Lake Crest Elem School, Oakland IL

Original Research by School Decision on Lake Crest Elem School

Lake Crest Elementary School serves prekindergarten through eighth grade in Oakland, a small rural city in northeastern Coles County. The school sits alongside Oakland High School at a shared address, making the district a compact two-building operation serving the town and surrounding agricultural area.

The enrollment is modest, distributed across ten grade bands from early childhood through middle school. The student body is predominantly white, with very small numbers of Black and Hispanic students. Free-or-reduced-price-lunch eligibility data was not available; however, the district implemented universal free meals for all students starting in the 2022-2023 school year, removing meal costs as a family expense regardless of income level. This is a concrete financial benefit for families with children in the school.

Academic proficiency across tested grades and subjects is a significant concern. On Illinois state assessments, proficiency rates are consistently low. In math, results range from very low in grades four and five to moderate only in grade seven, with most grades falling well below half. In English language arts, performance is similarly uneven, with better results in grade four but substantial gaps in other tested grades. Science data is sparse: fifth-grade science proficiency stands at zero, while eighth-grade science shows modest proficiency. The school's overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint when compared to other districts in Coles County. A parent may want to look into these results directly with the school to understand the supports in place and whether improvement efforts are underway.

Oakland is not a growing community. The town's population has declined, and the local housing stock consists mainly of older units built in the 1960s or 1990s. Home values are low compared to national benchmarks. The broader setting is agricultural and small-town, with the historic Public Square downtown serving as the community's civic center. Howard Miller Memorial Park and nearby Walnut Point State Park offer outdoor recreation. The school district is the principal local public employer.

The school itself has nearly full participation in state testing, indicating consistent assessment completion. Transportation and accessibility to schools outside Oakland would require some travel; the area is served by dial-a-ride bus transit, and the nearest passenger rail is at Mattoon station.

For families already in Oakland or considering the area, Lake Crest offers a co-located elementary and middle school option in a tight-knit rural setting with universal free meals. The low proficiency results warrant direct conversation with school leadership about instructional approaches, staffing, and supports for students who are not yet meeting grade-level standards.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 327%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 417%

School 17% · District 17%

▼ 20 pts below state median

Grade 55%

School 5% · District 5%

▼ 25 pts below state median

Grade 619%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 736%

School 36% · District 36%

▲ 7 pts above state median

Grade 814%

School 14% · District 14%

▼ 8 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 332%

School 32% · District 32%

▼ 12 pts below state median

Grade 450%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 2 pts above state median

Grade 519%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 33 pts below state median

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 22 pts below state median

Grade 740%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 819%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 34 pts below state median

Science

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 0%

▼ 37 pts below state median

Grade 829%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 11 pts below state median

This schoolOakland CUSD 5, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.