Advance Illinois Statement on the 2025 Illinois Report Card

Data in the 2025 Illinois Report Card offer a nuanced view of how Illinois K-12 schools and students are faring – with reasons to celebrate, as well as areas where further attention and work will be needed to ensure every Illinois student has the resources and supports needed to thrive. 

"It is encouraging to see continued gains on some critical metrics and some narrowing disparities between student groups – Illinois students are continuing to recover from COVID, and it shows,” said Robin Steans, Advance Illinois President. “But inequities persist and some stagnating and worrisome data points underscore important ongoing challenges.” 

Where We’re Celebrating 

Most notably, Illinois students are graduating from high school at among the highest rates in years. This past school year, the 4-year graduation rate was 89% - reflecting an increase from the previous year and an ongoing upward trend. Importantly, continued improvement on this metric was seen across student groups, and while disparities persist, gaps are closing. Further, it is worth highlighting the strong growth of English Learners. Indeed, their gap to the overall graduation rate was 14.2 percentage points pre-pandemic, and has shrunk to 8.7 percentage points. This progress can be attributed to the tireless and collaborative work of educators, families, and the students themselves. 

It comes as little surprise, then, that a key indicator for high school graduation - 9th grade on track – continues to improve as well. The 9th grade on track rate increased from 88.2% in 2024 to 89.3% in 2025. And while equity gaps persist across student groups, for Black students, the gap to the statewide average has shrunk markedly since 2019, from 12.1 percentage points to 7.8 percentage points in 2025. Students with IEPs also showed significant progress and are surpassing pre-pandemic levels.  

Thanks to the Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS), we have a window into children’s readiness as they begin K-12 schooling. Since its launch in 2018, an overall increase in the assessment’s participation rate is allowing educators and state officials to gain more accurate insight into the needs of young learners. There has been significant growth in the percent of incoming kindergartners demonstrating readiness across all 3 developmental domains since 2018, and steady improvement in the number of students not ready in any area. That said, results were largely flat this year. We will continue monitoring these metrics closely – the survey being an important tool for identifying instructional and intervention needs early on to ensure every child gets a strong start in school. 

What We’re Watching 

In 2024, the state announced it would revert to the ACT for its required high school accountability assessment. At the same time, the state also changed the benchmarks it would use to report proficiency, and changed the way in which it shares data from this assessment. As we all adjust to these changes and although the ACT has undergone its own changes since the last statewide administration in 2017, it is worth noting that the composite score for state students on the ACT is 18.8, over a point below state composite averages when the ACT was last administered statewide. Moreover, using the proficiency rates reported by the state, it is clear that significant gaps in English Language Arts and Math exist across lines of race and income. While more administration of the test is needed to fairly assess how students are doing, 2025 Report Card data highlights significant gaps to the statewide averages for proficiency— 51.7% in Math and 39.3% in reading among student groups, and most demonstrably for Black and Latinx students.   

Similarly, a recent change to IAR cut scores for determining proficiency means we are unable to compare proficiency rates from 2025 with those of 2024 and years prior. We expect to have access to the underlying scale scores in the coming weeks, and will plan to analyze and issue a statement on what that data reveal about the underlying gains that students may have experienced. Regardless, in the elementary grades, too, equity gaps persist: where White and Asian students outperform the state average, Black and Latinx students perform below the state average in both Math and ELA. Report Card data show that English Learners, students with disabilities, have IEPs or are from low-income households are also proficient at rates much lower than the statewide average. Indeed, students with IEPs have the lowest proficiency rate of any other student group, suggesting more targeted support is needed. 

Stewarding our Educator Pipeline to Support Our Students 

We applaud the state for its ongoing work to build the educator workforce. The efforts are paying off with ongoing and steady growth as the state added nearly 700 teachers last year. Since 2019, teacher FTE has grown by more than 5%, reducing class sizes considerably. At the same time, teacher retention is also high and surpassing pre-pandemic levels, posting a 3.8 percentage point increase from 2019. But there’s still work to do. Despite the increasing diversity of Illinois’ k-12 student population, teacher diversity improved just slightly last year. For example, although Illinois has more Latinx teachers, they represent just 8.9% of the teacher workforce, while Latinx students now represent more than 28% of all K-12 students in Illinois. 

