Prairie Central Upper Elementary

Prairie Central Upper Elementary is a tight-knit intermediate school in Forrest, Illinois, operated by Prairie Central CUSD 8. The school serves 216 students in grades 5 through 6. Compared to the state average of about 462 students per school, that is 53% smaller than typical.

Prairie Central CUSD 8 runs 6 schools in total, collectively educating 1,712 students. Prairie Central Upper Elementary is one of those campuses.

Demographically, Prairie Central Upper Elementary shows that the student body is overwhelmingly White (88%). Other groups include 9% Hispanic, 3% multiracial. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

Looking at school resources, The school lists 18 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 11.8:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.0:1 average. Around 44% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

With demographic context factored in, Prairie Central Upper Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 46.1%, the actual is 55.6%, a residual of +9.5 points.

Zooming out to the county, ACS estimates for Livingston County put the typical household earns roughly $73,790 per year, 19% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 8%. Across Livingston County's 24 public schools (combined enrollment of about 5,273 students), Prairie Central Upper Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Prairie Central Jr High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.4 miles from this campus. 2 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Prairie Central Upper Elementary ranks 1st on composite proficiency, above the local average of 40.1%.

The school occupies a rural site.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Prairie Central Upper Elementary has decreased 24%, going from 284 students in 2018 to 216 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment increased from 5% to 9% over that span. Class-load math has fell: from 13.5:1 in 2018 to 11.8:1 in 2025.

On this page, the feed for Prairie Central Upper Elementary typically covers science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.