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 poorerperformances 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.
“What a special ribbon-cutting ceremony this week, as community members came together to celebrate the end of Build 220 construction at the Fields of Dreams, the varsity baseball field, and the new multi-purpose turf field at BHS!
These new and improved spaces will be used by BHS and youth athletic teams, as well as physical education classes. Thank you to the Barrington 220 community for supporting the March 2020 referendum, which made this work possible, as well as the many donors who enabled the district to install wonderful enhancements to the various spaces!”
Barrington School District 220 hired longtime school administrator Nathaniel Rouse as the district’s first-ever director of equity, race and cultural diversity initiatives in August of 2020. Apparently, Rouse recruits Board of Education candidates HE (and presumably his union) deems to be “sound” during school hours.
Posted Tuesday by CUSD 220:
“At the May 2 Barrington 220 Board of Education meeting, the new Board was sworn into office. New Board member Diana Clopton, along with re-elected Board members Barry Altshuler and Leah Collister-Lazzari, will all serve four-year terms on the Board.
Clopton and her husband moved to the Barrington area in 2011. They have two children who attend Prairie Campus and Station Campus. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign and a MBA from Northwestern University. Clopton currently works as an Associate Marketing Director at a bio-pharmaceutical company.”
Nirali Chauhan will be one of nine contestants on the upcoming season of “The Great American Baking Show,” which premieres Friday, May 5, on The Roku Channel. Chauhan graduated from Barrington High School in 2012. (Courtesy of Nirali Chauhan)
During her long recovery from a traumatic brain injury, one of the exercises that helped Nirali Chauhan was pretending to bake.
“Literally, we made a little kitchen for me in the rehab facility and would practice,” Chauhan, 29, said of her recovery team at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago. “There was a time when I couldn’t pivot in the kitchen, bend over to use an oven, let alone bake for hours.”
Viewers across the country soon can see Chauhan’s baking skills in action as a contestant on the new season of “The Great American Baking Show,” which premieres Friday on the Roku Channel.
During her time on the show, her recovery was never far from her mind.
“I’d be doing something and I’d remember practicing it in rehab, and it made me so grateful to everyone who’d helped me,” said Chauhan, who graduated from Barrington High School in 2012.
Chauhan was injured 8½ years ago during a visit home to Barrington from college. Her family was getting together to remember her father on the anniversary of his unexpected death. That day, the batteries on one of the family vehicles had died, so a neighbor was asked to come over and give the car a jump.
On his way, he accidentally accelerated his SUV instead of braking. Chauhan was struck and ended up on its hood. When the neighbor hit the brakes, she was abruptly thrown and landed hard on the pavement, first on her sacrum — a bone at the bottom of the spine — then her head.
Though she was able to resume her education, Chauhan’s lingering medical issues eventually forced her to put school on hold.
“Active Shooter Training Notice Friday, March 24, 2023 at Barrington High School
An active shooter training scenario is scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, March 24th at Barrington High School. Training for District 220 staff and officers from surrounding agencies will be participating. Please note that there will be increased police presence for this training.”
AND:
“TRAFFIC ALERT Hillside Avenue Closed Today at Union Pacific Tracks
Hillside Avenue is closed at the Union Pacific (Metra) tracks between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM today, Friday, March 24th while the Union Pacific completes track repairs. Detour signage will be in place during this work. Please plan accordingly.”
Note: Today is an, “In-Service Day,” and there will be no school.
“We’ve all heard about woke curriculum. However, the Barrington, IL District 220 is setting the woke bar to a new standard. Graphic sexually explicit content has been placed in the school libraries, and most of the school board is fully on board with it.”
Watch the enlightening and disturbing ten-minute video here.
The District 220 Board of Education’s (BOE) ‘Policy Committee,’ made up of Members Wilcox and Chan Ding meets tomorrow, February 14, at 8:00 AM at the District Office, 515 W. Main St. The meeting is open to the public, and we think presents a good opportunity to address some major policy concerns that have come out in the last several months. A copy of the agenda can be found here.
First, as we reported previously, BOE Member and incumbent candidate Leah Collister-Lazzari took a three week vacation/business trip(?) to New Zealand and is being investigated for violations of the Open Meetings Act (OMA) by calling into the December 20th BOE meeting and remotely voting on the District’s levy.
The OMA only allows a member to vote remotely on an action item if not physically present due to illness or traveling for Board business or traveling for one’s occupation. There is no doubt in most people’s minds that it is inconceivable that Collister-Lazzari was in New Zealand for three weeks on business, particularly where all evidence shows she is not even employed.
