Summary:
Zip code 61761 has eight elementary schools in Normal, all in McLean County Unified School District 5; most serve K–5, while Sugar Creek and Parkside serve PK–5. In 2025–2026, the schools’ unweighted averages were 51% in ELA and 35% in math, below state results of 56% and 40%; fifth-grade science averaged 52%, above the state’s 48%. The range from highest to lowest was 42 points in ELA, 41 in math, and 38 in science. The most important finding is how much results differ from one school to another, so area averages alone can hide sharply different school-level outcomes.
Prairieland and Grove stand out across subjects: Prairieland leads in math at 60% and science at 75%, and ranks second in ELA at 72%; Grove leads in ELA at 76% and is second in math at 57% and science at 65%. Both exceed the state in all three measures. At the lower end, Sugar Creek is last in ELA at 34% and math at 19%, while Oakdale is lowest in science at 38%. Sugar Creek is 7 points below the state in science, and Oakdale is 10 points below. Glenn is a subject-specific exception: its science result is 58%, despite low ELA and math scores.
Recent trends are mixed: the group’s ELA average rose by 1 point from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, while math fell by 4 points and science rose by 6; the state improved in all three. Prairieland and Colene Hoose improved in each subject, while Grove and Sugar Creek declined in each. SchoolDigger’s statewide rankings place Prairieland and Grove at the 80th and 79th percentiles, compared with the 20th for Oakdale and 23rd for Sugar Creek. As context, 2024–2025 free/reduced-lunch-eligible shares were 15% at Grove and 22% at Prairieland, versus 65% at Oakdale and 61% at Sugar Creek; these figures are observations, not explanations of results. Attendance also varies: chronic absenteeism was 9% at Grove and 9% at Prairieland, compared with 31% at Glenn and 30% at Sugar Creek.
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