The top reported proficiency rate is 52% in English language arts. The lowest is 34% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Carolyn Wenz Elem School
Carolyn Wenz Elementary serves grades three through five in Paris, a small east-central Illinois city that functions as the county seat of Edgar County. The school sits in a community built around a walkable downtown town square with historic commercial architecture, where most residents own their homes and civic life centers on local institutions like the Carnegie Public Library and Edgar County Courthouse. The broader economy depends on manufacturing, health care, and retail; North American Lighting, an automotive lighting supplier, and Paris Community Hospital are among the larger employers, and the city has attracted enough industrial work that commuters drive in daily from neighboring Indiana.
The school enrolls roughly a small-to-mid-size cohort across three grades. The student body is predominantly white, with modest representation of Hispanic and multiracial students and a small number of Black students. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not available in the reported figures.
On the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) administered in the most recent school year, Carolyn Wenz's proficiency results showed considerable variation by grade and subject. In English language arts, fourth graders posted results above the midpoint of the county's schools, while third and fifth graders performed closer to or below that line. Math proficiency was more muted across the board: third graders reached the lower end of the county range, fourth graders hovered near midpoint, and fifth graders posted the weakest showing among the three grades. In science, fifth graders tested substantially below the county median. Overall, the school's aggregate proficiency across tested subjects and grades placed it above the midpoint among Edgar County's districts, though the pattern suggests uneven terrain by grade level. A parent may want to look into whether the school has identified particular supports or instructional priorities in grades where proficiency has trended lower.
The school is part of Paris-Union School District 95, a district operating under conditions that warrant close attention. A 2023 state audit flagged more than a significant sum in questionable COVID-era grant spending, prompting a corrective action plan submitted to the Illinois State Board of Education. The prior superintendent departed in December 2023 following that audit, and in 2026 federal indictments were brought against two former building principals over alleged misappropriation of COVID funds. The district has also navigated a reduced property tax levy approved in December 2025 and is moving forward with a multi-year capital investment plan; both Carolyn Wenz and the other elementary building date to the nineteen-seventies, so facility improvements are underway or planned. On a logistical note, the district is phasing in daily and extracurricular student transportation beginning in the current school year, a shift from a historically no-busing model that will affect family schedules and commute decisions.
Locally, Paris's population has remained roughly flat to slowly declining over recent decades, though the city describes itself as in a period of renewed development after significant industrial growth in the nineteen-eighties. Housing costs in the Edgar County area are substantially below the Illinois state and national medians, making homeownership accessible, and the town's character remains that of a low-density, car-oriented small Midwestern community with walkability concentrated in the downtown square rather than distributed throughout.
For a family considering Carolyn Wenz, the school offers a neighborhood elementary education in a stable, familiar community setting, with proficiency results that position it competitively within its county context despite grade-level gaps in math and science. The school's peer environment is small and predominantly white. The main considerations are the district's recent governance and audit history (now under new leadership and a corrective framework), the school's aging facilities (though capital investment is underway), and the rural or small-town character of Paris itself, which appeals to families seeking that kind of setting but will not suit those looking for urban density or diverse employment bases.
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