By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints
A quick glance at the Illinois State Board of Education’s new 2023 Illinois Report Card will leave you thinking things are relatively good in Illinois’ schools. The board’s press release says “families should be proud of the remarkable progress we see.” It claims the “2023 Illinois Report Card shows strong progress with increased proficiency rates and highest graduation rate in 13 years.” And the subtitle goes on: “Improvement in many indicators led by gains for black students.”
But Wirepoints has analyzed the 2023 data and found there’s little to cheer about. Yes, 2023 student outcomes are somewhat improved over 2022, but they are still below pre-covid 2019 levels. And that’s despite a whopping $6 billion increase in operating expenses statewide.
Below we list out five counterpoints to ISBE’s hopeful rhetoric, including two that refute their main headlines.
- 2023 student outcomes are still below pre-covid 2019 despite a 30% per student spending increase over that time.
Reading and math proficiencies are still behind their pre-covid levels despite a $4,200 increase in per student operational spending since 2019 – 30% more.
The number of school students reading at grade level was just 34.6% in 2023, lower than the 37.4% in 2019.
Outcomes were even worse in math. Just 26.9% were proficient in 2023 vs 32.0% in 2019.
- A “record-breaking” graduation rate means little as SAT math scores hit new a low.
ISBE continues to make a big deal about its ever-increasing graduation rates even as fewer and fewer high school students test proficient on the SAT.
Illinois SAT scores have been on a general decline ever since they were first introduced in 2017. That year, 39.8% of students tested proficient in reading and 36.4% were proficient in math. Yet 87% graduated
In 2023, the graduation rate improved to 87.6%, yet math proficiency has fallen to a record low of just 26.7% of students and reading is at a near-low of 31.6%.
Read more here.
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