Crab Orchard Elementary School, Marion IL

Original Research by School Decision on Crab Orchard Elementary School

Crab Orchard Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in Marion, a regional hub in southern Illinois that is actively growing. The school enrolls a small-to-mid-sized cohort spread across its grade span, with notably higher numbers in the upper grades.

The student body is predominantly white, with minimal racial or ethnic diversity. Demographic breakdowns on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and special education or English learner populations were not available in the data. The school itself is a regular public school within Crab Orchard CUSD 3, a small district in Williamson County.

State test results from the Illinois Assessment of Readiness show a mixed academic picture with clear grade-level variation. In third grade math, fewer than a third of students scored at proficiency. Fourth graders performed better in reading, with a substantial majority proficient, though math proficiency sat just below the midpoint. Fifth grade is the school's strongest performance band, with students scoring well in both reading and math, and performing solidly in science.

From sixth grade onward, the trajectory dips. Sixth-grade math proficiency falls sharply, and while reading performance remains moderate, science results in eighth grade drop substantially. Seventh and eighth grade math scores are among the school's lowest, each with fewer than one in three students scoring proficient. Reading holds up better at those levels, with most seventh and eighth graders meeting the standard. The school's overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades sits below the midpoint when compared to other districts in Williamson County.

Marion itself is experiencing tangible growth and reinvestment. A major retail and entertainment redevelopment of the former Illinois Star Centre mall is underway with state support, and several hundred new affordable homes are in the pipeline, with the city and Marion High School's Building Trades program partnering on neighborhood construction projects. The school sits outside the downtown core on its own campus, and housing costs in the Marion zip code are below both state and national benchmarks, making the area relatively affordable for families in the region.

A parent considering this school should understand that it serves all elementary and early middle grades in a single building, with a student body that is quite small by grade. The academic results show strength in the fourth and fifth grades but point to real challenges in mathematics and science as students move through the sixth through eighth grades. Whether this reflects instructional gaps, transition effects from earlier grades, or other factors would be worth exploring directly with the school. The community surrounding Marion is actively building, which may mean shifting enrollment patterns and changing school resources over the coming years.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 327%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 448%

School 48% · District 48%

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 582%

School 82% · District 82%

▲ 52 pts above state median

Grade 632%

School 32% · District 32%

▲ 8 pts above state median

Grade 722%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 30%

▲ 7 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 335%

School 35% · District 35%

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 469%

School 69% · District 69%

▲ 21 pts above state median

Grade 574%

School 74% · District 74%

▲ 22 pts above state median

Grade 649%

School 49% · District 49%

▼ 1 pts below state median

Grade 761%

School 61% · District 61%

▲ 10 pts above state median

Grade 865%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 12 pts above state median

Science

Grade 570%

School 70% · District 70%

▲ 34 pts above state median

Grade 843%

School 43% · District 43%

▲ 4 pts above state median

This schoolCrab Orchard CUSD 3, 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income23%Higher-income48%25 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income31%Higher-income24%7 pp gap