Latest state school report card shows proficiency gains, persistent gaps
on racial lines
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[October 31, 2023]
By PETER HANCOCK
Capitol News Illinois
phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – Elementary and secondary students in Illinois showed
consistent improvements in their reading and math scores while the
state’s high school graduation rate reached a 13-year high for the most
recently concluded school year.
Those are some of the conclusions from the most recent annual statewide
school report card, released Monday by the Illinois State Board of
Education. The report includes data from the 2022-23 academic year,
including results of the standardized tests that students took in the
spring.
Although statewide average proficiency rates remained below pre-pandemic
levels, the results showed improvement over the previous year across all
demographic categories.
“Educators and families should be proud of the remarkable progress we
see on the 2023 Illinois report card while remaining focused on
understanding and meeting the students’ academic and social emotional
needs at this phase of recovery,” State Superintendent of Education Tony
Sanders said during a media briefing on the report.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Oct/31/images/ads/current/atlantabank_quarter_FFARM_2023.png)
Robin Steans, president of the education advocacy group Advance
Illinois, agreed that the report was positive overall, but said it also
contains some cautionary information, especially regarding racial
achievement gaps and attendance rates.
“I think there is some legitimately encouraging news in the new state
report card,” she said in a separate interview. “I think there's also a
lot of information that reminds us we've a lot of work to do still.”
The annual report card offers a look at how well individual schools,
districts and the state as a whole are performing across a wide range of
indicators. In addition to student performance on standardized tests,
the report also includes information about factors such as student
demographics, graduation rates, college readiness, career and technical
education, and school faculty.
Much of the public’s attention, however, focuses on the standardized
test scores, which are often seen as an indicator of how effectively
schools are teaching the basics of reading, writing and math, and what
kind of achievement gaps exist among different demographic groups.
English and math
Overall, the biggest area of improvement over the last year was in
English language arts, where the proficiency rate rose from 29.9 percent
to 34.6 percent.
That’s still below the 37.4 percent proficiency rate recorded in the
2018 to 2019 school year – the last before the COVID-19 pandemic caused
major interruptions the next few years. But last year’s gain translates
to roughly 39,000 more students than the year before who met or exceeded
grade level standards in reading and writing.
And while it may seem problematic that only about one-third of all
students are considered “proficient” in that subject, Sanders pointed
out that Illinois has among the highest standards in the country for
English language proficiency.
“So it's not possible to compare our proficiency rates to other states
because it's like comparing apples to oranges,” Sanders said.
Equally important, Sanders said, was the fact that there were
year-over-year gains across all demographic groups, although significant
gaps still exist between those groups.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Oct/31/images/ads/current/applegate_sda_FFARM_2023.png)
For example, a significant gap still existed between Black and white
students in English language arts proficiency. But on a percentage
basis, Black students saw the biggest gains in proficiency rates, rising
from 12.1 percent to 16.1 percent – a 33-percent increase.
Still, the gap between white and Black proficiency rates widened by more
than a full percentage point, as did the gap between white and Hispanic
students. White students had a proficiency rate of 44.9 percent compared
to 22.2 percent of Hispanic students and 16.1 percent for Black
students.
Sanders also emphasized that the low proficiency rates among Black
students is more a reflection on the state’s education system than on
the students themselves.
“We educate Black students disproportionately in underfunded ‘Tier 1’
school districts with more teacher vacancies, higher teacher and
principal turnover, higher chronic absenteeism,” he said, referring to
Illinois’ targeted system of education funding in which Tier 1 schools
receive the least amount of money from their local property tax base.
“So our Black students in general have less access to supports, to the
resources they need to learn at the rate to be on par with their peers,”
Sanders continued.
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In language arts assessments, Asian and white students outperform
their Black and Hispanic peers, although Black students saw a 25
percent jump in language arts performance. (Capitol News Illinois
graphic by Andrew Adams)
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Oct/31/images/ads/current/peasley_lda_051513.png)
Math scores also improved in 2023, although the gains were less
significant and the overall proficiency rate remained below pre-pandemic
levels. White students scored proficiency rates of 35.6 percent,
compared to 14.3 percent for Hispanic students and 8 percent for Black
students.
The statewide proficiency rate rose by just over one percentage point,
to 26.9 percent, while all demographic groups gained on their scores
from the year prior. As with English language arts, Black students saw
the biggest gain in proficiency rates, at 1.2 percentage points.
College and career readiness
The report card also includes several indicators of how well students
are progressing toward a successful completion of the preK-12 experience
and how ready they will be to enter college or the workforce.
Among the most basic of those metrics is the percentage of ninth graders
who are on track to graduate. That means at the end of their ninth-grade
year, they have earned at least five full-year course credits and have
received no more than one semester of an “F” in a core subject such as
English, math, science, or social studies.
In 2023, 87.4 percent of ninth-graders were on track to graduate – up
from 86.6 percent in 2022, and the same 86.6 percent in 2019.
According to ISBE, students who finish their ninth-grade year on track
are nearly four times as likely to graduate from high school as those
who are not on track.
Perhaps the most significant indicator, however, was growth in the
state’s high school graduation rate.
In 2023, the four-year graduation rate stood at 87.6 percent, the
highest level recorded in at least 13 years. Black and Hispanic students
also saw gains in graduation rates over that period.
ISBE did note, however, that the graduation rate was artificially
inflated at 88 percent during the pandemic year of 2020 when emergency
actions were taken to reduce graduation requirements by one semester.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Oct/31/images/ads/current/collision_lda_PPP_2023.png)
Chronic absenteeism
One area of concern reflected in the report card was the rate of chronic
absenteeism among students, defined as missing 10 percent or more of the
school year, regardless of whether it’s an excused or unexcused absence.
Last year, 28.7 percent of students were classified as chronically
absent. That was down from just below 30 percent the year before, but it
was still well above the pre-pandemic level of 17.5 percent.
The rate was even higher for minority and low-income students – 42.1
percent for Black students; 34.5 for Hispanic students; and 38.2 percent
for students classified as low-income.
“This should be very concerning,” Steans, of Advance Illinois, said. “As
I am around the state, this is not lost on anybody. And I think there's
a lot of energy and effort going into it, and rightly so. But we're just
not back where we want to be, by a lot.”
Overall, Sanders attributed improvements in the 2023 report card to
increased funding for public schools, the result of the Evidence-Based
Funding formula that went into effect in 2018.
“State funding for education has increased by $2.38 billion since the
enactment of EBF, and we see the results in many of the metrics that you
see today, but most especially in the four-year graduation rate for our
students,” he said.
Steans agreed, saying, “I think it is a reflection that funding is doing
what it's meant to do.”
She added that federal pandemic-related funds have also helped schools
better educate students.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Oct/31/images/ads/current/beasonag_sda_FFARM_2023.png)
“I think both of those have been used by schools and districts to put in
special supports for students, be they social and mental health
supports, be it tutoring, after-school programming, be it bringing in
more teachers or more reading specialist instructional coaches, things
like that,” she said. “I think both of those funding sources have really
been helpful and made a difference.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering
state government. It is distributed to hundreds of print and broadcast
outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press
Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major
contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern
Illinois Editorial Association. |