ILLINOIS, USA — The Illinois State Board of Education's 2023 school report card is officially out. The annual report offers a snapshot of each school in the state, measuring everything from resting scores in specific subjects to attendance records and graduation rates. In some categories, locals schools are on par with state averages, but in others, there's some catching up to do.
Locally, Moline, United Township and Rock Island High School have mixed grades.
Chronic absenteeism is the percentage of students who miss 10% or more of school with or without a valid excuse. There are 178 school days in a year, so 10% is roughly four weeks of class time. 42% of high school students in Moline meet this threshold. United Township is at 40%, and Rock Island is at 50%. For context, the average for all high schools in Illinois is 36%.
"To continue to address absenteeism we have to reestablish strong relationships with parents and families. We have to make the case for the value of school and the value of attendance every day," Illinois' state superintendent of education Dr. Tony Sanders said.
The numbers becomes more striking when you compare them to five years ago. Back in 2019, Moline's chronic absenteeism rate was only 19%.
The Illinois State Board of Education is also investing $12 million to regional offices of education to combat chronic absenteeism.
Despite those concerns, there were some areas in the report that found Illinois schools excelling. The class of 2023 achieved the highest high school graduation rate in 13 years at 87.6%. This was driven largely by Black and Hispanic graduation rates, which increased at 4.7% and 4% respectively. Locally, Moline and United Township both had above-average graduation rates, while Rock Island lagged behind at 77%.
Illinois also saw teacher retention reach an all-time high, exceeding 90% for the first time since they started tracking it in 2014.
"While we have more and more teachers entering the profession and staying in the profession, we know we need to do more. It is critical that we continue to invest in our teachers, invest in our school culture and climate and implement best practices for strengthening our teacher pipeline."
You can review the report card's findings for yourself here.
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