Here are the 5 best elementary, middle schools in St. Clair County, according to Niche

Kelly Smits
·8 min read

A site known for its national school ratings and reviews recently released its K-12 rankings for the 2023-24 school year.

Niche rated more than 3,000 public elementary and middle schools in Illinois, including 72 in St. Clair County.

The site uses a combination of public data from the U.S. Department of Education as well as millions of reviews and survey responses from parents and students to determine its annual rankings.

Its methodology for the public elementary and middle school rankings is the same. The following five weighted factors go into each school’s ranking:

  • An academics grade, which is worth 50% and based on state assessment proficiency and survey responses from parent and students

  • A teachers grade, which is worth 20% and based on teacher salary and absenteeism, state test results and survey responses from parent and students

  • A district overall grade, which is worth 15% and based on a “rigorous analysis of academic and student life data along with millions of reviews from students and parents”

  • A culture and diversity grade, which is worth 10% and based on racial and economic diversity and survey responses from parent and students

  • Parent/student surveys on overall experience, which are worth 5% and scored on a scale of one to five

With the schools ranked, Niche then assigns a letter grade based on how each school performs compared to other schools, using a predetermined distribution.

Half of a school’s ranking is determined by its academic grade, which is in large part based on proficiency — or how students perform on standardized state testing for reading and math. The grade does not take into account a school’s academic growth, which indicates progress students are making on those state tests. Many argue that academic growth, or a hybrid of growth and proficiency, is a better metric of a school’s performance than proficiency alone.

To ensure consistency across all schools in the country, Niche uses the most recent school proficiency data available from the U.S. Department of Education, which has a delay due to the way it checks and processes data. Niche’s 2024 rankings rely on proficiency data from the 2020-21 school year. The 2023 rankings used proficiency data from the 2018-19 school year, since the Department of Education didn’t release data for the 2019-20 school year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In St. Clair County, Mascoutah Community Unit School District 19 and O’Fallon Community Consolidated School District 90 have the five best public elementary schools, according to Niche.

For middle schools, Smithton Community Consolidated School District 130, Freeburg Community Consolidated School District 70 and Wolf Branch School District 113 join Mascoutah 19 and O’Fallon 90 in the top five.

Across all 10 schools, reading proficiency rates decreased by an average 13% and math by an average of 9% from the 2023 rankings that relied on 2018-19 school year data to the 2024 rankings relying on 2020-21 school year data. Only two schools saw a proficiency rate improve. Both Estelle Kampmeyer Elementary School and Mascoutah Middle School’s math proficiency rates improved by 5%.

Here’s how the top five public elementary and middle schools in St. Clair County compare, according to Niche.

Elementary schools

5. Mascoutah Elementary School (Mascoutah 19)

Grades: A overall, A academics, A- teachers, B diversity

Mascoutah Elementary School moved down one spot from fourth place in the 2023 rankings to fifth place in the 2024 rankings.

The school has 815 students from pre-K to eighth grade, with a student-teacher ratio of 17-to-1. The average teacher salary is $50,693.

According to state test scores, 49% of students were at or above proficiency in reading for the 2020-21 school year (down from 62% for the 2018-19 school year), and 42% were at or above proficiency in math (down from 61%).

4. Estelle Kampmeyer Elementary School (O’Fallon 90)

Grades: A overall, A academics, A teachers, B+ diversity

Estelle Kampmeyer Elementary School joined the top five in the 2024 rankings, coming in at fourth place. In the 2023 rankings, it ranked eleventh.

The school has 450 students from pre-K to fifth grade with a student-teacher ratio of 18-to-1. The average teacher salary is $45,019.

According to state test scores, 47% of students were at or above proficiency in both reading and math for the 2020-21 school year, down from 62% in reading and up from 42% in math for the 2018-19 school year.

3. Wingate Elementary School (Mascoutah 19)

Grades: A overall, A- academics, A teachers, A- diversity

Wingate Elementary School moved up two spots from fifth place in the 2023 rankings to third place in the 2024 rankings.

