Rankin Elem School

Rankin Elem School is a tight-knit K-5 school in Pekin, Illinois, operated by Rankin CSD 98. The school caters to 196 students in grades K through 8. Compared to the state average of about 381 students per school, that is 49% below typical.

Operationally, Rankin Elem School answers to Rankin CSD 98, which sets policy, hires staff, and reports enrollment to the state.

In terms of who attends, Rankin Elem School records that the student body is overwhelmingly White (90%). Other groups include 5% multiracial, 3% Hispanic. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

On the resource side, The school lists 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 10.1:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.9:1 average. Roughly 30% of students at Rankin Elem School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is south of Tazewell County's rate of about 39%.

With demographic context factored in, Rankin Elem School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 54.1%, the actual is 48.8%, a residual of -5.4 points.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Tazewell County) reports that the typical household earns roughly $77,982 per year, 28% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. In all, Tazewell County runs 56 public schools (combined enrollment of about 18,581 students), of which Rankin Elem School is one.

South Pekin Elem School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.7 miles from this campus. 8 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), Rankin Elem School ranks 2nd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 31.3%.

The school occupies a rural site.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Rankin Elem School has shrank 14%, going from 229 students in 2018 to 196 in 2025. Class-load math has fell: from 11.8:1 in 2018 to 10.1:1 in 2025.

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