District 128: both high schools again earn 'exemplary' designation on Illinois report card; absenteeism remains concern

District staff told the board on Nov. 17 that both Libertyville High School (LHS) and Vernon Hills High School (VHHS) earned "exemplary" summative designations on the Illinois school report card for the current year.

Charlotte Eames, the district's director of data and assessment, said the report-card system changed this year: the ACT replaced the SAT as the high-school assessment and new benchmarking and growth measures were added. Eames explained the summative designation weights for high schools: graduation rate (50%), proficiency (20%), chronic absenteeism (10%), ninth-grade on-track (8.33%) and climate survey participation (6.67%).

"Both Libertyville High School and Vernon Hills High School achieved exemplary status again this year," Eames said. She noted exemplary high schools are in the top 10% statewide and described that a graduation rate above 67% and no student groups performing below the lowest-performing 5% factor into that assessment.

Eames provided local metrics: LHS and VHHS each earned full points on graduation and proficiency components; chronic absenteeism rates reported were 18.4% at LHS and 20.1% at VHHS. Ninth-grade on-track rates were 99.3% (LHS) and 98.1% (VHHS). She also explained that the state is reviewing how summative designations are calculated and is running listening tours that could change criteria and labeling next year.

Board members pressed for additional detail on absenteeism causes; presenters said multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) teams are analyzing data and that some absenteeism stems from protected or legitimate reasons (e.g., travel, sports training, college visits). Eames offered to provide more granular data on how many nongraduates are due to extended services rather than dropouts.

Eames encouraged the public to review the report cards at illinoisreportcard.com for full interactive data.