The top reported proficiency rate is 69% in Science. The lowest is 65% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Akin Comm Cons Elem School
Akin Community Consolidated Elementary School serves prekindergarten through eighth grade in a small rural unincorporated community in Franklin County in southern Illinois. The school is the civic anchor of the hamlet—a place with no town center, no local government, and no post office (the last one closed years ago). Residents look to Benton, the county seat roughly a dozen miles west, for most services and employment. The school itself employs about a dozen staff and draws its enrollment from the surrounding countryside.
The school's enrollment stands at just over one hundred students spread across ten grade levels, with the largest cohorts in the lower elementary grades and notably smaller numbers in the upper grades. The student body is almost entirely white, with nearly all students representing the local rural community. Income and English-learner data were not available, so understanding the school's support needs beyond enrollment size is limited.
On state assessments administered in 2024-25, the school reports data for grades three through five in English language arts and math, and for fifth grade in science. Testing participation was complete across all tested grades. In third-grade math, students showed strength, with a solid majority meeting or exceeding proficiency. Fourth-grade math performance dropped notably lower, a significant point a parent may want to look into further with the school. Fifth-grade math and language arts both showed mid-range performance, slightly below where many schools land. In fifth-grade science, results were moderate. The school reports no results for grades six, seven, and eight in any subject; this likely reflects enrollment too small to test in those grades under state reporting rules, which protect privacy by suppressing data from groups below a minimum size. Whether upper-grade students are present in the building or have moved to other schools for middle grades is not clear from the available data.
Compared to other districts in Franklin County, this school's overall proficiency profile sits in the top quartile regionally—a meaningful strength. That standing comes partly from the strong third-grade math result and solid fifth-grade performance, even as fourth-grade math presents a soft spot worth exploring with staff.
The school's immediate context is deeply rural. Akin itself consists of a handful of homes, the school building, and a church scattered along country roads. There is no walkable downtown, no public transit, and no library within the community. The surrounding Franklin County economy historically centered on coal but now draws workers to regional employers in healthcare and county government. Housing values in the local zip code are substantially below state and national medians, reflecting the rural character and limited local economic activity. The county overall shows modest population decline, and the school's enrollment pattern suggests stability or slight shrinkage rather than growth.
The school district itself is small and has made no major public announcements regarding curriculum or instructional changes in recent years. A tax-increase notice was posted in late 2024, though details on its scope and adoption were not available.
For a family in this area, Akin offers a small, tight-knit community school where upper elementary instruction appears generally sound and students finish strong in the tested grades. Fourth-grade math warrants direct conversation with teachers about what happens in that year and what support is available if a child struggles. Because the school stops at eighth grade, families will need to know where students transition for high school and what that pathway looks like. The rural, economically modest setting is simply the landscape of the place; the school reflects the community it serves.
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