Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Report Card topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Urbana SD 116 leaders unpack Illinois School Report Card: new 'right‑sizing' norms, growth metric and mixed outcomes
Summary
District leaders told the board the state’s 2024–25 report‑card renorming changes proficiency thresholds and adds a high‑school growth metric; Urbana reported some gains in student growth and attendance but a drop in the 4‑year graduation rate to 80 percent.
District leadership presented the 2024–25 Illinois School Report Card and walked the board through how the state’s recalibration of proficiency thresholds — described by presenters as “right‑sizing” — changes comparisons across years while leaving academic standards unchanged. "We're still the expectations are the same. The standards still remain rigorous and unchanged," one presenter said.
The report card introduced a high‑school growth calculation for the first time; district staff said the 2025 cohort will serve as a baseline for future high‑school growth tracking. Using the pre‑2025 norms for internal comparison, the district reported a modest increase in ELA proficiency (about 1.1 percentage points) and a smaller increase in math under the old norms, but staff cautioned against direct year‑to‑year comparisons of proficiency going forward because the state renormed performance levels.
On student‑growth measures, Urbana highlighted a substantive increase in ELA student growth percentile and smaller gains in math growth. Presenters noted that some racial groups — including Black and multiracial students — showed strong growth gains this year. The district also drew attention to chronic absenteeism improvements, citing multi‑year declines and district efforts such as student engagement advocates, individualized attendance plans and teacher outreach that staff credited with recent progress.
Board presenters observed that the 4‑year graduation rate declined from 83 percent to 80 percent this year but that the 5‑year cohort rose by three percentage points; they attributed much of the 4‑year dip to pandemic-era cohort reclassification that affected the class of students who experienced remote learning in 2020–21. The district also emphasized career and technical education results, saying students concentrating in CTE pathways had a reported 4‑year graduation rate of 92.7 percent.
Board members asked about comparability with NAEP data and about how state improvement dollars flow to schools with designations; presenters said the state provides additional materials, and that designation funding follows identified student groups and enrollment. The presenters urged families to consult the full report‑card site for school‑level detail and encouraged the board to view the district’s press release and supporting PDFs prepared for families.
The presentation did not announce new district policies tied to the report card; rather, leaders framed the report as a data point to inform ongoing strategic‑plan work and school improvement planning.
