The top reported proficiency rate is 51% in English language arts. The lowest is 30% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Willard Elem School
Willard Elementary serves pre-K through sixth grade in South Elgin, a suburban village in Kane County northwest of Chicago. The school enrolls a modest-sized student body and sits within School District U-46, which recently approved a major facility bond. The school's student composition is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial white enrollment and smaller numbers of Black and multiracial students; racial and ethnic breakdown data is available, though free-and-reduced-price lunch eligibility and counts of English learners and students with IEPs were not provided.
The state testing picture shows a school working below the midpoint of Kane County districts. In math, third-grade results fall just above midway, while fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade proficiency rates drop below that threshold, with steeper declines as students move into the upper elementary grades. In English language arts, results are similarly modest: third and fourth grades sit near midway, fifth grade is above midway, and sixth grade reaches its strongest performance. Science testing shows lower performance in fifth grade. Participation rates in these assessments are high, typically in the mid- to high-90s, indicating that absences are not driving the results. The state changed cut scores across subjects this year, so prior-year comparisons are not available; a parent may want to reach out to the school to ask about any actions being taken in response to these results and how the school views its academic trajectory.
South Elgin itself is a mixed-use, car-oriented suburban village with family-oriented neighborhoods like Thornwood and Whispering Trail, a walkable downtown along the Fox River with parks and the Fox River Trail, and a commercial corridor along Randall Road. Housing values in the area sit modestly below the state median and considerably below the national median, and rental costs are also moderate. The region is experiencing active new residential development, with multiple apartment and single-family subdivisions under way, and the village has major road and infrastructure projects planned for summer 2026.
District U-46 is undergoing substantial structural change. In April 2023, voters approved a significant bond with no tax rate increase to fund rebuilds of aging elementary schools and the district's first newly constructed middle schools in decades. Hawk Hollow Middle School in Bartlett opened for the 2025-26 school year, and Legacy Middle School in Elgin is scheduled to open in 2027. The district is also shifting to a 6-8 middle school model that includes a daily advisory period for social-emotional learning and academic intervention, and 38 of the district's elementary schools, including Willard, extended their instructional day starting in 2025-26 under a new teachers' contract. These are substantial changes to the daily experience and the longer-term trajectory of the district, with implications for how students move through grades and what time is available for instruction and support.
Willard Elementary occupies a particular niche in this context: it is one of the elementary schools whose day has been extended, it feeds into the middle school transition happening now, and it will eventually be part of a wave of elementary rebuilds. The academic results suggest the school would benefit from close parental attention to how classroom instruction aligns with student needs and what supports are available. A parent considering this school would do well to visit, speak with current families about their experience, and ask the school specifically about the academic focus in the grades where results have been softest and what the extended school day is being used for.
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