Trewyn Primary School, Peoria IL

Original Research by School Decision on Trewyn Primary School

Trewyn Primary School serves kindergarten through eighth grade in Peoria, one of a cluster of public schools spread across the city rather than concentrated in a single zone. The school sits on South Folkers Avenue, in a neighborhood that is predominantly Black, with a smaller Hispanic population and a small share of white and multiracial students. The enrollment is stable at a mid-sized level for the grade span, and the staff has clear participation rates on state assessments.

The state testing data from the most recent school year shows a school where proficiency is low and declining steeply as students move into upper grades. In third-grade math and English language arts, proficiency is in the low double digits. By fourth and fifth grade both subjects drop sharply, and by sixth grade there are no students proficient in math. In seventh grade, math proficiency sits at zero; English language arts sits at a low single digit. Eighth grade shows slightly higher rates in reading, around one in three students, but math remains proficient in zero instances. Science proficiency is similarly low, under five percent in both fifth and eighth grade. A parent evaluating this data will see a school where most students do not meet state grade-level standards, and where performance worsens as students advance. This pattern is below the midpoint among Peoria County districts for overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades.

Participation in testing is near or at full across most grades, so the low counts reflect actual proficiency rather than absences from the assessment. Testing procedures and scoring standards changed in the state assessment this year, so direct year-to-year comparison is not reliable from the data on hand.

The district has made a major move worth understanding if your child would be entering Trewyn now or soon. In April 2026, the Peoria school board approved a substantial investment in a new science-of-reading curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade, replacing materials used since before recent years. The new program emphasizes phonics and evidence-based literacy instruction. This is a direct response to district-wide data showing that a significant share of students in grades three through eight were not reading at grade level. For elementary families especially, this curriculum shift is a material change to instruction that should be tracked closely as it rolls out across the coming years.

The district also undertook school renamings in 2022 as part of a broader effort to rename schools after figures considered harmful in race relations. Families moving into or researching the neighborhood should verify that the school's current name aligns with what they may find referenced in older sources or community memory.

Peoria itself is a mid-sized city in a slow-growth period, with a manufacturing and healthcare base anchored by Caterpillar and OSF Healthcare. The housing market is tight; new construction has been sparse, with a low number of homes built by private developers in recent years. The median listing price in the area has moved upward modestly. Investment is concentrated in adaptive reuse projects downtown and in the Warehouse District, with less new building elsewhere. The South Side, where Trewyn is located, saw the groundbreaking of a new affordable development called Churchview Garden Homes in February 2025, its first new residential development in a span of years. The city and its housing authority are also working on other affordable projects, including the redevelopment of the former Taft Homes site. For a family looking at this neighborhood, affordable housing is a priority for the city, and rents are moderate by regional standards.

A parent may want to look into the school's specific response to the literacy curriculum adoption, what professional development teachers have received, and how the school is tracking progress on reading outcomes as the new program takes hold. The low proficiency across grade levels, especially the particularly stark drops in middle grades, suggests students would benefit from early intervention and consistent reading support, and understanding how the school sequences and delivers that support would be important for a family making a school choice.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 323%

School 23% · District 27% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 411%

School 11% · District 20% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 52%

School 2% · District 16% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 60%

School 0% · District 14% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 70%

School 0% · District 20% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 13% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 30%

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 420%

School 20% · District 28% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 58%

School 8% · District 29% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 44 pts below state median · ▼ 39 pts below county median

Grade 68%

School 8% · District 27% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 42 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

Grade 716%

School 16% · District 25% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 832%

School 32% · District 35% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Science

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 18% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 85%

School 5% · District 21% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

This schoolPeoria SD 150, 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.