The top reported proficiency rate is 73% in Math. The lowest is 70% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Milne Grove Elem School
Milne Grove Elementary serves pre-K through grade three in Lockport, a mixed-character canal-era city in Will County southwest of Chicago. The school enrolls around two hundred mid-sized population, with a student body that is mostly white, with smaller shares of Hispanic, multiracial, Asian, and Black students. Free-and-reduced-price lunch data was not available, so a reader cannot determine the proportion of students from lower-income families from the information here.
The school's state testing results are available only for third grade. In math, third graders showed solid proficiency, with roughly seven in ten students meeting or exceeding the state standard. In English language arts, the proportion was slightly lower, around seven in ten. Testing data for grades beyond third grade is not reported, which aligns with the school's grade band—Milne Grove does not serve fourth grade or above, so those grades are not tested here. When the available proficiency results are averaged across the two tested subjects in the one tested grade, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among the county's districts, suggesting measurable academic strength relative to peer schools in Will County.
Lockport SD 91, the district housing Milne Grove, faces a structural funding constraint. In November 2022, voters rejected a referendum that would have increased property tax revenue for facility maintenance and improvements at both Milne Grove and Kelvin Grove, the district's other school. The failure means the district operates without a dedicated funding stream for priorities such as roof replacement, security system upgrades, and office remodeling. Kelvin Grove's original building dates to an earlier era, and aging infrastructure at both schools remains a known gap. This is a real operational reality for families considering the district: future capital projects or urgent repairs may face funding hurdles.
The broader Lockport context shapes the school's setting. The city is experiencing steady residential growth, particularly new single-family and townhome subdivisions near Interstate routes, though critics have noted the region's shortage of affordable and smaller housing units. The historic downtown along State Street anchors civic life, with the Metra station, library (recently renovated), museums, and shops concentrated there. Schools sit close to the downtown core rather than on distant campuses, placing Milne Grove within reach of central-city families. The Lockport Township Park District maintains trails, including the 82-mile Illinois and Michigan Canal trail, a major recreational asset. Employment in the area spans manufacturing, logistics, retail, and healthcare, much of it clustered near interstate corridors.
The school's enrollment composition and size are straightforward facts: it is a small-to-mid-sized elementary serving a neighborhood with a predominantly white majority and growing Hispanic representation. The third-grade proficiency results on state tests show competent academic performance. The district's deferred facilities funding is the substantive soft spot—a parent may want to look into the district's long-term capital plans and ask directly about timelines for needed upgrades. Beyond that, the information provided paints a school in a modest, canal-heritage city with walkable downtown anchors and ongoing residential development, serving elementary grades in a district constrained by voter decisions on local funding.
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