U-46 reports mixed gains on 2025 school report card; chronic absenteeism drops, proficiency lags under new state cut scores

School District U-46 officials told the Board of Education on Nov. 3 that early indicators for the 2025 school report card show progress in attendance and graduation measures but continuing gaps in proficiency under the Illinois State Board of Education's updated cut scores.

Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Brian Tennyson said the district is seeing ‘‘continued progress toward decreasing the amount of chronic absenteeism,’’ noting chronic absenteeism fell from roughly 38.3% last year to 24.2% as of Oct. 22. He told the board that under the state's new proficiency cut scores U-46's overall percent meeting proficiency is lower than under prior benchmarks even though the district recorded year-over-year growth in several assessments.

Tennyson emphasized growth metrics and early-year baselines, saying the district is at 43% proficiency on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) under the new cut scores and that IAR math proficiency rose to about 31.5% (a roughly 9.8 percentage-point increase). He also said district ACT/ELA readiness benchmarks were 41.7% and ACT math readiness 27.8%, and that four-year…