NCES CCD 2024-25 13 schools IL

Best-Resourced Schools in Pekin, IL

Compiled from official source data by .

13 public K-12 schools in Pekin 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
13
Schools
5,034
Students
29.3/100
Avg Resource Index
14.1:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Lean reported-resource profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Pekin has more public-school enrollment than 55% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Pekin'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

9 of Pekin's 13 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 2 middle and 1 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.

The composite and staffing measures point in different directions

Pekin's average Resource Investment Index sits at the 11th percentile, while its teacher-staffing measure sits at the 66th percentile. The 55-point percentile gap is a reminder that the index is not a class-size score: counselors, gifted-program reporting, and attendance also affect it. Compare those components directly when two schools have similar index totals; the same headline score can arise from a different mix of reported resources.

City enrollment
Top 45%
School count
Top 28%
Resource Index average
11th percentile
Teacher staffing
66th percentile

Pekin Community High School accounts for 34.0% of all Pekin public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Pekin-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

Pekin school enrollment varies 12× across entities

Pekin school enrollment ranges from 139 students (lowest) to 1,712 students (highest), a spread of 1,573 students. That spread reflects typical urban portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. 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

Pekin student-teacher ratio is 14.1:1 — 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 Pekin is typically wider than the Pekin-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Rankin Elem School 51
2. Dirksen Elementary School 39
3. L E Starke Elem School 34
4. Washington Intermediate School 32
5. Pekin Community High School 30
6. Edison Junior High School 29
7. Scott Altman Primary School 29
8. Willow Elem School 27
9. Broadmoor Junior High School 25
10. Pekin Preschool Family Ed Center 25
11. Wilson Intermediate School 22
12. C B Smith Elem School 20
13. Jefferson Elem School 18

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Pekin

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 L E Starke Elem School 31.9/100
  2. 2 C B Smith Elem School 27.7/100
  3. 3 Pekin Preschool Family Ed Center 27.4/100
  4. 4 Jefferson Elem School 24.4/100
  5. 5 Wilson Intermediate School 24.2/100

What do families ask about schools in Pekin?

Which Pekin school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Rankin Elem School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Pekin schools in this federal-data comparison at 51/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Pekin, IL? ▼

Pekin has 13 public schools with a total enrollment of 5,034 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 14.1:1.

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47 schools
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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.