The top reported proficiency rate is 27% in Math. The lowest is 16% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Willard Elem School
Willard Elementary is a small K–5 school in Moline, Illinois, serving roughly mid-range enrollments across its six grades, with the school body skewing notably toward Latino students (about a third of enrollment) and Black students (roughly a fifth), with the remainder split among white, Asian, and multiracial children. The school sits in a mid-sized Mississippi River industrial city with manufacturing heritage and a stable population, where housing values are well below the state and national benchmarks, making it an affordable neighborhood by national standards.
Academically, Willard's state testing results show low proficiency across the grades and subjects that are assessed. In mathematics, proficiency rates range from roughly a quarter to a third of students across grades three through five. In English language arts, results are noticeably weaker: third grade stands at roughly one in ten students proficient, with fourth and fifth grades reaching just under a quarter. Fifth-grade science proficiency sits at roughly one in six students. Participation in state testing is complete or near-complete, so these are not artifacts of low test-taking rates; they reflect what the assessment captured of student learning. Parents should inquire with the school about the factors behind these results, what interventions or support structures are in place, and how the school is tracking student progress over time using classroom-level data, since state testing occurs only once yearly.
Against other districts in Rock Island County, Willard's overall proficiency index sits in the bottom quartile, meaning its results are notably lower than the county median and well below the strongest performers in the region. This positioning matters for families making enrollment decisions and for understanding the academic peer environment students will encounter.
The school is in the midst of substantial change. Willard Elementary will close at the end of the 2026–27 school year as part of a consolidation with Lincoln-Irving Elementary into a new building called Robert Ontiveros Elementary School, set to open in August 2027. This is a concrete, long-term shift: new school boundaries, a merged student body and staff, and a modernized facility roughly double the size of Willard's current building. Families currently zoned to Willard should expect this transition and consider how it affects their plans, whether they will move, change schools, or move on to whatever the consolidated school will offer.
Moline itself is a stable, affordable community with walkable downtown riverfront parks and an established employment base centered on John Deere's world headquarters. Housing costs run well below state and national levels, and rental housing is similarly affordable. The city has been pushing new residential development downtown and is working to expand transit and passenger rail connectivity. Schools in the district sit on separate campuses rather than in downtown, though the area has conventional suburban infrastructure with some older neighborhoods and newer retail corridors.
State testing data does not provide information on whether Willard serves a notably high share of students with disabilities, English learners, or students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, because that detail was not available in the data set. A parent may want to ask the school directly about these student populations and the resources allocated to support them, since these factors often shape both the academic environment and the day-to-day experience of school life.
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