The top reported proficiency rate is 48% in English language arts. The lowest is 35% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Parkside Elementary School
Parkside Elementary School serves students in prekindergarten through fifth grade in Lawrenceville, a small rural county seat in southeastern Illinois. The school sits on Cedar Street and enrolls around mid-sized elementary population for its grade band. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of students identifying as multiracial, Hispanic, or Black. The school's racial composition reflects the broader Lawrenceville area, which remains largely homogeneous.
The school's academic performance on the most recent Illinois state assessments shows mixed results across the grades tested. In third grade, students performed at roughly the midpoint in both mathematics and English language arts, with reading slightly ahead of math. Fourth and fifth grade results drop notably: fourth-grade math proficiency falls to under one-third, while English language arts stays in the upper-middle range. Fifth-grade math and language arts both sit in the mid-to-low range. Science proficiency in fifth grade comes in below four in ten students. These patterns suggest students are finding sustained difficulty in mathematics particularly as they move into upper elementary, and a parent may want to look into further what instructional or support strategies the school is deploying to address that trend.
Parkside's proficiency index across all tested grades and subjects runs slightly above the midpoint relative to other districts in Lawrence County, placing the school in the middle tier of its local peer group. The school achieved full testing participation across all reported grades, indicating solid assessment administration.
Because Parkside serves only early elementary through fifth grade, no high school outcomes such as graduation rates are applicable. Free-or-reduced-price lunch rates and data on students with individualized education plans or English learners were not available in the state reporting.
Lawrenceville itself is a quiet, historically rooted town of modest size anchored by a century-old courthouse square downtown, surrounded by early- and mid-twentieth-century residential blocks. The local economy has shifted from its early-twentieth-century oil boom to manufacturing and farming. Toyota Boshoku Illinois operates a major just-in-time supplier facility in the Lawrenceville Industrial Park, and Bowler Performance Transmissions is another significant employer. The town also hosts the Mid-American Air Center, which operates Illinois' third-largest airport. Housing is generally affordable relative to state and national benchmarks, and most residents own their homes. Population is modest and aging, though recent affordable rental development through tax-credit financing suggests modest growth. Downtown walkability centers on the courthouse square and State Street retail, with quieter character overall. The wider community includes Red Hills State Park and the Embarras River for outdoor recreation, though public transit is not available.
Lawrence County CUD 20, the district encompassing Parkside, showed no major curriculum, facility, or policy changes in recent public records or news reporting that would affect parent planning.
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