Thomas Paine Elem School, Urbana IL

Original Research by School Decision on Thomas Paine Elem School

Thomas Paine Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Urbana, a mixed urban-residential city anchored by the University of Illinois campus and a historic downtown commercial district. The school sits in a city that is notably walkable and bike-friendly, served by public transit, and marked by strong civic anchors including the Urbana Free Library and public parks.

The school's academic profile shows proficiency rates that are below the midpoint among Champaign County districts. In math across grades three through five, reported proficiency ranged from around five percent in fifth grade to roughly seventeen percent in fourth grade. In English language arts, third and fourth grades registered just over ten and nineteen percent proficiency respectively, while fifth grade showed just over twenty percent. Science proficiency in fifth grade came in at just over twenty-one percent. Test participation across these grades was high and near complete, showing strong engagement in assessment. A parent may want to look into the school's specific instructional approaches and support systems with the school directly, particularly in math and literacy.

The school enrollment is small for an elementary building, with roughly three hundred and sixty students distributed across the six grades. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse, with roughly forty-five percent Black students, roughly thirty-three percent white students, roughly thirteen percent multiracial students, and smaller shares of Asian and Hispanic students. Free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility data was not available, so a parent seeking that context should ask the school directly.

The broader district context includes structural changes that affect school assignments. In 2024-25, the district redrew elementary attendance boundaries for the first time in more than a decade and converted Yankee Ridge Elementary into a dual-language school, reassigning roughly one in five students to new school assignments. Beginning in 2025-26, all sixth graders in the district will attend a new sixth-grade center in a consolidated building rather than their neighborhood school. These are substantial shifts in how the district organizes its students, and a family relocating to the area should understand this landscape.

The district has also adopted new curricula in recent years. A new core math curriculum was implemented in the school year reflected in the 2024 test results. A new, more rigorous English language arts curriculum rolled out in 2024-25. These are district-wide pedagogy and materials changes that shape daily classroom instruction.

Housing in the Urbana zip code is moderately priced for the region, with median home values somewhat below the state benchmark and monthly rental costs in line with state averages, though they have risen at a rate higher than historical norms. The local economy is anchored by the University of Illinois and the Carle health system, alongside district employment itself. The city has recently adopted the Imagine Urbana Comprehensive Plan, guiding growth and development goals over the coming years, and is working toward affordable housing and community development through federal funding.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 310%

School 10% · District 21% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 417%

School 17% · District 17%

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

Grade 56%

School 6% · District 11% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 310%

School 10% · District 20% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 419%

School 19% · District 20% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 22% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 24% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

This schoolUrbana SD 116, 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.