ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Covid-19's impact on Illinois schools led to drops in academic achievement and high levels of absent students in the Rock Island-Milan School District.
The findings come from the Illinois State Board of Education's (ISBE) 2020-21 academic report card. This annual report gathered data from student assessments given in spring, 2021, to nearly 90% of Illinois schools, and ISBE estimates about 70% of students responded. Some districts opted to delay this testing to this fall.
More district-specific academic data is expected on Dec. 2.
Statewide, Illinois students showed lower academic achievement scores and one in five students were categorized as chronically absent, meaning they missed 10% of the school year. That number is calculated from every school day a child is not present, even if it's for medical reasons or an excused absence.
Across the Rock Island-Milan school district, 49% of all students were chronically absent last year. It's a 14% increase from the 2019-2020 school year.
But Superintendent Dr. Reginald Lawrence says he expected lower scores on this year's report, and doesn't predict the absence rate will become a norm for the district.
"That's a rate that I totally expect to go down at the end of this year, because we're back in school five days a week, full time," he said. "You have to take (the report) with a grain of salt or sand or whatever you use. Because we know that there were so many things impacting this year."
Lawrence also adds that a number of his district's students were met with challenges coming to class during remote learning last year, as many began picking up jobs to help support their families during the height of the pandemic.
The report also shows 71.8% of the district's freshman are on track to graduate, defined as students that have no more than one "F" in a core course and have earned at least five full-year course credits. It's a decline from years prior and falls behind the state's average of 82.2%.
And only 14.8% of Rock Island-Milan eighth graders were found to be passing, meaning earning a C or greater, Algebra I. Across Illinois, that number jumps up to 28.8%.
The district does expect more in-depth breakdowns and specific data to come in early Dec.
However, there were some positive indicators in this earlier report as well. The district had a slight gain in graduation rates, climbing up 79%, and teacher retention rates also increased to 91.2%, a one percentage point increase from the previous year's findings, and also a higher score than the statewide average of 87.1%.
"Regardless of Covid and its impact, my students are still working to graduate," said Lawrence. "We won't be able to go back and make up one and a half years worth of what we feel students missed. But our students are resilient and a number of them have continued to learn."
He says navigating the pandemic during the last school year was extremely difficult for parents, students, staff and administrators. Consequently, Lawrence noted that many superintendents across the state were bracing themselves for low scores on the academic report cart.
Now, he's focused on moving forward, and making sure the gaps from the 2020-21 school year are recognized as not only academic, but social and emotional as well. Working to fill in all of those missing pieces is the key, he says, to recovery.
"You can't just jump right back into straight academics. It has to be a balance. You have to take care of those physical needs before you can dive real deep into the academic piece. We do have to take the time to make sure that we meet those social and emotional needs of students," he said. "When you went back to the 2018-19 school year before Covid, we saw some gains there, which means that we're on the right direction. We're going to stand fast and continue to follow that process."
Although math scores sharply declined across the state during remote learning, Lawrence is confident any so-called 'lost learning' can be made up over the next few years. He says educational curriculums essentially spiral from grade to grade to grade, meaning students will revisit topics covered in years prior.
"So you don't only get to work on fractions in third grade, you're going to hit that again in fourth grade. And you're going to hit it again in fifth grade," he said.
It's why he urges parents not to fixate on learning losses and instead meet students where they're at.
"If they move to a new grade level, we have to make sure they get grade-level content," he said. "What I will say to parents is that don't focus so much on, oh my goodness, my child lost a year and a half's worth of academics. Your teachers are going to assess where their students are. We're going to make sure they get grade level content."
Now, one of the most important thing for this school year, he believes, is keeping the doors open.
"We've had three years of gains and we're not going to stop now," said Lawrence. "So stick to the strategic plan and have the assistance of our teachers and our parents to help us get there. And, you know, just continue to do everything we can to keep our kids safe and keep our doors open."