The Right Direction but ...: Chronic Absenteeism 

In our latest report, The State We’re In 2025: A Report on Public Education in Illinois, we explored the various conditions impacting student learning – critical among them being a student’s time in the classroom. Chronic absenteeism (defined as missing 10% or more of school days regardless of excuse) remains one of the most alarming and persistent issues stemming from the pandemic. Where once (2018), average chronic absenteeism was just 17%, that rate rose dramatically and despite modest improvement, remains at 25.4% statewide. Worse still, chronic absenteeism is significantly severe for students of color (39.3% for Black students and 31.7% for Latinx students), for students from low-income households (35.1%), and other student groups. And chronic absenteeism is at an alarming 40.1% for CPS students. Research has long made clear the impact of absenteeism on student learning. A recent IWERC report underscored that since 2019, the negative relationship between IAR scores and days absent has worsened. For a 3rd grader in 2023, each additional day absent resulted in a 0.31 decline in IAR Math score compared to -0.26 for a 3rd grader in 2019. So while it is good news that chronic absenteeism declined by .9%, we have a great deal of work to do.  

What the research tells us about the state of student mental health may offer some insight – from 2007 to 2023, the percentage of high school students who feel sad or hopeless grew from 29.6% in 2009 to 40.4% of students in 2023, and still that is a far cry from fully understanding what all is at play in keeping students out of school. It is therefore heartening to live in a state that is urgently working to understand what is impacting students and their communities – lately through tools like the Children’s Adversity Index – and do something about it through initiatives like the statewide initiatives implemented by the state included the SEL Hubs and RSSI. But the work ahead remains considerable. A deeply systemic approach to addressing childhood trauma is needed more than ever. Even now while there has been in a slight improvement in the ratio of school support personnel (nurses, counselors, school psychologists, social workers) to students, Illinois still trails the levels recommended to ensure every student can access care that supports their resiliency. 

Finally, it is clear that postsecondary enrollment, which stood at 73% in 2019, has not yet recovered from the vicissitudes of COVID. According to the State Report Card, 66% of Illinois high school graduates enrolled in postsecondary within 16 months.  CPS enrollment has also suffered, and 16-month enrollment stands at 64%, and while that number is down, it compares more favorably than the state as a whole. Importantly, at both the state and Chicago level, significantly more high school graduates are enrolling in 4-year colleges than 2-year – a gap that has widened. 

In Conclusion 

At a moment when school districts, communities, educators, families, and students are being asked to navigate and respond to significant challenges, we want to recognize the real improvements we have seen in kindergarten readiness and high school graduation since 2018. But we would be remiss not to point out where the data tell us there is tough work ahead. Our chronic absenteeism, along with languishing ACT scores and postsecondary enrollment rates remind us that the impact of COVID is still being felt, and we need to double-down on both rigor and support. And while we are adding needed staff and retention rates are stable and relatively high, teacher attendance suggests that classroom professionals are also feeling the strain of ongoing student mental health issues. 

 As for elementary academic progress, changes in IAR cut scores make it difficult to assess how much academic progress we made this past year. We look forward to reviewing underlying scale scores as they become available and revisiting this important issue.  

In the meantime, let’s celebrate what’s working, and recommit to providing more rigor and more support.  

Advance Illinois Statement on ISBE’s Release of The Children’s Adversity Index

Today, we applaud the Illinois State Board of Education’s (ISBE) release of the Children’s Adversity Index. We hope and expect the tool will positively impact general awareness of mental health issues present in every corner of the state, and inform the level and quality of support communities, districts, and the state provide students. 

“The Adversity Index enables Illinois to better, more thoroughly understand and support the mental health and well-being of Illinois children and students,” said Advance Illinois President Robin Steans. “Whether that’s through more state investments, targeted healthcare services, or greater amplification of community experiences, this tool will help leaders see data on a variety of related factors all in one place and inform decisions that help students thrive.” 