The school has 488 students from pre-K to fifth grade with a student-teacher ratio of 17-to-1. The average teacher salary is not indicated.

According to state test scores, 47% of students were at or above proficiency in reading for the 2020-21 school year (down from 52% for the 2018-19 school year), and 37% were at or above proficiency in math (down from 57%).

2. J. Emmett Hinchcliffe Sr. Elementary School (O’Fallon 90)

Grades: A overall, A academics, A teachers, B+ diversity

J. Emmett Hinchcliffe Sr. Elementary School swapped spots with Scott Elementary School, moving from first place in the 2023 rankings to second place in the 2024 rankings.

The school has 428 students from pre-K to fifth grade with a student-teacher ratio of 18-to-1. The average teacher salary is $46,575.

According to state test scores, 47% of students were at or above proficiency in reading for the 2020-21 school year (down from 59% for the 2018-19 school year), and 62% were at or above proficiency in math (down from 64%).

1. Scott Elementary School (Mascoutah 19)

Grades: A overall, A academics, B+ teachers, A- diversity

Scott Elementary School moved from second place in the 2023 rankings to first place in the 2024 rankings.

The school has 742 students from pre-K to fifth grade with a student-teacher ratio of 15-to-1. The average teacher salary is $42,326.

According to state test scores, 54% of students were at or above proficiency in reading for the 2020-21 school year (down from 63% in the 2018-19 school year), and 44% were at or above proficiency in math (down from 56%).

Middle schools

5. Fulton Junior High School (O’Fallon 90)

Grades: A overall, A- academics, A- teachers, A- diversity

Fulton Junior High School moved down two spots from third place in the 2023 rankings to fifth place in the 2024 rankings.

The school has 656 students from sixth to eighth grades with a student-teacher ratio of 21-to-1. The average teacher salary is $44,010.

According to state test scores, 42% of students were at or above proficiency in reading for the 2020-21 school year (down from 60% for the 2018-19 school year), and 33% were at or above proficiency in math (down from 46%).

4. Smithton Elementary School (Smithton 130)

Grades: A- overall, A academics, A- teachers, C- diversity

Smithton Elementary School also moved down two spots from second place in the 2023 rankings to fourth place in the 2024 rankings.

The school has 561 students from pre-K to eighth grade with a student-teacher ratio of 16-to-1. The average teacher salary is $47,697.

According to state test scores, 47% of students were at or above proficiency in reading for the 2020-21 school year (down from 63% for the 2018-19 school year), and 45% were at or above proficiency in math (down from 59%).

3. Freeburg Elementary School (Freeburg 70)

Grades: A- overall, A academics, A+ teachers, C diversity

Freeburg Elementary School moved up one spot from fourth place in the 2023 rankings to third place in the 2024 rankings.

The school has 512 students from third to eighth grades with a student-teacher ratio of 13-to-1. The average teacher salary is $64,839.

According to state test scores, 51% of students were at or above proficiency in reading for the 2020-21 school year (down from 64% for the 2018-19 school year), and 39% were at or above proficiency in math (down from 51%).

2. Wolf Branch Middle School (Wolf Branch 113)

Grades: A overall, A academics, A teachers, A- diversity

Wolf Branch Elementary School moved down a spot from first place in the 2023 rankings to second place in 2024 rankings.

The school has 312 students from fifth to eighth grades with a student-teacher ratio of 16-to-1. The average teacher salary is $57,819.

According to state test scores, 47% of students were at or above proficiency in reading for the 2020-21 school year (down from 65% for the 2018-19 school year), and 46% were at or above proficiency in math (down from 56%).

1. Mascoutah Middle School (Mascoutah 19)

Grades: A overall, A academics, A teachers, A- diversity

Mascoutah Middle School made the jump from seventh place in the 2023 rankings all the way to first place in the 2024 rankings.

The school has 934 students from sixth to eighth grades with a student-teacher ratio of 16-to-1. The average teacher salary is $52,606.

According to state test scores, 48% of students were at or above proficiency in reading for the 2020-21 school year (down from 59% for the 2018-19 school year), and 44% are at or above proficiency in math (up from 39%).