Montessori Academy for Peace, Decatur IL

Original Research by School Decision on Montessori Academy for Peace

Montessori Academy for Peace is a small, independent regular public school serving prekindergarten through eighth grade in downtown Decatur on North Church Street. It enrolls a roughly balanced mixed-race student body, with White and Black students each making up a substantial share, and a meaningful representation of students identifying as multiracial. The school has no published free-or-reduced-price-lunch data and no reported counts for students with disabilities or English learners, which are gaps worth asking the school about directly.

The school's academic profile presents a complex picture. In English language arts, the school shows stronger performance in the middle grades, with proficiency notably higher in grades five and six, and solid results again in eighth grade. In mathematics, proficiency is consistently low across all tested grades, ranging down to quite low in eighth grade. Science proficiency, reported for grades five and eight only, sits in the low-to-moderate range. When averaged across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index falls into the bottom quartile among the county's districts, a meaningful gap a parent may want to look into further with the school.

The question behind low test results in a school called Montessori Academy for Peace is whether the teaching model and student support may not align with the state's standardized assessments, or whether other factors are at play. A Montessori approach, which emphasizes self-directed exploration and mixed-age learning environments, does not always translate into high proficiency on conventional state tests that reward convergent academic skills at specific grade levels. The school serves students from prekindergarten through eighth, so younger grades are present but not tested; enrollment is fairly evenly distributed across grades with slightly larger classes in the lower grades.

Decatur itself is a mid-sized central Illinois city along the Sangamon River with a historic downtown core and residential neighborhoods spreading outward. The local housing market is affordable relative to state and national benchmarks, with median home values well below the state average. The city's economy centers on major agricultural and food-processing firms, particularly Archer Daniels Midland, alongside manufacturing, healthcare, and education. The city has been working through a gradual population decline but has launched downtown revitalization efforts and new residential development at the Village at Legacy site, bringing fresh momentum to older neighborhoods.

The broader Decatur Public Schools district, which operates this school, adopted a district-wide phone and device ban in lockers during the entire school day starting in the 2024-25 school year, removing a previously proposed lunchtime carve-out for high schoolers. The district is also undertaking Roadmap2030, a comprehensive strategic facility and enrollment plan launched in October 2024, to align building use and programs with long-term financial and demographic projections. These are lasting changes shaping the learning environment and district direction that families considering Decatur schools should understand.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 317%

School 17% · District 11% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 415%

School 15% · District 9% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 519%

School 19% · District 6% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 613%

School 13% · District 5% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 714%

School 14% · District 8% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 88%

School 8% · District 4% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 14 pts below state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 315%

School 15% · District 13% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 435%

School 35% · District 18% · ▲ 17 pts above district

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

Grade 544%

School 44% · District 17% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 18% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 735%

School 35% · District 15% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 839%

School 39% · District 19% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Science

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 15% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 839%

School 39% · District 21% · ▲ 18 pts above district

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

This schoolDecatur SD 61, 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.