Passed into law in 2023 (P.A. 103-0413) and informed by findings from the Whole Child Task Force, the Children’s Adversity Index is research-driven and uses data from across a range of domains, including healthcare access, education access, economic conditions, and family and community stability. Considered together, these factors create unprecedented, useful, and transparent windows of insight into community well-being across Illinois. 

Traumatic childhood experiences – often called Adverse Childhood Experiences – do not just happen in isolation, but impact and are impacted by the communities in which they occur. 

A wealth of research shows the impact trauma has on students’ ability to focus, learn and achieve. The environmental view this Index provides offers the public and leaders at the district and state level critical insights into what resources and supports are needed to ensure every Illinois student’s needs are met. Importantly, the Index underscores that children in every region of the state are affected by trauma, and we need a statewide and systemic approach. 

ISBE’s release of the Children’s Adversity Index marks an important step in the state’s ongoing efforts to respond to childhood trauma through schools, where studies show students are most likely to access mental health support and social emotional learning. 

The release of the Children’s Adversity Index, while years in the making, could not come at a more critical time. Students and communities continue to grapple with the aftereffects of the coronavirus pandemic, including on mental health. The Index makes clear that our children need trauma-informed and –responsive resources in every school. At the same time, the Department of Education recently announced that it would end $1billion in grants for mental health services for children, removing critical resources despite ongoing need. 

“Now that we have such important ground-level information, it is up to us to put it to good use – by paying attention and responding to the issues this index illuminates,” Steans said. 

We celebrate the state’s continued progress in ensuring every district has what it needs to holistically support student well-being; this new Index underscores how urgent this work continues to be.  

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About Advance Illinois  

Advance Illinois is an independent bipartisan policy and advocacy nonprofit organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career, and civic life. 

Advance Illinois Statement on Status of the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship

According to research, students do better in school when they have diverse teachers: When a student has a teacher who looks like them, they are more likely to score well on tests, consistently come to school, and graduate. Studies attribute this impact at least in part to the culturally responsive practices and mindsets that teachers of color often bring to the classroom – all of which have a positive impact on students generally, and on students of color in particular.   

It was these research-based insights that drove the state to create the Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship program more than 30 years ago. Going to college is expensive. Through MTI, Illinois has helped reduce this ‘cost to entry’ for students who aspire to a career in teaching but come from limited family wealth. Impressively, Illinois has awarded over 13,000 scholarships since the program’s start.   

In response to a lawsuit challenging MTI, the General Assembly recently considered legislation that would create a new program, the Teachers of Illinois Scholarship.  We were pleased to see that this new program would still be dedicated to growing the teacher pipeline and to making it easier for students with financial need and from high need districts to become classroom educators. And while that is heartening, there is little doubt that a change from MTI to this new program will reduce the diversity of Illinois’ teacher pipeline, despite research making plain how important it is to student learning.  The measure passed the house, but did not move in the Senate, so while we have insight into what may happen in the future, for now MTI remains on the books in Illinois.   

“We appreciate the state’s ongoing commitment to growing and strengthening the teacher pipeline. Well-prepared teachers are the single most important factor in student learning,” according to Robin Steans, President of Advance Illinois. “That said, it is sad that Illinois is being pushed to turn its back on a program that is research-based and designed to tackle persistent opportunity and achievement gaps.”   

While diversity is a key goal in the educator pipeline, students are also harmed by shortages in particular areas such as special education and bilingual education, and in specific geographies and types of schools, particularly high-poverty schools. We appreciate the efforts to continue to prioritize these pipeline needs in the proposed legislation.  

It must be emphasized – particularly in today’s broader political environment - that to pretend race and racial disparities do not exist is to consign ourselves to perpetuating longstanding inequities.    

“We can all agree that discrimination on the basis of race is wrong, and understand that we have a responsibility to address ongoing disparities in our educational and economic systems that have been driven by historical race-based discrimination,” Steans said. “When the research tells us it matters that we have teachers of color in our classrooms, we should be ready to respond – exactly as Illinois has for the past thirty years.”  

