Summary:
Elementary schools in zip code 60042 include one school, Cotton Creek School, serving pre-K through grade 5 and enrolling 580 students; its results are compared with the state and Wauconda CUSD 118. In 2025–2026, all-grades English Language Arts (ELA) was 64%, 8 percentage points above the state, and math was 44%, 5 points above. The clearest concern is that these overall results hide weaker fifth-grade comparisons, while the school’s all-grades math score has fallen.
Fourth grade stands out as the strongest comparison with the state: ELA was 78% versus 56% statewide, a 22-point advantage, and math was 55% versus 42%, a 13-point advantage. Fifth grade was the weakest relative to the state across the subjects reported: ELA was 54%, 1 point below the state; math was 29%, 8 points below; and science was 46%, 1 point below. There are no other schools in this list to rank against Cotton Creek, so these are state comparisons rather than local school rankings.
Results have moved in different directions over time. From 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, all-grades ELA rose 3 points, from 61% to 64%, while math fell 6 points, from 51% to 44%; the school’s math advantage over the state narrowed from 12 points to 5. Fifth-grade science edged up 1 point, but the state rose 7 points, leaving Cotton Creek 1 point below the state. SchoolDigger gives the school three stars and a rank of 801 out of 1,737, at the 54th percentile, down 15 percentile points from the prior year’s 69th percentile. Context figures include a 12:1 student–teacher ratio and 36% free/reduced lunch eligible in 2024–2025; chronic absenteeism was 17% in 2025–2026, below the district’s 20% and state’s 24%. With only one school listed, the data do not support school-to-school comparisons.
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