Flanagan Elem School, Flanagan IL

Original Research by School Decision on Flanagan Elem School

Flanagan Elementary School is a small public school serving prekindergarten through eighth grade in a rural village in western Livingston County. The school sits on a shared campus with the district's high school and junior high within Flanagan itself, a quiet farming community with a population around a few hundred. The school's enrollment is small, with roughly half the students in the early grades (pre-K through second) and progressively fewer students in the upper elementary and middle grades. The student body is predominantly white; racial and ethnic diversity is minimal.

The school's academic performance, as measured by Illinois state testing in 2024-25, is mixed and uneven across grades and subjects. In English language arts, proficiency is strongest in fifth grade, where most students performed at or above grade level. Sixth and eighth grades also show moderate performance in ELA. Third and fourth grade ELA performance is weaker. In mathematics, the picture is notably challenging. Third graders show low proficiency, and fourth graders performed particularly poorly. Fifth graders also showed weak results in math, while sixth and seventh graders showed somewhat better results. Eighth grade math proficiency is especially low. In science, where testing occurs only in fifth and eighth grades, performance is more encouraging, with roughly half of students reaching proficiency in both tested grades.

The variation in performance grade-to-grade and subject-to-subject raises questions about instructional consistency or student composition shifts as students move through the school. Math achievement overall lags behind ELA and science. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly if a child struggles with mathematics or is entering one of the lower-performing grades.

The school does not hold Title I status, which suggests the student population does not meet federal poverty thresholds, though specific free-or-reduced-price-lunch numbers are not available. When compared to other districts in Livingston County using a proficiency index that averages performance across tested subjects and grades, Flanagan Elementary falls below the county midpoint, performing below typical.

The broader context is a small, stable community. Housing values have appreciated modestly. Employment in the village centers on agriculture, health care, and public administration, with some residents commuting to larger regional employers. Population has remained relatively flat. The school serves as one of the community's civic anchors. No recent major district initiatives or policy shifts have been publicly reported, and the district maintains a quiet, long-standing operational stance focused on serving its resident students.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 320%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 26 pts below state median

Grade 414%

School 14% · District 14%

▼ 23 pts below state median

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 21%

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 36%

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 732%

School 32% · District 32%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 86%

School 6% · District 6%

▼ 17 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 336%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 8 pts below state median

Grade 431%

School 31% · District 31%

▼ 17 pts below state median

Grade 574%

School 74% · District 74%

▲ 22 pts above state median

Grade 643%

School 43% · District 43%

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 737%

School 37% · District 37%

▼ 14 pts below state median

Grade 841%

School 41% · District 41%

▼ 12 pts below state median

Science

Grade 553%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 13 pts above state median

This schoolFlanagan-Cornell Dist 74, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 6Lower-income9%Higher-income18%9 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income9%Higher-income0%9 pp gap