MTI is a perfect example of why this works. The affordability supports provided through MTI were working to address the harmful consequences of decades of disparities driven by economic and educational policies; policies which have presented Black and Latinx students with massive barriers in accessing higher education, including disproportionate challenges meeting high and rising costs.   

Without MTI, we will not be able to make the same amount of progress towards closing the student and teacher diversity gap, which harms so many of our K-12 students. That is a great loss for students in our state and will impede our progress towards equitable student outcomes. 

This will not be the last instance of tension between the goals and priorities of our state and those of the new federal administration. We look to state leaders to continue to do the best possible work with the resources and capabilities at hand—always keeping student needs as the north star—and we look forward to partnering with state policymakers in this work. 

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About Advance Illinois 

Advance Illinois is an independent bipartisan policy and advocacy nonprofit organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career, and civic life. 

Advance Illinois Statement Regarding the FY26 State Budget

Recent and pending federal policy actions are impacting education access and complicating Illinois’ fiscal decision-making for FY26. In the teeth of significant uncertainty, the Illinois General Assembly passed a budget filled with hard choices; one that takes efforts to protect important investments for Illinois children and students, even as it misses key opportunities to double down on progress the state has made to improve quality and access. 

“We recognize and appreciate the efforts the Governor and lawmakers have made to protect public education, but hope we can and will find ways to further strengthen support for early childhood, K12, and higher education,” said Robin Steans, president of Advance Illinois. 

Supporting Our Youngest Learners 

Our state has long acknowledged the importance of a strong start for young children in Illinois, so we commend the General Assembly’s continued commitment to investing in early childhood education and care for FY26. Increases to the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) ($75M) and the Smart Start Workforce Grants ($90M) to replace expiring federal relief help support program affordability, workforce retention, and quality care – all of which are crucial to a strong system. 

That said, there were some notable budget casualties. The Early Childhood Block Grant (ECBG) received insufficient funding to expand Preschool for All and Prevention Initiative programs, undermining the state’s goal to provide universal preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds by 2027. At the same time, level funding for the Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity (ECACE) scholarship program fails to meet growing workforce demands and provide the critical support needed to help future early childhood educators complete their degrees; Five million dollars is simply not enough to address shortages in providers and stave off the negative implications for children and families when well-prepared providers are unavailable. 

As federal support wanes and the new Illinois Department of Early Childhood continues to take shape, sustained and increased state investments remain critical to ensuring all young children in Illinois have access to the care and education they need to thrive. 

Funding Concerns for K-12 Schools 

In what was anticipated to be a tough fiscal environment, we appreciate the difficult choices lawmakers confronted when considering support for Illinois’ public k-12 student and schools. First, we applaud the state for maintaining funding for critical systemic mental health supports in the form of the REACH pilot and SEL hubs. Every data point we have reminds us that students in every corner of the state are struggling, so while a larger investment is needed, this ongoing investment is as compassionate as it is critical. 

As for the big picture, at $307M, the investment into the Evidence-Based Funding Formula (EBF) provides important and vital support to school districts, though it foregoes opportunities to reduce local property taxes and falls below the minimum funding called for in statute. When EBF was first signed into law in 2017, 169 school districts were funded at 60% or below full funding. Today, just 1 district is. But over 1.3 million students still attend schools in underfunded districts – districts that are disproportionately rural and urban and that serve students from low-income households, English language learners, and Black and Latinx students. Further, the fact that all Mandated Categoricals (except those statutorily required to be funded at 100%) will be held at level funding for FY26 means districts face increased proration and growing budget gaps. This in turn means EBF funds will likely be used to backfill mandates, rather than addressing critical gaps. Therefore, while we applaud efforts to maintain EBF increases, the hard truth is that we have work to do here. 

