(The Center Square) – The recently released Illinois Report Card shows some growth in multiple areas, with proficiency rates in English/Language Arts, Math and Science all increasing year-over-year.
State Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, said students’ proficiency rates should be improving because the taxpayers have poured an additional $350 million each year over the past five years into education funding.
“We are spending over $10 billion just from the state of Illinois, plus the local contributions and the federal dollars that are following. It’s a record number of dollars that we’re pouring into public education so the numbers should be improving,” said Halbrook.
Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski said the improvements are exclusive to K-8th graders. Dabrowski also pointed out that SAT scores are down, but high school graduation rates are up.
“We’re not seeing any improvements at all on the SAT. So whatever improvements there were, which is an Illinois test and that’s very different from juniors who take the SAT, which is a national test,” said Dabrowski.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said on social media that this year’s Report Card shows the state reached the highest graduation rate in 14 years at 87.7%. Pritzker said the state is bouncing back stronger than ever from the challenges of the pandemic.
Dabrowski noted the graduation rates are up for high school students but the proficiency rates are low.
“The graduation rates are whatever they want them to be. They can set standards and just let kids graduate. What’s really egregious about this is how they are bragging about graduation rates being at 88%, but you look at the results of high schoolers, you look at SAT scores, they’re bad,” said Dabrowski.
Graduation rates for Black and Latino students are low compared with white and Asian American students. Black students have an 80% graduation rate. Halbrook shared his concerns for the K-8th graders despite showing improvements on the Illinois Report Card.
“All the experts I talk to are concerned about that particular age group and what the long-term negative effects are on those kids. We’ll see how that stuff shakes out in the coming years,” Halbrook said when talking about children who were out of school due to Illinois’ COVID-19 closures.
