Summary:
Alton has six schools in Alton CUSD 11, serving students from kindergarten through high school: four elementary schools, one middle school and one high school. Four schools have test results in the supplied data; Lovejoy Elementary School and Eunice Smith Elementary School, which serve kindergarten through grade 2, do not. The clearest area-wide concern is that every reported subject result at the other four schools was below its corresponding state result in 2025–2026; the average gap was largest in ELA, at 20 points.
East Elementary School stands out against West Elementary School: East led in all-grade ELA by 8 points (39% versus 31%), math by 5 points (30% versus 25%) and grade 5 science by 7 points (36% versus 28%). West did better in grade 3 math, leading by 2 points. Still, West had the largest state-relative weakness among these results: its all-grade ELA was 25 points below the state, compared with East’s 17-point gap. At the secondary level, Alton High School trailed the state by 14 to 17 points across its three ACT subjects. SchoolDigger ranked West at the 9th percentile and Alton Middle School at the 10th in 2025–2026, the lowest recent rankings among these schools.
Recent score changes show little progress in closing the state gaps overall: the average ELA gap widened by about 2 points and math by 1 point from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026. Science improved at the tested elementary and middle schools—grade 5 results rose by 10 points at East and 11 at West—but the average science gap widened by about 1 point because state results also rose. East and West are similar in size and staffing ratios: 415 and 407 students, with ratios of 12.9 and 13.2 students per teacher. Both reported free/reduced lunch eligible figures for 2024–2025; East’s was 65% and West’s 57%, despite East’s stronger results on most comparable measures. These figures offer context, not an explanation for score differences.
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