Rock Island Academy, Rock Island IL

Original Research by School Decision on Rock Island Academy

Rock Island Academy serves students from prekindergarten through sixth grade in a mid-sized Mississippi River city that is the home of Augustana College and a federal military manufacturing arsenal. The school's enrollment is small, with roughly equal numbers across elementary and lower-middle grades. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse, with a substantial majority Black students, followed by smaller populations of Hispanic, White, Asian, and multiracial children. Free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility data was not available, so the picture of economic need cannot be confirmed from state records.

The 2024-25 state assessment results show proficiency across math and English language arts at every tested grade, but at low levels. In third grade math, about one in five students met proficiency. Fourth grade math dropped sharply to roughly one in twelve. By fifth grade, proficiency fell to single digits, and in sixth grade only a handful of students across the school tested at proficient. English language arts results follow a similar pattern: third grade and fourth grade proficiency in the low teens to low twenties, then fifth grade and sixth grade around one in seven or lower. Science testing (fifth grade only, in the available data) showed proficiency around one in thirteen students. These numbers indicate that the majority of students are working below grade-level expectations in core subjects at meaningful scale.

Rock Island Academy performs below the midpoint among the county's districts on an overall proficiency measure that averages results across tested subjects and grades. A parent may want to look into this further with the school and district to understand what supports are in place, what curriculum changes have been introduced, and what the school's trajectory looks like year over year. The district has recently adopted science-of-reading aligned literacy programs (CKLA in early grades, Expeditionary Learning through eighth grade) and launched a districtwide "Reading Revolution" initiative, so changes to classroom instruction are underway. The district report card showed several schools moving up at least one accountability rating in the most recent cycle, though specific data on this school's movement was not available.

The school is located on 14th Street in downtown Rock Island, in an urban setting near the civic core. Housing values and rents in the area are moderate relative to national benchmarks. The city itself is experiencing slow population decline, with the district managing a facilities assessment that may lead to boundary shifts or school consolidation over the next several years; families should be aware that this school's configuration or assignment boundaries could change as those decisions move forward.

The school is a regular public school in Rock Island-Milan School District 41. State testing data for seventh and eighth grade was not available for this school; because the school serves only through sixth grade, no high school data or graduation rates apply. Special education and English learner enrollment counts were not reported in available data.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 319%

School 19% · District 34% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 49%

School 9% · District 28% · ▼ 20 pts below district

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

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 16% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 62%

School 2% · District 19% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 317%

School 17% · District 31% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 420%

School 20% · District 30% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 514%

School 14% · District 27% · ▼ 13 pts below district

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

Grade 613%

School 13% · District 39% · ▼ 27 pts below district

▼ 38 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Science

Grade 58%

School 8% · District 19% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

This schoolRock Island SD 41, 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.