of Champaign's 17 listed schools are elementary campuses. That composition means citywide enrollment and staffing averages are influenced more by early-grade operating patterns than by the city's 3 middle and 2 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.

Campus spread matters more than the city mean

The 32-point gap between Franklin Middle School and Garden Hills Elem School shows the range hidden by Champaign's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.

City enrollment
Top 19%
School count
Top 19%
Resource Index average
27th percentile
Teacher staffing
58th percentile

Central High School accounts for 16.4% of all Champaign public-school enrollment

That concentration means Champaign-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Champaign school enrollment varies 6.3× across entities

Champaign school enrollment ranges from 265 students (lowest) to 1,666 students (highest), a spread of 1,401 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Champaign operates one school district — a single-district system

Champaign's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Champaign student-teacher ratio is 14.7:1 — near the typical range (US average ~15.7) — citywide staffing is neither unusually lean nor unusually crowded by this measure

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Variation between sub-units within Champaign is typically wider than the Champaign-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Franklin Middle School 47
2. Vernon L Barkstall Elementary Sch 47
3. Jefferson Middle School 46
4. Edison Middle School 46
5. Washington Elem School 45
6. Stratton Elementary School 42
7. Kenwood Elem School 40
8. Dr Howard Elem School 39
9. South Side Elementary School 35
10. Robeson Elem School 33
11. International Prep Academy 30
12. Westview Elem School 30
13. Centennial High School 29
14. Bottenfield Elem School 29
15. Central High School 28
16. Champaign Early Chldhd Cntr 24
17. Garden Hills Elem School 15

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Champaign

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Robeson Elem School 74.3/100
  2. 2 Vernon L Barkstall Elementary Sch 74.3/100
  3. 3 Central High School 73.7/100
  4. 4 Bottenfield Elem School 72.6/100
  5. 5 Franklin Middle School 72.2/100

What do families ask about schools in Champaign?

Which Champaign school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Franklin Middle School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Champaign schools in this federal-data comparison at 47/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Champaign, IL? ▼

Champaign has 17 public schools with a total enrollment of 10,154 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 14.7:1.

Other Cities in Illinois

Chicago
633 schools
Aurora
47 schools
Rockford
44 schools
Naperville
41 schools
Peoria
34 schools
Joliet
31 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Illinois →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.