Stratton Elementary School, Champaign IL

Original Research by School Decision on Stratton Elementary School

Stratton Elementary School serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Champaign. The enrollment is small, concentrated heavily in the upper elementary grades. The student body is predominantly Black, with smaller shares of White and Hispanic students, and a small number of students who identify as Asian or multiracial. Free-and-reduced-price-lunch data were not available, so a reader cannot determine from the data what share of students face economic hardship.

Academic proficiency is low across the school. In mathematics, third graders show proficiency rates in the low range, fourth graders perform slightly better, and fifth graders are notably lower. In English language arts, third graders and fifth graders perform at similar low rates, while fourth graders perform better than the other two grades. In the one science result available, fifth grade shows low proficiency. The assessment data are from spring 2025, and Illinois changed its proficiency cut scores that year, so direct year-over-year trend comparisons are not reliable. Within Champaign County, Stratton's overall proficiency index sits in the bottom quartile among the county's school populations.

On the comparison metric of proficiency across tested subjects and grades, Stratton is well below the county median, performing below the midpoint among county districts. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand what interventions or support systems are in place for students.

Stratton is a regular public school operated by Champaign CUSD 4. The district recently reshaped its elementary school configuration and calendar through a plan called Schools of Choice, Scenario 4, which took effect in the 2023-24 school year, eliminating the balanced calendar and converting two schools to PreK-8 buildings. Stratton itself was not among those restructured. The district has also adopted AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination), a college-readiness framework, across multiple schools as part of a wider pedagogy shift; how extensively this framework is embedded at Stratton specifically is not clear from the available data.

Champaign itself is a university town anchored by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with a historic downtown and adjacent Campustown student-commercial district. The city blends mixed-use residential and commercial fabric, with a strong walkability score in downtown and campus areas. Major employers include the university, healthcare networks, the school district itself, food and manufacturing companies, and a large FedEx hub. The community is growing, with significant housing development near campus and downtown, and city officials have identified a need for additional housing units to meet rising demand. Homeownership costs are moderate relative to national benchmarks, and rental costs represent a modest share of income for the area.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 321%

School 21% · District 38% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

Grade 426%

School 26% · District 35% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 510%

School 10% · District 28% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 315%

School 15% · District 35% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 40% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 38% · ▼ 21 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 514%

School 14% · District 32% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

This schoolChampaign CUSD 4, 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.