The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in Math. The lowest is 44% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Center Elem School
Center Elem School serves children in prekindergarten through fourth grade in Freeport, a county-seat city in northwest Illinois with a small-town character and a historic downtown centered on brick-faced buildings, locally owned shops, and a manufacturing heritage. The school sits in a community where housing costs are notably low and civic life mixes old industrial roots with ongoing revitalization efforts, including downtown rehabilitation and infrastructure investment.
The school enrolls a small cohort of students in its upper grades and a somewhat larger cohort in early grades. The student composition is mixed racially and ethnically, with roughly equal shares of white students and students of color, the latter including substantial numbers of Black and Hispanic students alongside others of two or more races and a small number of students who are American Indian or Asian. The overall enrollment reflects the town's demographic makeup as a small city with manufacturing and service-sector employment. State testing data was not available for earlier grades, which is typical since Illinois does not test kindergarten through second grade; test results appear only for third and fourth grades.
In the most recent state testing on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, third graders showed proficiency in math at a rate above the midpoint among Stephenson County schools, while fourth-grade math proficiency sat slightly below that county midpoint. English language arts results were lower in both grades, with third graders showing proficiency well below the county midpoint and fourth graders at about the county median. The pattern across subjects suggests that mathematics is a relative strength for the school compared to its county peers overall proficiency. A parent may want to look into the school's reading and language arts instruction and what support is available in these areas.
The school is part of Freeport School District 145, which is undertaking a structural reconfiguration effective fall 2025 and 2026. Center Elem and other traditional elementary buildings are shifting from a kindergarten-through-fourth-grade configuration to kindergarten through fifth grade, meaning fifth graders will move from where they previously attended to these buildings. At the same time, the district is consolidating all prekindergarten programs out of the individual schools into a new central Early Childhood Center, so the preschool program that currently operates from Center Elem will relocate. These changes reshape which building serves which grades and affect the school's enrollment and composition starting next year. The district has also adopted a college and career readiness framework districtwide, built on career academy and OneGoal classroom structures at the high school level, though this pedagogy layer would develop more visibly in later grades than those served at Center Elem.
Freeport itself is a place of quiet residential neighborhoods and a livable housing market. Median home values are modest, and monthly rents are low by national standards, making the community accessible to families at varied income levels. The city's largest employers include the hospital network, one remaining Honeywell manufacturing plant, school district operations, and construction and contracting firms. The town's population has declined slowly over the past two decades, though recent city initiatives focus on downtown revitalization and modest reinvestment in streets, water, and sewer infrastructure rather than on rapid expansion. Public transportation is provided by a small local bus system, and civic anchors include the oldest Carnegie Library in Illinois and parks with recreational facilities.
Center Elem is a conventional neighborhood school in a small-city setting serving an economically mixed enrollment in a town where community institutions remain accessible and housing is affordable.
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