Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois students who just started school during the COVID pandemic scored lower in reading and math on a test known as the “nation’s report card” compared to Illinois students who took the exam in previous years.

Now in fourth grade, these students would have been kindergarteners when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools and sent classrooms online. For many, first grade was also online or a mix of in-person and virtual learning.

During the pandemic, some parents opted to pull their children from school worrying that there wasn’t a benefit to virtual learning at a young age.

The latest round of test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as NAEP, released on Wednesday shows that Illinois students who missed school or went through the interruptions and struggles of remote learning may still have gaps in their education from that time. However, Illinois eighth grade students — who would have been in fourth grade when the pandemic started — either held steady or outperformed their peers in 2022 in reading and math but their scores lagged behind their peers who took the exam in 2019.

According to the new NAEP data, 38% of Illinois’ fourth graders were proficient in math and 30% were in reading, while 32% of the state’s eighth graders were proficient in math and 33% were in reading.

When compared to other states, Illinois’ fourth grade proficiency rates were comparable to the national average in reading and math, but the state’s eighth graders surpassed the average in both subjects.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders said in a statement that NAEP’s latest results give families, students, and educators a “cause to celebrate.”

“This data is another example, like our state report card and national studies, that Illinois’ students are growing academically,” Sanders said in the statement.

NAEP scores for Chicago Public Schools, Illinois’ largest public school district, show that the district’s eighth graders had significantly higher scores in math and reading scores in 2024 when compared to their peers in 2022. Chicago’s fourth graders had higher math scores than previous groups of students, but lower reading scores.

Twenty one percent of Chicago’s fourth grade students were proficient in math and 23% were in reading. For the district’s eighth graders, 21% were proficient in math and 27% were proficient in reading.

The decline in fourth grade reading scores runs counter to the results of recent state standardized tests. According to a joint study from Stanford and Harvard universities, Chicago students’ reading scores rebounded faster than other districts across the country.

But in a statement, CPS officials focused on the strong performance of eighth grade students.

“This data is consistent with what we have previously seen – that students who remain in our system continue to make learning gains over time,” according to a statement from Chicago Public Schools. “The 8th grade reading score of CPS exceeded the average of large cities and narrowed the gap with the national public average to only 2 points. This marks the closest CPS has ever been to the national public average in 8th grade reading performance.”

The district statement also acknowledged that fourth graders were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic when compared to their older peers. The district said that they have added interventionist positions to support students, instructional coaches to assist educators, and organized tutoring programs.

CPS scores also show disparities between Black and Latino students when compared to white and Asian American peers in reading and math in both grade levels. This has been a trend in NAEP scores over the past decade, predating the pandemic. However, Black and Latino students in eighth grade in 2024 reading and math were comparable to students who took the exam in eighth grade in 2022.

The state’s Illinois Assessment of Readiness from spring 2024 paints a very different picture than NAEP’s 2024 scores. In fact, the IAR — which tests students between third and eighth grade in the spring — found that students’ reading scores were above 2019 scores.

But even on state standardized tests, Illinois and Chicago students’ performance on math tests lagged behind their counterparts’ math scores in pre-pandemic years.

In October, Sanders attributed the growth in IAR reading scores to the changes in how literacy is taught in Illinois schools. Since math scores have yet to grow in the same way as reading scores, Sanders said at the time the state’s report card was released that the board of education was looking into a statewide math and numeracy plan to increase proficiency.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

ROCKTON, Ill. (WIFR) – After almost 100 years of narrowly connecting downtown Rockton to the village’s southern portion, the plan to completely reconstruct the Illinois Route 75 bridge over the Rock River is getting some legs.

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) team behind the project to completely replace the bridge got community feedback and questions through a virtual public information meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 28.

The meeting included presentations from the people behind the project and Q&A portions for anyone on the call to ask the team their questions.

Panelists from the project included Michael Kuehn, IDOT District 2 Studies and Plans Engineer; Corey Conderman, IDOT District 2; Mike Cima, Quigg Eng. – Project manager; Francis Nelson, Quigg Eng. – Project Engineer. Sarah Parisien with WSP moderated the conversation and asked all of the questions.

Noteworthy Questions and Answers

• Q: Where does this bike path south of the river go?
  • A: “The bike path will continue east on River Street to south on Ferry Street. It will connect to Old River Road and head east by the Rockton Athletic Fields toward Illinois 2.
• Q: How much will this project cost?
  • A: Estimated to cost between 12 and 13 million dollars.
• Q: Where is the money coming from?
  • A: State and federal funding; Taxes on gas
• Q: Where will the detour be?
• Q: How much time will this detour add to my commute across the bridge?
  • A: Five minutes, no more than ten minutes

The Illinois Department of Transportation’s plan for the bridge can be seen on its website. IDOT will also post the recording of the meeting for anyone to see.

If you still have questions, they can be emailed to Andrew.P.Dewey@illinois.gov by Tuesday, Feb. 11.

Copyright 2025 WIFR. All rights reserved.

Illinois has been shut out of Medicaid, just hours after President Donald Trump’s administration announced a pause in federal grants, loans and other financial assistance as they begin a review of spending.

The funding freeze could affect trillions of dollars and cause widespread disruption in health care research, education programs and other initiatives. Grants that have been awarded but not spent are also halted, according to the Associated Press.

Though the funding freeze was supposed to take effect at 4 p.m. Central Time Tuesday, Gov. JB Pritzker’s office staid that the state of Illinois was shut out of Medicaid as of Tuesday morning. The government-funded health insurance program covered about 3.9 million people in Illinois in 2023, including low-income adults, children, pregnant women and people with disabilities.

“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in the memo. “This memorandum requires Federal agencies to identify and review all Federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with the President’s policies and requirements.”

Vaeth wrote that each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all federal financial assistance programs.

“In the interim, to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders…”

Mayor Brandon Johnson said he was in contact with Illinois senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth to figure out exactly what a funding freeze would mean for the city.

“These are unprecedented attempts to attempt to defund childcare or to defund infrastructure projects. This is something that is well outside the purview of the executive office,” Johnson said at a City Hall news conference. “These appropriations have been mandated by the legislative branch. These are laws. And you know, we as a country of law, as a democracy, we prefer when we have leaders who actually are committed to upholding that law.”

Durbin called the freeze “unconstitutional” and “above all else, it’s inhumane.”

“Every American relies on federal funding—from public safety, disaster relief, medical research funding, and small business loans to Head Start and child care programs, veterans care, nutrition assistance, food inspections, and so much more,” Durbin said in a statement. “Denying critical funding for our families will not make America great.”

While Pritzker, Johnson and other Chicago area officials grappled with what the federal funding freeze might mean, researchers at the University of Chicago were already being directed to rein in any work that relies on dollars from Washington.

In a faculty memo, UChicago Provost Katherine Baicker told faculty to not to “purchase new supplies or equipment, start new experiments, embark on funded travel, etc.”

“This is not a request that I make lightly. The research enterprise is at the core of our University’s mission and is of profound importance to the daily work of our faculty, researchers, staff, and students. I also know that this is insufficient guidance and that you must have many questions (as do I),” Baicker wrote.

“I wish that I had more information to share now, but will continue to be in touch as we learn more. But we must for now proceed under the assumption that grant expenditures incurred after today while this memorandum is in effect may not be covered by federal funding.”

On the Senate floor, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, called on Trump to “rescind this order at once.”

“People are worried. People are scrambling. People are in panic mode, trying to figure out how this order is going to affect them. Hospitals with people on life support, food pantries that feed the hungry, police departments that patrol our streets. Every one of them is worried,” Schumer said.