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Sterling, Illinois - 6 schools
An equity score of 27/100 ranks Sterling Cusd 5 #609 of 763 districts in Illinois (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $13,182 per pupil, Sterling Cusd 5 ranks #678 of 848 Illinois districts by per-pupil spending (Illinois districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
3,264
Total Enrollment
6
Schools
$13,182
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Sterling Cusd 5 operates 6 public schools serving 3,264 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Illinois. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 combined, 2 elementary, 1 high, 1 middle schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Whiteside County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $13,182 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 848 Illinois districts by per-pupil spending. See how Illinois compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 44.5% local, 42.1% state, and 13.3% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 27/100, ranked #609 of 763 in Illinois against a state average of 38, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 6 schools offering Advanced Placement (12 AP courses district-wide), a 356.8:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 14.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 55.8% White, 34.6% Hispanic or Latino, 2.1% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Sterling High School, with a diversity index of 58.0/100.
Its largest campus is Sterling High School, enrolling 999 students (31% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Lincoln Elem School, at 277 students, a 4x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Sterling High School accounts for 30.6% of all Sterling Cusd 5 student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Sterling Cusd 5-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Sterling Cusd 5 school enrollment varies 3.6× across entities
Sterling Cusd 5 school enrollment ranges from 277 students (lowest) to 999 students (highest), a spread of 722 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Sterling Cusd 5 student-counselor ratio is 357:1 — high (typically associated with staffing constraints that limit per-student counselor time; CRDC data shows higher ratios cluster in larger urban systems)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Sterling Cusd 5 chronic absenteeism rate is 14.3% — low (typically associated with lower-than-average attendance disruption; districts in this range often have attendance interventions, robust transportation, or smaller catchments that reduce barriers)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.