The Illinois State Board of Education released its report card Wednesday showing how schools are doing across the state.
Capitol News Illinois reports while challenges remain, leaders say the report shows gains in English Language Arts scores, teacher retention, and graduation rates.
State Superintendent Tony Sanders says the E-L-A proficiency rate for students at grade level is thirty-nine-point four percent, almost fourteen percent higher than last year.
“On average, every student group is now outperforming pre-pandemic proficiency rates in English Language Arts.”
However, math proficiency rates increased by less than four percent for a total of twenty-seven-point nine percent.
Even with a teacher shortage, the report shows Illinois has more teachers than ever. There are 137,212 teachers in Illinois, an increase of more than two thousand since 2023.
And the state is breaking records with its high school graduation rate. Eighty-seven-point-seven percent of students graduated in 2024.
But there are still areas that need work. High schoolers are having a harder time recovering from the pandemic compared to kids in grades three through eight.
I-S-B-E says this is because the state’s accountability system incentivizes graduation but not growth in high schools.
Leaders plan to develop a growth calculator for the 2024-2025 school year.
