Summary:
The city of Waterloo, Illinois is home to three elementary schools that serve students from kindergarten through 5th grade: W.J. Zahnow Elementary School, Rogers Elementary School, and Gardner Elementary School. These schools are part of the Waterloo CUSD 5 district and serve the local community.
Among the three schools, Rogers Elementary School stands out as the top performer, consistently achieving high proficiency rates in both English Language Arts (ELA) and Math, with over 75% of students meeting or exceeding standards. The school has maintained a 4-star rating from SchoolDigger for several years, indicating its strong overall performance. In contrast, Gardner Elementary School has shown steady improvement, moving up in the state's ranking and achieving a 68.9% proficiency rate in ELA and 61.2% in Math for the 2024-2025 school year.
While the schools generally perform well, there are some areas of concern. All three schools have relatively high chronic absenteeism rates, around 25.4%, which may impact student learning and academic outcomes. Additionally, there are differences in the free and reduced lunch rates among the schools, with W.J. Zahnow Elementary School having the highest rate at 24.31%, suggesting potential equity issues that the district may need to address.
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