Central Elem., Union MO - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Central Elem.

Central Elementary serves students in prekindergarten through fifth grade in the Union R-XI district. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet school. The student body is predominantly white, with a modest share of students who identify as two or more races, a small Hispanic population, and very small numbers of Black and American Indian or Alaska Native students. About half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker that places the school in a middle range economically for an elementary school in this area.

Academic results from the Missouri Assessment Program show a mixed picture that shifts by grade and subject. In third-grade math, roughly two-thirds of students scored at the proficient level or above, a strong showing. Fifth-grade math was close to that mark, while fourth-grade math was noticeably lower. In English language arts, performance was softer at third grade, where roughly half of students met the proficiency threshold. By fourth and fifth grades, ELA proficiency rates were higher, landing in the mid-to-high range. Fifth-grade science results were the school’s strongest, with a substantial majority of students reaching proficiency. When looking at the full set of tested subjects and grades, Central Elementary’s overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among schools in Franklin County.

The school is part of a district that has been active in recent years. In spring 2024, voters approved a bond issue to build a new elementary school and renovate the middle school, a sign that the district is responding to enrollment growth without raising the property tax rate. The district also adopted a new K-5 English language arts curriculum for the 2024-2025 school year, shifting to a structured literacy approach based on the science of reading. A full-day preschool program was introduced at another elementary school, and the district transitioned to standards-based grading for grades K-5, replacing traditional letter grades with a proficiency scale. These changes suggest a district that is investing in early learning and curriculum reform.

Union itself is the county seat of Franklin County, a community that combines government functions with a downtown commercial district, growing subdivisions, and manufacturing. The population has been increasing steadily. Home values are moderate relative to the state, and rents are manageable compared with national averages. The housing market is neither unusually expensive nor particularly cheap for the region. The town is car-dependent, with civic life split between a downtown government cluster and separated school and college campuses.

For a family considering Central Elementary, the school offers a solid academic foundation with particular strength in early math and fifth-grade science. The ELA results are more uneven, and a parent who values strong reading outcomes in the early primary years may want to ask the school about the new literacy curriculum’s implementation and how it is tracking. The steady enrollment growth and the district’s recent investments in facilities and curriculum point to a system that has momentum and is planning for the future. The school’s racial and economic diversity is limited, a characteristic of the community itself. A family looking for a traditional public elementary school in a growing, family-oriented county seat where the district is actively evolving its programs would find Central Elementary a reasonable match. The missing data on chronic absenteeism and special education services means a parent cannot fully assess student support and attendance patterns from this profile alone.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 367%

School 67% · District 60% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 55%

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 54% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 352%

School 52% · District 51% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 49% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 55% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Science

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 57% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

This schoolUNION R-XI, 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income49%Higher-income74%25 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income58%Higher-income77%19 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income47%Higher-income64%18 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income40%Higher-income86%45 pp gap