The top reported proficiency rate is 71% in English language arts. The lowest is 46% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Unity Elem School
Unity Elementary School is a small K-6 school in Brookport, Illinois, serving about 134 students in the Massac Unit District 1. It sits within Brookport's modest residential footprint, a quiet river town and bedroom community across the Ohio River from Paducah, Kentucky, where most residents commute for employment.
The school's student body reflects the town's makeup: predominantly white, with a small share of Hispanic and multiracial students; no data on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility or English learner status was available. The enrollment is evenly distributed across grades K through 6, with slightly larger classes in the upper elementary years.
In terms of academic performance, the picture is uneven by grade. Third-grade students show lower proficiency in both math and English language arts, with fewer than half meeting the state's proficiency threshold in math and roughly half in language arts. Fourth-grade performance improves noticeably, particularly in English language arts where proficiency approaches three-quarters of students. Fifth-grade students are solidly proficient in reading but fall back below half proficiency in both math and science. Sixth grade stands out as the school's strongest year, with substantially higher proficiency rates across reading and math. Overall proficiency across all tested grades and subjects positions the school above the midpoint among the two school districts in Massac County by this composite measure. State testing participation was complete where grades were tested.
The district has been implementing a shift toward Science of Reading approaches in elementary classrooms, emphasizing vocabulary-building through independent reading rather than reliance on basal reader texts. This curricular change is ongoing and affects how students here are taught to read.
Brookport itself is a place of modest means and constrained growth. It is a blue-collar town of roughly small population living on the Ohio River's north bank, with a high concentration of retirees and residents working in transportation, sales, service, and administrative roles. Housing values in the zip code where the school sits are well below the Illinois state benchmark and affordable by national standards, though home values declined modestly year over year. A devastating EF3 tornado in 2013 destroyed or heavily damaged more than a hundred homes; recovery has been slow, and the city continues operating in what officials describe as recovery mode. No major new residential development has been identified beyond reconstruction after the storm. The school itself sits at the intersection of West Fourth and Ferry Streets, within Brookport's compact downtown grid, a few blocks from the library and city hall.
The school's testing data was available only through sixth grade because seventh and eighth grades did not appear in the reported results. This is consistent with Unity Elementary's official grade band of K-6, so families should note the school serves only through grade six; middle school attendance would require transition to another district building. Information on staff, programs, attendance, discipline, special education and English learner services, and gifted programming was not available in the data provided.
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