St Elmo Elem School, Saint Elmo IL

Original Research by School Decision on St Elmo Elem School

St. Elmo Elementary School is a small, rural public school in Fayette County serving a little over two hundred students in kindergarten through sixth grade. The school sits in Saint Elmo, a declining small town near Interstate 70, where the dominant employer is a Conagra manufacturing facility. The town itself has limited amenities, and the school serves a student population that is overwhelmingly white, with very few students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds.

The most recent state test data shows mixed performance across grades. Third graders in English language arts performed at a stronger level, while proficiency in math dropped sharply by fourth grade and remained depressed through sixth. Fourth, fifth, and sixth graders showed low proficiency rates in math. In English language arts, results were uneven: fourth graders were near the midpoint, fifth graders performed better, and sixth graders were at roughly the midpoint. Science testing was limited to fifth grade, where proficiency was at the midpoint. The school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among Fayette County districts, but this reflects the fact that the county's schools generally show modest achievement levels.

The school's test participation rate was complete in all assessed grades, suggesting no attendance or engagement barriers to testing itself. However, the sharp drop in performance between third and fourth grade merits attention. Illinois changed its proficiency cut scores for 2024-25, so year-to-year comparisons to prior years are not available from the data provided. A parent may want to reach out to the school to understand what supports are in place for students struggling in the upper elementary grades, particularly in math.

The school draws from a community where housing values are modest and the population is slowly shrinking. Most residents own their homes. The free-or-reduced-price lunch rate was not available in the data, so the economic status of the student body cannot be characterized from this report. The school sits on a regular school campus with no magnet or charter designation, and Title I status information was not provided.

No information was available about special education services, English learner support, teacher staffing, or attendance rates. The district brief found no recent major curriculum, pedagogical, or tax-related changes reported in available sources. For a small rural school, St. Elmo Elementary serves a tight-knit community, but prospective families should understand that the school shows meaningful academic challenges, particularly in upper elementary mathematics, even as it performs above some of its county peers.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 363%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 38%

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 38%

▲ 8 pts above state median

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 38%

▲ 14 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 375%

School 75% · District 75%

▲ 31 pts above state median

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 49%

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 68%

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 650%

School 50% · District 50%

even with state median

Science

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 13 pts above state median

This schoolSt Elmo CUSD 202, 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.