Union Elem School, Belleville IL

Original Research by School Decision on Union Elem School

Union Elementary serves kindergarten through sixth grade in Belleville, a St. Clair County seat and southeastern St. Louis suburb with a mixed-use character mixing historic residential neighborhoods, downtown shops and restaurants, commercial corridors, and a significant military and federal civilian population tied to nearby Scott Air Force Base. The school sits in Belleville School District 118, which recently experienced a historic surge in property values, allowing the district to lower its tax rate while maintaining revenue—a notable financial stability for families considering the area.

The school enrolls a small student body distributed across all early grades. The demographic composition is substantially majority Black, with smaller shares of white and multiracial students and a small Hispanic enrollment. The school does not report free-or-reduced-price lunch counts or English learner counts in available data, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the socioeconomic or language diversity of its population.

State testing results from the most recent school year paint a picture of below-midpoint proficiency across both English language arts and math. In ELA, third and fourth graders showed proficiency in the low-to-mid range, fifth graders in the low-to-mid range as well, and sixth graders performed notably higher. In math, third graders performed at the lower end of proficiency, fourth graders much lower, fifth graders substantially lower, and sixth graders in the low range. A science proficiency result for fifth grade showed performance in the mid-to-low range. Participation rates were at or near complete across tested grades. The school is part of a county comparison group of districts; its overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places it below the midpoint among St. Clair County districts.

The absence of trend data makes it unclear whether these results reflect a recent shift or a sustained pattern. State assessment cut scores changed between the prior year and this one, so year-to-year comparison is not available.

Grades seven and eight do not appear in the data, and the school's designation as serving kindergarten through sixth grade explains why high school metrics such as graduation rates do not apply.

Belleville itself is a downtown-centered city with an active historic district, parks, and MetroLink light rail connections to the St. Louis area, though most neighborhoods are auto-oriented. The housing market has tightened recently, with home values rising and median listing prices reflecting affordable entry points relative to state and national benchmarks. A parent considering this school may want to look further into whether the school offers support or intervention in lower-performing grades, what programs or enrichment are available beyond core academics, and what the school's own priorities are for raising performance.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 348%

School 48% · District 33% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 36% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 22% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 623%

School 23% · District 30% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 345%

School 45% · District 32% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 50% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 53% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 659%

School 59% · District 55% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Science

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 34% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

This schoolBelleville SD 118, 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.