The top reported proficiency rate is 58% in Science. The lowest is 46% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Morrisonville Elem School
Morrisonville Elementary School serves prekindergarten through sixth grade in a small rural village in central Illinois, about forty-five miles south of Springfield. The school sits within Morrisonville Community Unit School District 1, whose only high school faces long-standing enrollment pressures that brought a consolidation referendum to voters in 2022. That measure failed, so the district's high school remains open, but the underlying population trend is flat to declining across the region.
The school enrolls a small cohort of students, with roughly balanced class sizes across the early grades and modest numbers in the upper elementary band. The student body is predominantly white, with very few students of color reported. Free-and-reduced-price-lunch eligibility data was not available; the specific composition of socioeconomic need cannot be determined from the provided information. Special education and English learner enrollment counts were also not reported.
On the most recent state assessment results, proficiency varies meaningfully by grade and subject. In third-grade math, students performed stronger, with a solid share meeting or exceeding proficiency. By fourth grade, math proficiency dropped sharply and stayed depressed through sixth grade, where performance was low. English language arts shows a similar pattern: third grade was moderate, fourth grade edged below the middle, and by fifth and sixth grade proficiency fell to roughly a third of students meeting the standard. Fifth-grade science proficiency aligned with math for that cohort. The school had complete participation in the tested grades, so the numbers reflect the full student population where assessed. Worth noting is that Illinois recently changed the cut scores for proficiency on these tests, making direct year-to-year comparison difficult; a parent may want to ask the school whether this year's results represent a shift in instruction and performance or reflect the new measurement bar.
Against the comparison set of districts in Christian County, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile, meaning it is performing above most other elementary schools in the immediate region. That context is helpful, though it reflects a region where performance overall is modest.
Grade seven and eight results were not reported; the school enrollment data shows the building does serve those grades, so absence of test data likely reflects that these grades are not yet tested under Illinois assessment policy or the data had not been released at the time of reporting.
The village itself is compact, built around a small downtown where the elementary school, the jr/sr high school, the library, and several churches are all within walking distance of one another. Morrisonville is agricultural in character, with dried-bean, pea, and pumpkin operations anchoring the local economy, alongside small businesses and the school district as employers. Housing values are well below the state and national median, making it an affordable place to buy, though the population has been declining modestly year over year. Most families own their homes and rely on private vehicles; the village has no public transit. Many retirees live in the area.
For a family, Morrisonville Elementary offers a small-town setting with integrated civic life, affordable housing, and strong peer relationships likely given the scale. The state test results show uneven proficiency across grades, with the early grades performing better than the upper-elementary band, which may warrant direct conversation with school staff about what is driving the gap and what support is available for students below the proficiency line. The school's ranking within the county is a relative strength in an otherwise modest regional context.
See more original research from School Decision →