The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in English language arts. The lowest is 51% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Albert Cassens Elementary
Albert Cassens Elementary serves grades three through five in Glen Carbon, a prosperous outer suburb of St. Louis in Madison County. The school enrolls about five hundred students across those three grades, with the student body predominantly white and broadly representative of the surrounding residential neighborhoods. No data on free and reduced price lunch eligibility was available, nor was information on the school's special education or English learner populations, so a parent seeking those details should contact the school directly.
The school sits within Edwardsville CUSD 7, a district that has recently invested heavily in facility upgrades through a voter-approved bond referendum passed in 2023. That work is reshaping learning environments across all D7 schools without raising the district's tax rate. However, the district announced in March 2025 that it cut a substantial number of non-tenured teaching positions and left several retiring teachers unreplaced, citing financial pressures from inflation and reduced state revenue. That staffing reduction is a concrete operational change families should discuss with the school when weighing enrollment or comparing class sizes.
On the 2024-25 state assessment, Albert Cassens' performance in reading and math shows a mixed picture. In English language arts, the school's third graders performed noticeably below its fourth and fifth graders: just under half met proficiency in third grade, while fourth graders reached above the midpoint and fifth graders landed around three-fifths proficient. Math proficiency was closer to the midpoint across all three grades, hovering between roughly half and slightly above half. In fifth-grade science, the school reached just above the midpoint. Overall, the school's proficiency index across tested grades and subjects places it above the midpoint when compared against other schools in Madison County's district portfolio. Because Illinois changed its state assessment cut scores this year, trend comparison with prior years is not yet available, so a parent cannot yet see whether these numbers represent a shift in performance.
Third grade stands out as a potential area for closer conversation with the school. The gap between third-grade and fourth-grade reading performance is steep enough that a parent with a third grader may want to look into what reading instruction looks like at that level and whether the school tracks students or offers targeted support. The school's participation rates were near universal across all tested grades and subjects, indicating strong attendance during testing.
Glen Carbon itself is a mid-sized residential village expanding steadily on the northeast fringe of the St. Louis metro area. Single-family subdivisions and newer apartment developments dominate the housing stock, with a small historic Old Town core around Main Street. The village is car-oriented along its main commercial corridors, but it is notably connected by the Madison County Transit trail system, which offers more than eighty-five miles of paved zero-grade trails linking residential and recreational areas. Home values in the zip code area are moderately above the state median, and the affordability picture shows a mortgage payment-to-income ratio just below the national average, making the area accessible to families with solid middle-class incomes but not inexpensive by national standards.
The district has not published a strategic plan or statement of academic priorities in available sources, so information about long-term direction beyond the recent facility work and staffing adjustments was not found. A parent interested in the district's learning priorities or curriculum approach should ask the school and district directly. Albert Cassens Elementary's website was not available in the research, so parents should visit it or call the school at their convenience to learn about specific programs, schedules, and enrollment procedures.
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