The top reported proficiency rate is 35% in Math. The lowest is 30% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Centennial Elem School
Centennial Elementary serves kindergarten through fourth grade in Streator, a small city in north-central Illinois with deep roots in manufacturing, coal mining, and glass production. The school enrolls about 460 students across its grade band, with a racial and ethnic composition that is predominantly white, alongside a meaningful Hispanic enrollment and a smaller but present mix of Black and multiracial students. The precise count of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch was not available in the data.
On state assessments administered in the most recent school year, Centennial's proficiency results in mathematics and English language arts fall below the midpoint among the county's other districts. In math, students in grade three scored in the lower range, as did fourth graders. In ELA, results track similarly low across both grades. Science testing data for the school was suppressed or unavailable at reportable levels. A parent may want to look into the school's reading and math support programs directly with staff to understand how the school is addressing these performance gaps and what interventions or resources are available to students who need extra help.
The school's enrollment is distributed unevenly across grades. Kindergarten and first grade are very small, while second grade is substantially larger, followed by third and fourth grades. This uneven pattern may reflect natural fluctuation or demographic shifts in the surrounding community and is worth asking the school about for context on class sizes and grouping practices.
Streator itself is a place shaped by its industrial past. The city sits about 81 miles southwest of Chicago along the Vermilion River and blends working-class residential neighborhoods with a compact, walkable historic downtown centered on a four-square-block City Park, lined with locally owned shops and decorated with murals. The broader economy now mixes manufacturing with healthcare, notably anchored by St. Mary's Hospital, the city's largest employer. Major manufacturers include Vactor, which produces municipal trucks, and Owens-Illinois, a survivor of Streator's mid-20th-century glass-production peak. Population has remained roughly flat to slightly declining in recent years. Growth strategy emphasizes industrial recruitment and downtown revitalization rather than large new residential development. The housing market shows median home values modest by national standards and notably below state benchmarks, with active inventory and new listings stable. Daily life outside the compact downtown is car-oriented, as Streator does not operate a local public transit system.
The Streator ESD 44 district, Centennial's parent district, serves the city and surrounding area. No significant recent changes or referenda of parent-facing consequence were reported in available sources.
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