Second, the date of the Policy Committee meeting is rather opportune given that Member and incumbent candidate Barry Altshuler intends to violate District Policy 2:105 and participate in a live Q&A & V-Day donuts with the BHS Democrats at the high school at that same time.
Chapter 2 of the Barrington 220 School District Policy Manual specifically governs the actions of the BOE. Policy 2:105 prohibits political activity:
No Board member … shall intentionally use any District property or resources in connection with any political activity.
Altshuler is actively running for a second term on the school board in the upcoming April 4 election. In the four years he has been on the BOE, has he bothered to read the policies that govern his actions as a BOE Member?
If he gave it the same attention he gave to his oath to protect the doctor/patient relationship under HIPAA that precludes him from publicly discussing a patient’s care during a BOE meeting, we’d guess not. Did Altshuler ever apologize to Alex Strobl for that HIPAA violation?
Third, this would also be an opportune time for the Policy Committee to discuss the infringement on the property of the District’s logo (see below) for political purposes by incumbent candidates Collister-Lazzari and Altshuler.
The D220 logos are the property of the District and are being utilized by Collister-Lazzari and Altshuler on their campaign websites, social media, flyers and signs. Again, this use is a clear violation of Policy 2:105.
Additionally, we believe the use violates policies 5:125(7) and 8:90 which hold that personnel:
…Refrain from using the District’s logos without permission and follow Board policy 5:170, Copyright, and all District copyright compliance procedures, and
Parent organizations and booster clubs are recognized by the Board and permitted to use … any logo attributable to the District provided they first receive the Superintendent or designee’s express written consent.
So, are Altshuler and Collister-Lazzari superior to the employees and parents of the District such that they can ignore the requirements the BOE they are Members of places on those groups for the Superintendent’s written consent and appropriate District property in their own political campaign without it? We find it hard to believe the District would have provided such written consent.
But, if in fact permission was asked for and given, the public can then assume the District is explicitly endorsing candidates and engaging in electioneering. Perhaps an enterprising community member would like to ask these questions, as well as others, at the February 14th BOE Policy meeting.
Given Wilcox’s legal background and her unfortunate imminent departure from the BOE, we look forward to her position on these matters. Stay tuned…
The Barrington Breakfast Rotary Club invites local students pursuing vocational or trade careers and working toward an associate degree, diploma or certificate to apply for a $1,500 Career and Technical Education Scholarships. Rotary encourages education and will grant 15 scholarships this spring to students living in Chicago’s north, northwest and many western suburbs.
Career examples are auto mechanics, administrative assistants, heating/ventilating/air conditioning tech., computer tech., paralegal, pharmacy tech., human services, law enforcement, elder care and many other fields.
Candidates must be sponsored by their local Rotary club and show good high school grades in relevant subjects, work experience in their chosen field, volunteer work in their chosen field, good extracurricular activities, character recommendations and more. Rotary clubs will screen applicants and sponsor one or two students each to the suburban Rotary selection committee. That committee will interview and screen applicants further to help determine the vocational scholarship winners.
Information and the application form can be found here.
Students must submit their application to their local Rotary Club by early March.
The District 220 Board of Education meets this evening at 7:00 PM at the District Administration Center, 515 W. Main Street. Some of the topics on their agenda include:
Consideration to Approve Property Tax Levy
Consideration to Approve DLA Contract
Consideration to Approve Lease for BHS Lab
Consideration to Approve Summer Capital Roof Bid Award
Consideration to Approve Summer Capital Paving Rejuvenator Bid Award
Consideration to Approve Summer Capital Paving Projects Bid Award
Consideration to Approve Kindergarten Enrichment Fee, and
Consideration to Approve Summer School Fees
A copy of the agenda can be viewed here. The meeting will be live streamed on the district YouTube channel.
Barrington officials say a new path linking the village’s downtown with Barrington High School will provide bicyclists and pedestrians with safety as well as convenience. (Brian Hill | Staff Photographer)
Walkers and bikers in Barrington soon will be able to use a new eight-foot-wide multiuse path on Main Street and Hart Road near Barrington High School.
The path will provide a new connection between existing sidewalks in downtown Barrington and a new sidewalk and path constructed as part of the recent Hart Road and Route 14 intersection improvement project, which included a new bridge over Flint Creek.
Work on the path reached its final stages this week with the placing of asphalt pavement. That will be followed by minor grading and concrete work. The goal is to have the path open by winter.
Barrington officials are thrilled at the prospect of the project’s long-awaited completion.
By Jeanne Hanson
