District staff explain Illinois’ new 'right-sized' benchmarks ahead of state report card
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Summary
District administrators walked trustees through Illinois’ new unified performance levels and benchmarks adopted in August 2025, saying the change aims to better capture diverse student pathways and will be reflected in the district’s state report card presentation on Nov. 20.
District staff told the Committee of the Whole the State of Illinois adopted new unified performance levels for state assessments in August 2025 and that the changes will affect how district results appear on the upcoming school report card.
“We see different labels for performance levels and then different numbers of performance levels,” one presenter said while explaining the shift to four unified levels: above proficient, proficient, approaching proficient and below proficient. Staff described the change as intended to align benchmarks across grade levels and give a clearer picture of student outcomes relative to national comparisons.
Presenters showed student profiles from the class of 2024 and said some students who would previously have fallen short of the state academic indicator because of prior SAT/ACT cutoffs are nonetheless entering postsecondary education or the workforce. “...because our state set those benchmarks at 540 for both ELA and math, neither of those students met the academic indicator,” a presenter said, then noted those students continued to college or community college enrollment.
Board members questioned whether the new benchmarks lower expectations compared with ACT benchmarks used for college placement and scholarships. Staff replied the district will continue to pay attention to national benchmarks for college recognition but that the new state definitions intend to capture multiple student pathways, including career and technical education. The presentation was introduced as background for a fuller review of the state report card scheduled for the Nov. 20 board meeting.
Staff emphasized implementation implications such as parent communication, school-level accountability adjustments and how the district will integrate these changes into reporting for parents and the community.