Wethersfield Elem School, Kewanee IL

Original Research by School Decision on Wethersfield Elem School

Wethersfield Elementary School is a small PreK through sixth-grade building located in Kewanee, a small city in northwestern Illinois. The school serves about three hundred students across eight grade levels in a single co-located campus that also houses Wethersfield's seventh and eighth grades in a separate building on the same grounds.

The student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful Hispanic enrollment and smaller populations of Black, multiracial, and Asian students. Free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility data was not available, so a parent seeking that information should contact the school directly. The school achieved full participation in state testing, meaning all eligible students were assessed.

Proficiency in English language arts shows a mixed picture by grade. Third grade proficiency was just under half; fourth grade outperformed that level by a larger margin; fifth grade reached a notably higher level; and sixth grade remained strong though slightly below fifth grade. Mathematics proficiency was more uneven: third grade mirrored ELA performance, but fourth grade fell substantially lower than third grade before recovering in fifth grade to a level above fourth grade; sixth grade math proficiency declined again from fifth grade. Science proficiency in fifth grade, the only grade tested in science at this school, was above both that grade's math and ELA performance. The school's overall proficiency index placed it below the midpoint among the nine other districts in Henry County that reported comparable data.

A parent should note that fourth grade math proficiency was a particular low point. This pattern, with strength in ELA at grades five and six but pronounced dips in math at grades four and six, is worth discussing directly with the school to understand whether specific interventions are in place or planned.

The school sits in Kewanee, a historically industrial and agricultural town that has experienced gradual population decline over the past several decades. Housing is notably affordable relative to state benchmarks, reflecting soft market conditions. The town retains a compact downtown with a Carnegie library and local parks but has faced challenges in maintaining commercial vitality and housing stock quality, as documented in a recent Illinois Housing Development Authority survey. For families moving into the area, it is worth understanding that Kewanee's economic base—historically centered on manufacturing and agriculture—has shifted, and the community is navigating that transition.

At the district level, Wethersfield CUSD 230 recently purchased a building intended to expand instructional and athletic space, freeing classroom capacity in its existing seventh and eighth grade facility. More important to a parent's household budget is that the district implemented a property tax levy increase large enough to trigger state notification requirements, with the school portion of a homeowner's bill rising noticeably in recent years. This pattern of levy growth should factor into any calculation of the true cost of home purchase in the district.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 349%

School 49% · District 49%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 418%

School 18% · District 18%

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 626%

School 26% · District 26%

▲ 2 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 349%

School 49% · District 49%

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 6 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 572%

School 72% · District 72%

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 662%

School 62% · District 62%

▲ 12 pts above state median

Science

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

This schoolWethersfield CUSD 230, 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.