The top reported proficiency rate is 77% in Math. The lowest is 69% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on St Joseph Elem School
St Joseph Elementary School serves pre-K through fourth grade in a small village setting in eastern Champaign County, about eleven miles from the Champaign-Urbana metro area. The school is part of St Joseph CCSD 169, a compact K-8 district serving the village and surrounding area.
The school shows solid academic performance in the grade bands it tests. In third grade, math proficiency is strong across the cohort, while reading proficiency in third grade sits at a meaningful but notably lower rate. Fourth-grade math proficiency declines compared to third grade, and fourth-grade reading proficiency continues below math. State assessment data are not available for grades five through eight because this school does not serve those grades; those students move to the district's middle school. The school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among the county's districts on the strength of its reported results.
Enrollment runs to about mid-sized for an elementary school serving this grade band, with relatively balanced cohorts across grades. The student body is predominantly white, with small numbers of students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Free-and-reduced-price lunch data were not made available, so family economic profile cannot be assessed from the school data alone. Similarly, counts for students with IEPs and English learners are not reported here, leaving special-population detail incomplete.
Saint Joseph is a quiet residential village experiencing modest population decline over the past several years. Housing in the area is moderately priced relative to national benchmarks and affordable relative to local income; most homes are single-family ranch or split-level stock from earlier decades, and no major new subdivisions have been added recently. Families here are typically those who own homes and commute to jobs in Champaign-Urbana, where the largest employers—Carle Foundation Hospital, Kraft Heinz, and the University of Illinois—are located. The village itself has limited employment; the school district and nearby agricultural operations are among the few in-village employers.
The village has a walkable downtown centered on Main Street, anchored by the Kickapoo Rail Trail, a multi-use path that connects to Urbana and has been extended into the village's center. This creates an accessible footprint for residents and gives the place a small-town civic character. The school and district offices sit within the village street grid rather than on a separated campus.
In June 2022, the district's voters approved a referendum to increase the education fund tax rate. This came as district bonds for the middle school were being paid off ahead of schedule, thanks in part to county sales-tax revenue for school facilities. While the overall property tax rate still declined from the previous level once the bonds were retired, the new education fund rate represents a lasting structural increase dedicated to teacher salaries, programs, and class sizes. For families considering the district, this means both a known commitment to classroom resources and a specific impact on property-tax bills.
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