Carlinville High School

Carlinville High School is a low-enrollment high school in Carlinville, Illinois, part of Carlinville CUSD 1. The school serves 353 students in grades 9 through 12. By comparison, Illinois's public schools average about 834 students each, so Carlinville High School sits 58% smaller than that benchmark.

Carlinville CUSD 1 comprises 4 schools with combined enrollment of 1,282 students; Carlinville High School is among them.

Looking at the student body, Carlinville High School lists that 94% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority. Beyond that, the school reports 2% multiracial. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 33 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 10.6:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 13.8:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. An estimated 41% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Macoupin County runs at roughly 50%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat below the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Carlinville High School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 48.0% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 38.0%.

Around the school, census data for Macoupin County shows median household income runs about $70,805, roughly 20% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Macoupin County's 28 public schools (combined enrollment of about 7,221 students), Carlinville High School is one campus in the mix.

Carlinville Middle School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.0 miles from this campus. 3 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Carlinville High School at 5th of 8; the average score across the group is 40.5%.

The campus sits in a small-town setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count declined 22%: 450 students in 2018 compared to 353 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 16.0:1 in 2018 to 10.6:1 today.

On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.