The top reported proficiency rate is 39% in English language arts. The lowest is 25% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on East Elementary School
East Elementary School serves grades three through five in Alton, a Mississippi River city with historic roots and ongoing downtown revitalization. The school sits within Alton CUSD 11, which is currently engaged in a multi-year community initiative called Reimagine Alton, centered on a District Improvement Plan shaping curriculum, school culture, and educator support through 2026 and beyond. This signals active district-level engagement in rethinking how students learn and how schools function, with community input directly feeding decisions.
The school enrolls a cohort of moderate size for its grade band, drawn from a student body that is roughly evenly split between white and Black students, with meaningful representation of multiracial and Hispanic students and a small Asian enrollment. The precise share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch was not available in the data, so a parent may want to look into that further with the school to understand the economic composition of the community it serves.
Academic performance in state assessments tells a mixed picture. In English language arts, East Elementary shows stronger ground in the upper elementary grades: grade five proficiency stands solidly above the lower grades, while grades three and four both show lower rates. Math proficiency is consistently modest across all three grade levels the school teaches, with grade five the lowest of the three. Science data exists only for grade five and shows similarly low proficiency. Across tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint among Madison County district schools. The data note indicates that cut score changes occurred across subjects in Illinois, making year-to-year trend comparison unreliable, so this is a snapshot of current performance rather than a trajectory.
In housing, Alton's zip code shows values in the low to mid range regionally, with monthly rent estimates also relatively modest. Mortgage affordability, measured as a ratio of estimated monthly payment to regional median household income, sits below what is typical nationally. The broader context includes stable unemployment and modest household income figures for the area.
Alton itself is a city in transition. The historic downtown along Broadway and the riverfront is a focal point for revitalization, with multiple projects underway and a new multimodal transportation center linking to Amtrak service. Outside the downtown core, Alton is more car-dependent, with commercial corridors and residential subdivisions typical of mid-sized cities. Riverfront Park and the Liberty Bank Amphitheater anchor public life, and the three-branch Hayner Public Library system serves the wider area. Major employers include the school district itself, health systems, the Argosy Casino, manufacturing and refining operations nearby, and Lewis and Clark Community College in the adjacent Godfrey area.
A parent considering East Elementary should have a clear sense that this is a school with modest academic proficiency across the board, where a majority of students are not yet meeting state standards in math and science, and where even in the stronger subject of English language arts, less than half the grade five students are proficient. The school sits in a district actively rethinking its approach to learning and culture, which can signal either productive change or a system in flux depending on one's perspective. Alton itself offers a walkable, historically rooted downtown and a community-engaged school district, alongside the real academic challenges the data shows.
See more original research from School Decision →