The top reported proficiency rate is 62% in Math. The lowest is 39% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Bradford Grade School
Bradford Grade School serves a small rural village in north-central Illinois, where it functions as the sole elementary school in Bradford Community Unit School District 1. The school houses all children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in a compact community of slowly declining population. State testing data from the most recent school year offers a mixed academic picture across the grades the school serves.
In third grade, Bradford shows strength in mathematics, with students reaching proficiency at a high rate. Third-grade English language arts proficiency sits at a lower level. The trajectory changes sharply in fourth grade, where mathematics proficiency drops significantly while English language arts performance improves. By fifth grade, mathematics rebounds to a moderate level and English language arts remains solid; in science, fifth-grade proficiency is low. All students participated fully in the state assessments.
The school's overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places it above the midpoint among Stark County's school districts, suggesting that while individual grades and subjects show volatility, the school's aggregate academic standing is reasonable for its rural context. A parent may want to look into what is driving the steep decline in fourth-grade mathematics and what instructional supports exist for students who did not meet proficiency in science.
The enrollment is small, around 132 students spread across seven grade bands from pre-K through fifth grade. The student body is predominantly white, with very small populations of Asian, Black, Hispanic, and multiracial students. Free-and-reduced-price lunch data was not available. Information on special education enrollment, English learner enrollment, discipline, attendance, staffing, and course breadth was not provided, so readers cannot assess those dimensions from the data at hand.
Bradford sits on the edge of a shrinking village in rural Stark County. The community itself has no major employer of its own; residents work in agriculture, small local enterprises, or commute to jobs in surrounding towns or the Peoria area about 35 miles south. Housing values in the area are well below state and national benchmarks, a marker of rural decline. The village has a public library, parks, a swimming pool (the only public pool in Stark County), and civic organizations, but no secondary school campus. High school students from Bradford attend Bureau Valley High in Manlius or Stark County High School in Toulon, meaning families with older children lose that anchor at the school.
The school itself occupies a central civic role in a very small community. Grade configuration does not extend beyond fifth grade, so the data sections show no graduation rate or high school completion measures. State testing data on sixth through eighth grades do not appear because those grades are not housed here; they attend a separate junior high building, though the school directory lists the grades as pre-K through 5 and does not clarify where grades 6 and above are located.
For families already in Bradford or considering the area, this is a small, rural, community-embedded elementary school with solid aggregate performance but uneven results by grade and subject, serving a town in long-term decline with limited economic opportunity. A parent considering enrollment would benefit from asking the school directly about fourth-grade mathematics supports and the curriculum and instruction model for fifth-grade science.
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