Union School District 81

Union School District 81 has one listed school, Union Elementary School, serving kindergarten through grade 8 with 143 students. There are no other listed local schools to compare, so the clearest picture comes from comparing the school with Illinois and its own results over time. The most important finding is that in 2025–2026, the school was above the state in both all-grades subjects: ELA proficiency was 71% versus 56% statewide, and math proficiency was 52% versus 40%.

Union Elementary School is both the top and bottom school in this one-school list, so there is no local leader or laggard. Its available grade-specific results were also above state results wherever a school score was reported. The largest gaps were in grade 8: ELA was 100% versus 63% statewide, and science was 100% versus 52%. Grade 6 ELA was another strong result, at 81% compared with 59% statewide; the grade 7 ELA advantage was smaller, at 63% versus 58%. The reported science comparisons for grades 5 and 8 were above the state as well, though they do not represent an all-grades science result.

Results changed in different directions: from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, ELA rose by 1 point to 71%, while math fell by 9 points to 52%; the school remained above the state in both, but its advantage narrowed by 2 points in ELA and 10 points in math. SchoolDigger gives the school 4 stars and ranked it 358th of 1,737 schools, in the 79th percentile, in 2025–2026; it was in the 84th percentile in 2023–2024 and 80th in 2024–2025. Other context includes a student-teacher ratio of 11.5 in 2024–2025 and 37% free/reduced lunch eligible in 2024–2025. The grade-level results involve small groups, and some grade scores were not reported.