PLT Middle School

PLT Middle School operates as a very small 6-8 campus in Prophetstown, Illinois, part of Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico CUSD3. Current enrollment sits at 148 students spanning grades 6 through 8. By comparison, Illinois's public schools average about 462 students each, so PLT Middle School sits 68% smaller than that benchmark.

PLT Middle School is one of 4 schools operated by Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico CUSD3, a district that instructs 738 students overall.

Looking at the student body, PLT Middle School logs that 88% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority; the rest consists of 6% multiracial, 5% Hispanic. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 13 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 11.2:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.0:1 average. Around 71% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Whiteside County (around 55%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, PLT Middle School ranks in the top 10% of Illinois public schools. The BeatsExpectations model, a per-state regression of composite proficiency on FRL share, predicts schools with this student profile to land around 30.6%; PLT Middle School posts 53.9%, +23.3 points above that line.

In the area at large, census data for Whiteside County shows the typical household earns roughly $67,500 per year, about 21% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 8%. In all, Whiteside County runs 50 public schools (combined enrollment of about 8,445 students), of which PLT Middle School is one.

The closest other public school is Prophetstown High School, roughly 0.0 miles away. 2 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts PLT Middle School at 2nd of 9; the average score across the group is 46.8%.

Geographically, the school is in a low-density area.

Over the past 7-year window. PLT Middle School's enrollment has stayed largely flat since 2018, when it stood at 149 (now 148). White enrollment moved from 95% to 88% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 14.0:1 in 2018 to 11.2:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.