The top reported proficiency rate is 13% in English language arts. The lowest is 9% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Bernard Long Elem Sch
Bernard Long Elementary School serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Madison, Illinois, a declining industrial city in southwestern Madison County near the Mississippi River. The school enrolls a small to mid-sized student body drawn overwhelmingly from the Black population of the city, with a much smaller presence of Hispanic and white students and very few Asian or Native American students.
The state assessment results from the most recent year show proficiency rates that are low across both math and English language arts. In third grade, fewer than one in five students met the state's proficiency standard in math, and about one in nine in reading. Performance drops sharply in the upper elementary grades, with fourth-grade math proficiency near single digits and fifth-grade math proficiency at a similarly low level. Fifth-grade reading performance is somewhat higher than fourth grade but still under one in six students meeting the bar. Science proficiency in fifth grade was also low. State testing data for grades six through eight are not reported here, a gap that reflects the school's grade configuration as a K-5 building; grades above fifth would attend a different school in the district. The data note indicates that cut score changes in Illinois assessments occurred during this cycle, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about how this year's proficiency measures compare to prior years and what support structures exist to help students meet the updated standards.
Bernard Long serves a school community in Madison, a post-industrial river city that peaked in the mid-twentieth century and has experienced sustained population decline over decades. The city's economy has historically centered on heavy manufacturing, railcar foundry work, and oil refining, sectors that no longer sustain the workforce they once did. In recent years, development has concentrated at the World Wide Technology Raceway, a major motorsports venue. Housing values in the area are considerably below state and national averages, and the affordability metrics reflect a community with modest household incomes relative to home prices and rents.
The school's demographic makeup is distinctive: roughly nine in ten students identify as Black, reflecting the racial composition of Madison. This makes the school a racially concentrated setting quite different from many elementary schools elsewhere in the state. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data and special education or English learner status information were not available, so a parent seeking a fuller picture of student needs and school supports should ask the school directly about these populations.
When compared to other districts in Madison County on a proficiency index that averages performance across tested subjects and grades, Bernard Long falls into the bottom quartile. The proficiency measure itself is quite low relative to the county median, indicating that the school's students are achieving at notably lower rates than peers in most other Madison County elementary schools. No graduation rate is available because the school serves only elementary grades. Chronic absenteeism data were also not located.
Madison CUSD 12 operates in a town where population and tax base have contracted substantially over generations, shaping both what resources the district can deploy and the broader economic context families navigate. No major recent district-level policy shifts or curriculum changes were identified in available reporting, so the focus for prospective parents should be on understanding the school's response to the current performance picture and what academic and social supports are in place for students below proficiency.
See more original research from School Decision →