Marquette Academy is a private Catholic school for students from preschool through 12th grade. This school focuses on integrating religion with education, and has classes and extracurricular activities specific to this purpose. The Crusaders, as the school's students and teams are called, have fall, winter and spring sports, as well as scholastic bowl, fine arts club, band and choir. At the high school level, two days are set aside in March for "interim," when students in all four grades take part in learning activities outside of the regular classroom setting.
Five schools make up Ottawa Elementary School District 141: Central Intermediate, Jefferson, Lincoln, McKinley and Shepherd. Lincoln and McKinley serve students from prekindergarten through fourth grade; Jefferson serves K-4. Central Intermediate School teaches all district students in fifth and sixth grades, and Shepherd Middle School teaches all seventh- and eighth-grade students. The district focuses on core subjects, as well as technology, music and art. Students interested in learning a musical instrument may begin band programs, which are offered beginning the summer before the student enters fourth grade.
Ottawa Township High School is in downtown Ottawa along the Fox and Illinois rivers. The Pirates have their choices of numerous extracurricular activities, including fall, winter and spring sports, band and choir, scholastic bowl and theater. The high school also emphasizes working toward getting into college, and it invites representatives from colleges throughout Illinois to visit with students on campus to get students interested in finding out more about higher education.
Illinois Valley Community College's main campus is located in nearby Oglesby, but it has a satellite campus in Ottawa. The school serves residents throughout the Illinois Valley, including high school students looking to get ahead, high school grads who aren't ready for a four-year college, continuing education students and people who just want to enrich their lives. The Ottawa campus serves the school's east region and the nearby area, such as Marseilles.