Illinois is in the minority of states graduating a higher percentage of students during the first two years of the pandemic. But state data shows those high school students’ SAT scores are dropping and a smaller percentage are immediately continuing onto higher education.
A higher rate of Illinois high school students has graduated since the pandemic, but with lower SAT scores and fewer of them headed to college soon after getting their diplomas.
Illinois is one of 20 states to increase its public school graduation rate during the first two years of the pandemic, based on an analysis of 44 responding states’ data by the EdWeek Research Center. The graduation rate in Illinois continued to increase in 2022.
Yet 11% fewer students graduating from Illinois public high schools are enrolling in U.S. colleges within the first 12 to 16 months after graduating, compared to 2019. The percent of high school students who met proficiency standards has fallen in both reading and math since 2019 as students record poorer performances on the SAT.
Illinois high school graduation rates up, college entry down
Proficiency and college enrollment rates sink lower for Illinois high school students as graduation rates gradually increase.
Illinois graduation rate increases
Graduation rates in Illinois have fluctuated since the onset of the pandemic. Overall, there has been a slight increase in Illinois’ graduation rate since 2019, the final graduation year prior to the pandemic.
Illinois’ four-year graduation rate increased to 87.3% in 2022, marking a 1.1 percentage point increase since 2019. In 2022, 260 Illinois school districts had a higher graduation rate than the statewide average, with 11 districts reporting a 100% graduation rate.
The graduation rate in 2020 was the highest in the past four years. The State Board of Education and Gov. J.B. Pritzker made adjustments to graduation requirements for the class of 2020 because in-person instruction was suspended at the end of the 2020 school year.
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