Spring Trail Elementary School, Carol Stream IL

Original Research by School Decision on Spring Trail Elementary School

Spring Trail Elementary is a traditional public school serving kindergarten through sixth grade in Carol Stream, a planned post-war DuPage County village with a strong industrial and manufacturing base. The school is part of School District U-46, which spans multiple towns in the region and is currently in the middle of a major capital and curricular transformation.

The school draws roughly a third of its enrollment from white families, with the next largest share Hispanic, followed by Asian, Black, and other backgrounds. The community around Carol Stream mixes residential neighborhoods with extensive warehouse and commercial corridors; it is a car-dependent suburb without a downtown center, though families rely on parks, trails, and the town center for civic life. Home values in the immediate area are moderate for the Chicago suburbs, and the rental market is relatively affordable by regional standards.

On state testing, Spring Trail's results show a consistent pattern: stronger performance in reading than in math across most grades. In reading, proficiency runs broadly in the upper 60s and lower 70s, with a standout result in sixth grade in the mid-80s. Math proficiency is more uneven. Third grade performs solidly, but fourth and fifth grades show a notable dip, with fifth-grade math proficiency at just about the midpoint. Sixth grade rebounds slightly but still trails the reading results. Science testing data is limited to fifth grade, where just under half of students tested at proficient levels. On an overall proficiency index across all tested grades and subjects, Spring Trail sits above the midpoint among the district's peers in DuPage County.

The school's enrollment is stable at roughly a mid-sized elementary population across eight grade bands, with slightly higher concentrations in third through sixth grades. State assessment participation rates are very high. Free-and-reduced-price-lunch eligibility data and student special-education and English-learner counts were not available in the records reviewed.

District U-46 is undergoing significant structural change. A bond referendum approved in 2023 is funding major rebuilds of five aging elementary schools and two new middle schools, reshaping building quality and student assignments across the district over the next several years. Spring Trail itself does not appear to be among the schools receiving a rebuild in this cycle. Starting in the 2025-26 school year, thirty-eight elementary schools in U-46, including those in Carol Stream, extended their instructional day by roughly an hour to support academic learning and intervention. The district has also adopted a new 6-to-8 middle school structure with an advisory period focused on social-emotional learning and is piloting new math and literacy materials.

A parent evaluating Spring Trail should expect solid reading instruction and results, particularly in the upper grades, alongside room for growth in elementary math, especially in the middle grades. The school sits within a district making deliberate investments in extended learning time and curricular coherence, though Spring Trail itself is not slated for a building renovation in the current cycle. Housing in the immediate area is accessible by suburban standards, and the community around Carol Stream offers parks and recreation but requires a car for most daily errands.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 376%

School 76% · District 45% · ▲ 31 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 39% · ▲ 20 pts above district

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

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 31% · ▲ 19 pts above district

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

Grade 667%

School 67% · District 26% · ▲ 41 pts above district

▲ 43 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 364%

School 64% · District 38% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 463%

School 63% · District 42% · ▲ 21 pts above district

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

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 48% · ▲ 22 pts above district

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

Grade 685%

School 85% · District 45% · ▲ 40 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Science

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 32% · ▲ 14 pts above district

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

This schoolSD U-46, 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.