Ensuring Quality by Supporting Our Educators 

Given how fundamental a diverse, well-supported, and well-prepared teacher workforce is to driving student growth and achievement, we are pleased that several critical programs were included in the final budget. We are also pleased to see ongoing or increased support for key strategies that allow Illinois to grow and strengthen its educator pipeline. Investments in teacher coaching and mentoring ($5M) help support retention of early career educators and new school leaders and are the type of state-level investments Illinois should continue to prioritize. An increase of $4M in Grow Your Own helps expand and diversify the educator pipeline, especially for male candidates. Further, we are heartened to see maintained funding for programs such as Golden Apple, Teach for America, and Affinity Groups in FY26. These programs play an important role in the state’s strategy to recruit, prepare, and support excellent and diverse teachers for Illinois students. We hope these programs will be sustained and expanded in future budget cycles.  

Finally, we appreciate the $8M investment in the Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship program.  Though the program remains the subject of an ongoing lawsuit and a bill creating an alternative Teachers of Illinois Scholarship was introduced and passed the House over the weekend, we appreciate the state's ongoing commitment to growing our pipeline and doing so in a way that clears a path for a wide range of candidates. 

Supporting Our Colleges and Universities 

Illinois’ long-term prosperity depends on making postsecondary opportunity more affordable for all. So while we commend the state for increasing investment in our community colleges and public universities, the respective 1.5% and 1% increases from last year fall significantly short of what our institutions need to operate and serve students to and through their college journey. Thanks to the work of the Commission on Equitable Public University Funding, Illinois now knows just how much investment each of our public universities needs to fulfill their unique missions and support their unique student bodies. This proposed budget falls far short of what is needed, nor did legislators take action this Spring to adopt a university funding formula that would ensure growth into the future. This is an area for further effort if and when the General Assembly reconvenes later this year. 

We hope, too, that the General Assembly will work to further increase support for the Monetary Award Program (MAP), if and when it has an opportunity. The $10M increase approved this weekend is better than no increase in this tough budget year, but according to ISAC data, will not be enough to cover all anticipated qualified applicants. Moreover, recent federal actions changing financial aid requirements and terms for prospective borrowers means state efforts to ensure college access are more important than ever. 

Final Thoughts 

This session, the General Assembly had a challenging task in passing a budget that both recognized financial realities on the ground and anticipated significant fiscal changes ahead at the federal level. We commend our lawmakers and the governor for the steps they’ve taken to sustain critical areas of work and progress, and for remaining true to Illinois values and priorities. We commit ourselves to working with other advocates and officials to see what more can be done in the months ahead to further strengthen educational opportunities and outcomes for Illinois children, students, and families. 

Advance Illinois Statement on the Executive Order to Dismantle the U.S. Department of Education

CHICAGO (March 20, 2025)—The United States Department of Education is responsible for key functions impacting Illinois students’ ability to access high-quality, safe, and supportive learning environments from K-12 through postsecondary. Accordingly, it is important that the public be aware of today’s Executive Order seeking to abolish the federal agency. It is easy to criticize federal agencies and bureaucracies, and there is (always) room for improvement. But the call to eliminate the Department of Education in its entirety is another thing entirely. Indeed, it is hard not to see this action – taken in conjunction with other dramatic measures, as a concerted effort to undermine public education and many hard-won and ongoing efforts to ensure our education system works for every child and student.  

The underlying message of today’s action seems to be (1) that the federal government does not have a role to play in education, and/or (2) that this role is insignificant enough to be managed effectively across a half dozen different agencies and with minimal staff, and/or (3) that all children are equally well-positioned to succeed, so there is no need to support high-need populations. But let’s be clear: overwhelming research and data tell us these assumptions are misguided. What do high-performing countries (like Finland, Sweden and Norway) have in common in the education space? A coordinated national approach that includes clear, consistent expectations for what students learn, robust data and research to support strong practice, and strong financial support to ensure schools, childcare centers, and universities are available for all, and that they provide rich and rigorous opportunity. This measure and others are turning the clock back on those principles. 

