Albion Grade School, Albion IL - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Albion Grade School

Albion Grade School serves prekindergarten through eighth grade in a small consolidated campus in Albion, Illinois, the county seat of Edwards County. The school enrolls roughly a small-to-mid-sized student body reflective of the rural southern Illinois setting and community it serves.

Reading the academic data, a clear pattern emerges: English language arts is a relative strength, while math and science performance lag. In grades seven and eight, the school shows solid ELA results, with a strong majority of students meeting proficiency benchmarks. Fourth and fifth graders also perform above the midpoint in reading. Mathematics, by contrast, shows weaker performance across nearly all tested grades, with only third grade reaching near a midpoint benchmark; fourth through eighth graders score below midpoint with particular difficulty in grades five and seven. Science results sit between these two domains: fifth-grade science trails significantly, while eighth-grade science rebounds to stronger performance. All tested students participate in the state assessments, indicating reliable reporting.

The school's enrollment is predominantly white, with a small share of students from other backgrounds; specific counts of students with disabilities or who are English learners were not available. Free-or-reduced-price-lunch eligibility data was also absent, leaving open how many students are economically disadvantaged. Graduation rate and chronic absenteeism figures do not apply to a school serving only elementary and middle grades.

The setting is a rural county-seat town of modest size and limited walkable amenities. Albion sits at a crossroads of two state routes but lacks fixed-route public transit. The town economy faced a major disruption in early 2026 when Champion Laboratories, the longtime dominant private employer, permanently closed its automotive filter plant and displaced many workers. The subsequent acquisition of assets by Premium Guard Inc. offers some hope for job recovery, but the immediate employment landscape remains uncertain. Home values in the zip code are well below state and national medians, and mortgage affordability is notably better than the national benchmark, reflecting the lower cost of living. This is not a growing place; population and resident employment have both trended downward over recent years.

Within this context, the school district and county government serve as the anchor employers for stable work. Families choosing Albion Grade School should expect an intimate school environment typical of small-town consolidation, where K-8 students share a campus. Strengths in reading and language arts suggest that literacy instruction is working; parents may want to investigate why mathematics performance falls short and what interventions the school has in place to address that gap. The school's modest size means close community ties but limited program breadth compared to larger urban or suburban schools. For families already rooted in Edwards County or drawn by the genuine affordability of the housing market, Albion Grade School offers a plainly grounded option; for others considering relocating to this area, the recent employment disruption and slow long-term contraction are relevant factors in the calculus.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 349%

School 49% · District 54% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 439%

School 39% · District 45% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 39% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 643%

School 43% · District 44% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 19 pts above state median

Grade 735%

School 35% · District 35%

▲ 6 pts above state median

Grade 836%

School 36% · District 31% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 356%

School 56% · District 61% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 461%

School 61% · District 69% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▲ 13 pts above state median

Grade 570%

School 70% · District 73% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 18 pts above state median

Grade 667%

School 67% · District 68% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 17 pts above state median

Grade 779%

School 79% · District 81% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 28 pts above state median

Grade 880%

School 80% · District 77% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median

Science

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 38%

even with state median

Grade 861%

School 61% · District 52% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median

This schoolEdwards County CUSD 1, 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.