Illinois
2024 Illinois Report Card for schools reveals graduation numbers, proficiency rates and more
The Illinois State Board of Education recently released its 2024 report card for Illinois schools, showing the performance of districts and schools over the past year across the state.
The annual report card, which was published on Wednesday, evaluates schools across the state and “provides a snapshot of academic achievement; student and teacher information; and financial data at the state, district, and school levels.”
The 2023-24 report card showed notable growth in multiple areas, with proficiency rates in English/Language Arts, Math and Science all increasing year-over-year, though Math proficiency rates remain low.
Additionally, the percentage of students that “met or exceeded” expectations in ELA and Math increased since the 2022-23 report card.
Four-year high school graduation rates remained steady statewide, with a small increase to 87.7%, up from 87.6% in 2023.
The 2024 report also showed a notable decrease in chronic absenteeism, which was cited as one of the state’s most glaring issues in the 2023 report card.
The rate dropped form 28.3% to 26.3% in the 2024 report, well down from the recent high of 29.8% in 2022, but significantly above the rate of 16.8% in 2018, two school years prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chronic absenteeism is defined as a student who missed 10% or more of the school year, roughly 17 or more days, due to excused or unexcused absences.
Chronic truancy remained steady, increasing to 20% from 19.9% in 2023, remaining below a high of 22.8% recorded in 2021.
Despite a jump of nearly 3% from the 2022 to 2023 reports in teacher retention, the 2024 report showed some regression in that regard, with retention dropping from 90.2% in 2023 to 89.6% in 2024.
Within the past eight years, teacher retention dropped as low as 85.2% in the 2018 state report card.
More information on the 2023-24 report card, along with each school’s individual result, can be found here.
CENTRALIA, Ill. – An investigation is underway after multiple people were shot Sunday in Centralia, Illinois, according to a report from WFCN News in southern Illinois.
FOX 2 has confirmed the Illinois State Police is investigating a shooting and taking over the investigation, but ISP could not confirm many further details as of 9 p.m. Sunday.
“The investigation is in its infancy and to protect the integrity of the investigation, no additional details will be released at this time,” ISP said in a statement to FOX 2.
According to WFCN News, the shooting happened around 5 p.m. near the 900 block of East Kell Street in Centralia. Multiple law enforcement agencies have since responded to scene and multiple victims are hospitalized, according to the report.
It’s unclear how many people may have been injured and what led up to the shooting.
Centralia, Illinois is about 70 miles, or just over an hour, east of St. Louis.
This is a developing story. FOX 2 will update as more information becomes available.
The National Weather Service has teams of storm surveryors in the field April 18 investigating several reports of severe storms and tornado touch downs across eastern Iowa, northwest Illinois and northeast Missouri.
According to the weather service’s website, windgusts of up to 60 to 70 mph along with teacup-sized hail and several tornadoes were reported April 17.
Many homes and outbuildings were damaged, trees were uprooted and power lines were downed in Lena, Illinois, where the most significant damage occurred, the site pointed out.
Very strong winds also were reported near Washington, Iowa, and Colmar, Illinois, where several outbuildings and grain bins were destroyed.
The weather service received reports of confirmed and possible tornadoes in the areas of Lena, Pecatonica, Shirland, Rockton, Roscoe and Capron.
The teams will be assessing damage this weekend into next week along with county emergency management teams to determine what types of storms occurred and their paths.
Dozens of power outages were reported, as well.
As of the afternoon of April 18, ComEd was reporting 85 active power outages across northern Illinois, down from 241 on April 17, and 6,751 customers affected, down from more than 18,000.
The bulk of those outages and the most customers impacted are concentrated in Jo Daviess and Stephenson counties.
Freeze Watch
from MON 12:00 AM CDT until MON 9:00 AM CDT, Lake County, Kankakee County, La Salle County, DuPage County, Northern Will County, DeKalb County, Southern Will County, Kendall County, Southern Cook County, Northern Cook County, Grundy County, Eastern Will County, Kane County, McHenry County, Lake County, Newton County, Jasper County, Porter County
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