Macon Reporter

In the 2023-24 school year, 36.5% of the students in Meridian Community Unit School District 15 passed the ELA portion of the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR), according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

Of the 386 students in Meridian Community Unit School District 15 who took the ELA portion of the test, approximately 141 (36.5%) passed.

The percentage of Meridian Community Unit School District 15 students who met or exceeded expectations on the IAR increased by 6.7% compared to the previous school year.

Meridian Community Unit School District 15 roughly covers three schools within Macon County and has a main office in Macon.

The Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) measures how well students in grades 3-8 are progressing toward state standards in English language arts and mathematics.

K-12 enrollment has been declining in Illinois for many years, reflecting the state's demographic changes. Between the 2019–20 and 2022–23 school years, Illinois public school enrollment declined from approximately 1.98 million to 1.85 million students, a decrease of about 127,000 students or 6.4%. This decline is significantly higher than the typical annual decreases of 0.5% to 1.5% observed in the preceding years, reflecting broader demographic shifts within the state.

School	District	Students who met standards (%)	Students who exceed standards (%)
Meridian Middle School	Meridian Community Unit School District 15	35.5%	3.6%
Meridian Elementary School	Meridian Community Unit School District 15	32.3%	1.6%