The reported proficiency rate for Science is 9%.
Original Research by School Decision on Walnut Grove Elem.
Walnut Grove Elementary serves preschool through second grade in the Ferguson-Florissant R-II district, which means it is an early-primary school where children spend only a few years before moving on to another building. That grade span shapes everything a family needs to know. There are no state test results for this school because the tested grades begin at third grade, so the academic performance data typical for older elementary schools simply does not apply here. The only proficiency figures available are from earlier years when the school served fifth graders, and those are from a test that has since changed its cut scores, making them unreliable for comparison. A family looking at this school will not find test-based evidence to judge, and that is not a flaw; it is the nature of the school being a pre-K-through-second-grade building.
The student body is overwhelmingly Black, with a very small share of white students and a modest number of students identifying as two or more races. Nearly every child at the school comes from a household with low enough income to qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a rate that is virtually universal. That level of economic concentration is a plain fact of the school's context and one a family may want to understand when considering the supports and resources available.
The school sits in Ferguson, a predominantly Black suburb in north St. Louis County. Ferguson has a historic downtown and a density that supports some walkability near the older core, but the surrounding residential areas and the three interstate highways that ring the city make car travel the norm. The city has seen substantial new commercial development in recent years, but its population has declined, and the departure of a major corporate headquarters early in 2025 represents a real shift in the local economic landscape. Housing in the zip code covering the school is modestly priced compared to the county and the nation, with home values that have slipped somewhat and rents that have risen. A family moving into the area would find an affordable housing market by regional standards.
The district itself is undergoing significant change, and that directly affects Walnut Grove. The Ferguson-Florissant district has experienced a steep enrollment decline over the past decade and has announced a restructuring plan for the 2027-28 school year that will likely involve school closures, boundary changes, or grade reconfiguration. The district has already closed two elementary schools and converted a high school into a selective STEAM academy. What that means for Walnut Grove families is that the school a child starts at in pre-K may not be the same school or the same configuration by the time that child reaches second grade. Stability of assignment is an open question.
Walnut Grove is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. It has no special program designation in the available data, and there is no information about course access, staffing ratios, or discipline patterns. The school does not serve upper elementary grades, so there is no graduation rate or college-going data to examine. What is clear is that this is a neighborhood school for the youngest children in a district that is actively reshaping its footprint. For a parent, the decision to enroll here is less about picking a school with a track record of test scores and more about plugging into a district that is in transition. A family considering Walnut Grove should be in close touch with the district about the restructuring plans and what they mean for their child's path through the early grades and beyond.
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