Pleasant Plains Middle School

Set in Pleasant Plains, Illinois, Pleasant Plains Middle School is a mid-tier junior high, run under Pleasant Plains CUSD 8. It enrolls 393 students across grades 5 through 8.

Pleasant Plains CUSD 8 comprises 3 schools with combined enrollment of 1,294 students; Pleasant Plains Middle School is among them.

In terms of who attends, Pleasant Plains Middle School shows that 91% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority; the rest is composed of 4% multiracial, 2% Pacific Islander. The wider county runs roughly 78% White, putting the school's mix meaningfully more White than the area baseline.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 26 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 15.1:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 13.0:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. An estimated 11% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Sangamon County runs at roughly 48%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat below the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Pleasant Plains Middle School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 64.9% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 53.5%.

In the broader community, Sangamon County reports that median household income runs about $75,357, 37% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 9% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Sangamon County's 77 public schools (combined enrollment of about 27,345 students), Pleasant Plains Middle School is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Farmingdale Elem School, around 0.2 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a ten-mile radius, suggesting a relatively low-density school footprint. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Pleasant Plains Middle School ranks 2nd on composite proficiency, ahead of the local average of 35.7%.

The campus sits in a rural setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count grew 3%: 383 students in 2018 compared to 393 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, recent activity here tends to focus on school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Members of the school community can share what they know.