Best High Schools in Illinois

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Find the best Illinois high schools with SchoolDigger.com! Focused on test scores for accurate rankings, our user-friendly site simplifies your search. Empower your decisions by exploring top-rated schools, only on SchoolDigger.com - the ultimate guide to K-12 schools!

Year after year, SchoolDigger is always the first to publish Illinois test scores and rankings. Other sites use stale test score data that are several years old! Be in the know with the very latest performance metrics.

The list is updated annually upon the release of the SAT test scores by the Illinois State Board of Education. The most recent update was on Wednesday, October 30, 2024.

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School															Students/Teachers											Per Pupil Expenditures (2024)							Ranking (2024 vs 2023)
ID	Rank (of 697)	School	Type	Grades	Address	City	Zip	County	District	Is Charter	Is Magnet	Is Virtual	Is Title I	Phone	# Students	Full-time Teachers	Student/ Teacher Ratio	Free/Disc Lunch Recipients	White	Black	Hispanic	Asian	American Indian	Pacific Islander	Two or More Races	Per Pupil Expenditures: Total	Personnel from Federal Funds	Non-Personnel from Federal Funds	Total from Federal Funds	Personnel from State and Local Funds	Non-Personnel from State and Local Funds	Total from State and Local Funds	Average Standard Score (2024)	Average Standard Score (2023)	Rank (2023)	Rank Change from 2023	SchoolDigger Rating (2024)
171626001942	271	Gardner-South Wilmington Township High School	Public	9-12	500 E Main St	Gardner	60424	Grundy County	Gardner S Wilmington Township HSD 73	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(815) 237-2176	142	19	7.3	32.4%	129 (90.8%)	1 (0.7%)	10 (7.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (0.7%)	$28,270			$1,175			$27,095	54	63.3	221	50
172796002958	271	New Athens High School	Public	9-12	501 Hanft St	New Athens	62264	St. Clair County	New Athens CUSD 60	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(618) 475-2173	161	13	12.1	32.3%	156 (96.9%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (0.6%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	4 (2.5%)	$14,587			$701			$13,886	54	50	330	59
171057001274	273	Cobden High School	Public	9-12	413 N Appleknocker St	Cobden	62920	Union County	Cobden SUD 17	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(618) 893-4031	139	13	10.4	54.0%	78 (56.1%)	0 (0.0%)	53 (38.1%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	8 (5.8%)	$16,250			$1,242			$15,007	53.8	56.4	264	9
170993001153	274	Taft High School	Public	7-12	6530 W Bryn Mawr Ave	Chicago	60631	Cook County	Chicago Public Schools District 299	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(773) 534-1000	4,416	275	16	54.5%	1,829 (41.4%)	130 (2.9%)	1,936 (43.8%)	308 (7.0%)	12 (0.3%)	27 (0.6%)	172 (3.9%)	$15,258			$2,098			$13,160	53.8	38.6	440	166
173033003141	275	Ottawa Township High School	Public	9-12	211 E Main St	Ottawa	61350	LaSalle County	Ottawa Township HSD 140	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(815) 433-1323	1,270	93	13.6		961 (75.7%)	28 (2.2%)	217 (17.1%)	12 (0.9%)	4 (0.3%)	2 (0.2%)	46 (3.6%)	$17,577			$1,148			$16,429	53.7	41.8	420	145
173027003132	276	Oswego High School	Public	9-12	4250 State Route 71	Oswego	60543	Kendall County	Cusd 308	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(630) 636-2000	2,866	166	17.2	31.1%	1,468 (51.2%)	311 (10.9%)	867 (30.3%)	88 (3.1%)	5 (0.2%)	2 (0.1%)	119 (4.2%)	$14,871			$731			$14,140	53.7	60.3	238	38
173222003369	277	Pontiac High School	Public	9-12	1100 E Indiana Ave	Pontiac	61764	Livingston County	Pontiac Township HSD 90	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	Yes	(815) 844-6113	678	46	14.5	52.4%	511 (75.4%)	23 (3.4%)	98 (14.5%)	1 (0.1%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	44 (6.5%)	$18,367			$498			$17,869	53.6	50.1	327	50
171410001761	278	Elmwood Park High School	Public	9-12	8201 W Fullerton Ave	Elmwood Park	60707	Cook County	Elmwood Park CUSD 401	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(708) 452-7272	1,022	68	15.1	41.9%	354 (34.6%)	29 (2.8%)	606 (59.3%)	19 (1.9%)	4 (0.4%)	2 (0.2%)	8 (0.8%)	$16,607			$1,429			$15,178	53.5	40.8	428	150
173960004001	279	Tuscola High School	Public	9-12	500 S Prairie St	Tuscola	61953	Douglas County	Tuscola CUSD 301	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(217) 253-2377	296	24	12.5	38.5%	270 (91.2%)	5 (1.7%)	10 (3.4%)	3 (1.0%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (0.3%)	7 (2.4%)	$13,643			$116			$13,527	53.5	52.6	299	20
170543000223	280	Beecher High School	Public	9-12	538 Miller St	Beecher	60401	Will County	Beecher CUSD 200U	No	(n/a)	(n/a)	No	(708) 946-2266	347	24	14.4	27.1%	234 (67.4%)	20 (5.8%)	78 (22.5%)	4 (1.2%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	11 (3.2%)	$14,466			$565			$13,901	53.2	69.8	167	113

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Other SchoolDigger ranking lists for Illinois

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New! SchoolDigger ranking lists for IL student subgroups:

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About our rankings:

Schooldigger calculates school rankings based on SAT Mathematics, SAT English Language Arts test scores released by the Illinois State Board of Education.
These rankings were last updated on October 30, 2024, and are based on the most recent test scores available. We update rankings as we receive new test scores from the Illinois State Board of Education, usually on a yearly basis.
Our sources of data include the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education and the Illinois State Board of Education.
For more information about our ranking process, please see our Ranking FAQ. Details about our methodology are here.

Educational resources:

Student-Teacher Ratios and their Impact on Class Sizes & School Selection

High school students working on a science experiment

Magnet Schools: Unleashing the Power of Education

SchoolDigger data sources: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois State Board of Education.