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 the 2024 Illinois Report Card

There is good news and bad news in the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE)’s 2024 Illinois Report Card. It is encouraging to see improvements in student learning, growth, and achievement, with some measures exceeding pre-pandemic levels. However, recovery from the pandemic and disparities among underrepresented student groups across the K-12 continuum persist and will require ongoing attention and effort. 

“The progress we’re seeing for Illinois’ students is encouraging, but this new data reminds us that we still have real work to do to fully recover from COVID and close stubborn and unacceptable gaps,” said Robin Steans, President of Advance Illinois. 

Points of Good News 

Following setbacks in reading and math proficiency during the pandemic, student proficiency in English Language Arts (ELA) has made noticeable gains. Students in grades 3-8 achieved a proficiency rate of 41.2%, the highest since 2019. Indeed, the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) ELA proficiency rates now exceed pre-pandemic levels for all race/ethnicity groups, which is wonderful to see. 

However, not all grade levels experienced this progress. The Report Card reveals that ELA proficiency on the IAR has not yet surpassed pre-pandemic levels for grades 3 and 7. Meanwhile, Math proficiency rates improved slightly from last year, but remain down – in some cases significantly – from pre-pandemic levels across groups and grade levels. Indeed, grade 3 dropped from 33% in 2023 to 27.8% in 2024, representing a significant drop from the pre-pandemic 2019 proficiency of 40.1%. These 3rd-grade students faced learning disruptions during the pandemic, impacting language, literacy, and math, and there is still work ahead to support ongoing recovery. We commend the statewide focus on improving literacy with the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan and look forward to ISBE’s forthcoming statewide math and numeracy plan. 

This year’s Report Card includes data from the 2023-2024 Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS), and we are pleased to have this important window into where children were developmentally as they entered kindergarten last school year. According to a report from the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative (IWERC), KIDS scores help predict 3rd-grade proficiency in Math and English Language Arts (ELA). So it is good news that the percentage of students demonstrating readiness in all three developmental areas—social and emotional development, language and literacy development, and math—has increased statewide over the past few years, including from 29.9% in 2022 to 31.6% in 2023. That said, gaps in readiness persist across lines of race, income, language, and learning style. It is encouraging that student participation in this key critical survey is growing (from 86.7% in 2022 to 90.9% in 2023) and that readiness is gradually increasing overall; however, persistent gaps require further work and study. 

It is also wonderful to see the highest graduation rate for Illinois’ high school students 14 years at 87.7%, and to note that all groups improved here and gaps across groups narrowed slightly. Additionally, 9th-grade On Track rates, strong predictors of high school graduation, continue to improve. This key indicator increased slightly from 87.4% in SY23 to 88.2% in SY24 and remains higher than pre-pandemic, with all groups seeing improvements. That said, while they did not worsen, significant gaps between student groups persist, most notably between Black students (79.7%), English Learners (79.7%), and white students (92.7%). More work is needed to ensure all students have the supports and resources to succeed. 

The Report Card provides reasons to be hopeful about students’ academic recovery, a testament to the hard work of our educators, the important aid provided by federal stimulus dollars, and targeted initiatives ISBE and districts have put in place to accelerate learning renewal. However, we have not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels in every area or grade level (high school also continues to be an area of concern), and racial, ethnic, and income disparities across these and other measures require ongoing attention and investment. 

What We’re Zeroing in On 

Equity gaps continue to exist across many areas. While gaps between Black students, Latinx students, low-income students, English Learners, and students with an IEP have decreased since 2019, they persist. While Illinois’ overall high school graduation rate is historically high and has improved across the board, rates were 7% lower for Black students (80.7%), 15.2% lower for students with an IEP (72.5%), and 2.6% lower for Latinx students (85.1%). As we applaud ISBE’s efforts to accelerate student recovery, with the expiration of ESSER funds, investments in the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) formula remain key in directing resources to school districts and students that need them most. 

Finally, but critically, while all groups saw a slight improvement, chronic absenteeism remains a concern, where rates of missing 10 percent or more of school remain stubbornly and disproportionately high for some student groups. Overall rates decreased slightly to 26.3% in 2024 (still well above pre-pandemic/SY19 levels (17.5%), but Black students continue to have the highest chronic absenteeism rates (40.4%), followed by Latinx students (32.9%). Students from low-income households (36.3%), English Learners (32.1%), and students with IEPs (33.6%) also continue to have high chronic absenteeism rates. While rates are slowly improving, students are missing critical instruction time, impacting their academic success in both the short and long term. 

Supporting Our Teachers to Support Our Students 

Research underscores the importance of teacher attendance and diversity on student outcomes. Regrettably, this latest Report Card indicates no significant improvement in teacher attendance (the percent of teachers missing 10 days or less of school), which remains at a worrisome 66%. However, we are pleased to see that the total number of teachers increased by about 2,100 in 2024—hiring that reflects the longstanding understaffing most schools have endured due to chronic underfunding. But as we know, a shortage exists, especially in bilingual and special education, and in rural and urban areas. Therefore, we must continue to invest in our educator pipeline and we commend ISBE for programs like CTE Education Career Pathways Grants, which prepare high school students for teaching careers, and the state’s new teacher recruitment marketing campaign, ‘The Answer Is Teaching,’ which has garnered high interest and activity. While teacher diversity continues to increase slowly, with growing Black (6.4%), Asian (2%), and Latinx (8.9%) representation, supporting a diverse teacher workforce is crucial. Programs like CTE Education Career Pathway Grants, Illinois Virtual Coach and Building Mentor Program, affinity groups, and the Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) Scholarship are in place to recruit and retain excellent teachers that represent student diversity. [NOTE: The MTI Scholarship program, which helps support candidates of color, is now the subject of a lawsuit. This is disheartening, as research makes clear that students of color do better—academically and otherwise—when they are taught by educators of color. MTI has helped the state increase the diversity of its pipeline, rounding out a wide array of state programs designed to strengthen the overall pipeline.] 

New Additions for the Report 

Recognizing the unique experiences and identities of individuals of Middle Eastern or North African descent, ISBE is beginning to incorporate a new race/ethnicity category to capture these students and educators, abbreviated MENA. 

Also new is the Support Personnel Full-Time Equivalence (FTE), defined as employees with one or more active employment records, working during the regular school year (not summer school), and holding one of the approved Support Personnel position codes (School Counselor, School Nurse, School Psychologist, and School Social Worker). For this year, the state is reporting 494 students per counselor; 1,520 students per nurse; 885 students per psychologist; and 432 students per social worker. While these are higher than recommended ratios, they indicate marked improvement. In 2018, the state had 667 students per counselor, 1,201 students per psychologist, and 697 students per social worker. Advance Illinois has been reporting on these ratios for many years in our biennial “State We’re In” report on public education. We are elated to see this important data now included in the state report card, as we believe it will and should help spur conversation and action at both the local and state levels to ensure all schools have an adequate support personnel workforce to meet student needs. 

In Closing 

While there are encouraging signs and areas of improvement, it is going to take more support and investment to achieve academic outcomes that exceed pre-pandemic levels. We recognize the tough budget climate and appreciate past increases in funding (which have helped drive student recovery), but we must keep working to ensure that all Illinois students have what they need to thrive.