Summary:
The five elementary schools in East St. Louis School District 189 serve 1,983 students across kindergarten through grade 4 or 5, except Wyvetter Younge School of Excellence, which serves through grade 8. In 2025–2026, the schools’ unweighted average proficiency was 37% in English Language Arts (ELA) and 23% in mathematics, compared with state averages of 56% and 40%. Most important, no school’s all-grades result reached the state average in either subject.
Wyvetter Younge leads in all-grades ELA at 47%, while Katie Harper-Wright Elementary is lowest at 23—a 23-point spread. James Avant Elementary School leads all-grades mathematics at 36%; the other schools’ results range from about 16% to 30%, and the group’s high-to-low spread is 21 points. Grade-level results show a different picture: James Avant leads grade 3 ELA and mathematics, while Annette Officer Elementary leads reported grade 4 mathematics at 32%. In grade 4 ELA, Dunbar Elementary School and Annette are nearly tied at 40.3% and 40.2%, respectively, though both are below the state’s 56%.
Group averages rose only slightly from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026—about 1 point in ELA and less than 1 point in mathematics—while the gaps to the state widened by about 2 and 1 points, respectively. James Avant’s mathematics result improved by 7 points, but Annette Officer’s fell by 4; results varied by school and subject. SchoolDigger’s latest statewide percentile placement is highest for James Avant at 27 and lowest for Katie Harper-Wright at 2; placements fell from 2023–2024 for all five schools. Annette Officer also has the group’s lowest chronic absenteeism, 18%, below the state’s 24%; the other schools are above the state rate. All five schools report all students receive free meals (Community Eligibility) for 2024–2025, so that measure does not distinguish them. Student-teacher ratios range from 9.7 at James Avant to 15.2 at Wyvetter Younge. Different grade spans mean all-grades results are not fully comparable.
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