The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in English language arts. The lowest is 30% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Waltonville Grade School
Waltonville Grade School serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in a small rural village in southwestern Jefferson County. The school enrolls roughly two hundred students across ten grade levels, with a student body that is predominantly white and drawn from the immediate local area. The village itself is older and declining slowly in population, situated about a short distance from Mount Vernon, the county seat. A parent or resident moving into or considering this school should understand the academic performance profile, the community setting, and what pathway this school creates for students heading toward high school.
The recent Illinois state assessment data reveals substantial challenges in mathematics, particularly in the upper grades. Third graders show moderate proficiency in math, around half the class meeting standards, which is respectable for that grade. By fourth grade the proficiency rate drops to about half, and from fifth grade onward the picture deteriorates sharply. Sixth graders show proficiency in the low teens, seventh graders in the low twenties, and eighth graders achieve proficiency at a rate of less than five percent, with only a single student meeting standards in that cohort. This trajectory is steep and warrants close attention. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand what is driving the decline and what support is available for students who are not meeting standards.
English language arts shows a different, more volatile pattern. Third-grade proficiency is around half, fourth grade jumps to above eighty percent, fifth grade holds around sixty percent, sixth grade dips to the low forties, seventh grade rebounds to about half, and eighth grade stabilizes around half. The swings across grades suggest either variation in how well each cohort of students is performing, differences in instruction or curricular approach, or testing conditions that vary. The eighth-grade result in ELA is roughly level with state-wide performance, but the math proficiency for that same group is very low, indicating a significant gap between reading and math achievement.
Science assessment data covers only fifth and eighth grades. Fifth graders achieve proficiency around forty percent, and eighth graders around thirty percent. Both are below the threshold typically expected for grade-level competency.
Across tested subjects and grades, this school's overall proficiency index places it above the midpoint among the districts in Jefferson County. That position reflects the solid upper-elementary performance, particularly in fourth-grade ELA, which lifts the average even as upper-grade math drags it down. The comparison is useful context but should not obscure the fact that the school faces real gaps, particularly in middle-grade mathematics.
The enrollment is stable and small enough that individual classroom cohorts can be quite small. Staffing the school with adequate resources for such a dispersed grade structure in a tiny district is a structural constraint. The district as a whole serves about two hundred students across two schools, a scale that limits specialized support, intervention programs, and instructional flexibility.
Waltonville is a residential village with predominantly single-family homes, an older median age, and a long history tied to coal mining. The community is not growing and has experienced steady population decline over recent years. There are no major private employers within the village; residents work primarily in the Mount Vernon area or commute farther. Housing stock is largely older, with little new construction. This is a settled, quiet, rural place where families are multigenerational or seek a small-town environment.
The school sits on the west side of the village on West Knob Street. It is the principal civic gathering point in the community. Parents should expect a neighborhood school setting with a small enrollment, limited extracurricular breadth compared to larger districts, and direct relationships with staff. No data on special education support, English learner services, or gifted programs was available, so a parent should ask the school directly about those services if needed.
The path forward from Waltonville Grade School leads to a high school in the same district. The mathematics performance in this elementary and middle school is a practical consideration for any family: a student entering the school should expect to encounter instruction and peers performing below state proficiency in mathematics by middle grade, and the school should be asked directly how it addresses this gap and what intervention or support is available for students who need it.
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