It should go without saying that we all benefit when all children thrive. But the evidence is clear – not all students are succeeding. And while this administration seems to want to place the blame on the children themselves, evidence makes plain that all students can achieve if they get the instruction and support they need. While we may wish it were otherwise, students do not arrive at schools and colleges with the same set of needs.  Some students face poverty. Others are living with disabilities. Others face prejudice for their background, race, ethnicity, gender or religion. And still others live in remote areas with limited access to technology and services the rest of us take for granted. We are a country that, at its best, has worked – sometimes imperfectly – to give every child an opportunity – recognizing that that it is not only the right thing to do, but that doing so strengthens families, communities and, ultimately, the country as a whole. 

“To take this step at all, and especially now, when mountains of data point to slow but gradual progress in climbing back from COVID-related disruptions, highlights the administration’s disregard for its citizens, even as it flouts the legislative process,” notes Robin Steans, President of Advance Illinois, an independent, bipartisan nonprofit education policy and advocacy organization. 

In just a matter of weeks, the new administration has taken a number of steps to set back decades of work to support student progress and close racial, socioeconomic, regional, and generational gaps in academic opportunity and achievement. 

• The administration's order “Ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling” issued in January not only misunderstands and misstates constitutional law, but seems designed to intimidate educators working to meet the needs of diverse students into ignoring the fact that students arrive at school with unique needs. Under the order’s threat of withholding funding, some schools have pulled back preemptively from efforts to foster rigorous, safe, and supportive learning environments that meet the needs of students from all backgrounds and experiences.  

• When the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut nearly $900 million in Institute of Education Sciences (IES) contracts and cut NCES down to 3 employees, it slashed the arms of the Education Department responsible for collecting data, conducting research and analysis, and reporting on student progress and performance – activities key to driving coherent and effective education practice and policy at every level and in every corner of the country, reversing investments made by a bipartisan set of administrations for over a century.   

• Last week’s dramatic mass layoffs at the Department crowded out ongoing discourse and concern about the infamous ‘Dear Colleague Letter’ - a communication with no force of law, but one littered with misleading assertions of what constitutes violations of federal civil rights protections and that again threatened to withhold federal funding if institutions do not comply with restrictions that have no basis in law. The letter has created confusion and alarm, with the clear intent to halt practices that acknowledge the simple reality that students come to school with a range of learning styles and needs, and that educators and schools are and should work hard to address them so that every student succeeds. [Read guidance from Attorneys General from a range of states on how best to understand and respond to the “Dear Colleague” letter sent on February 14th.] 

• Finally, today, the White House issued an Executive Order directing Sec. McMahon to take "all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States” - a direction that misunderstands that education authority already sits primarily with states.  

The new administration’s mission is increasingly, and tragically, clear.  

On average, the federal government provides roughly 12% of overall K-12 funding in Illinois, with higher-poverty schools and districts relying more heavily on those dollars. While spokespeople are claiming that efforts to dismantle the Department of Education will not impact services or programs (presumably other than those that have already been cut or targeted), it defies credulity that such significant layoffs will have no impact in the field.  

Those who care about public education and about the next generation should be alarmed, and that alarm should motivate action. The stakes are critical and high. The United States has enjoyed outsized prosperity driven by having one of the most educated populations in the world. Sadly, we have been losing ground internationally, a trend that should concern us all and that is entirely at odds with recent actions. All of us benefit when the next generation is well-cared for and educated. Ours is a responsibility to make sure families have access to affordable high-quality early childhood education and care for their young children; that our under-resourced schools – prevalent in both urban and rural parts of our country and state –  are supported to meet the academic and learning needs of students enrolled; and that students with limited family wealth can afford to earn degrees that improve their employment opportunities and earnings. That worthy and ambitious goal takes national coherence and national effort, even as it champions and supports ongoing state authority. 

For our part, we will work with state elected officials and state and national partners to continue to fight for access, quality, and equity in education. Changes happening at the federal level matter, but they cannot and should not change our core values. Our mission remains clear – we need schools that work for every child and student.  

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About Advance Illinois 

Advance Illinois is an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career, and civic life.