State Report Card Is In: See How Lake Forest, Lake Bluff Schools Rank

This year's Illinois School Report Card is in, indicating how many students in each Lake Forest and Lake Bluff area school met or exceeded state learning standards earlier this year.
 
The State Board of Education released its annual report card Thursday. Of the schools ranked in the report card, 600 passed while 3,169 were "deemed failures," according to a Daily Herald analysis of the State Report Card. 

At Lake Forest High School, 83 percent of juniors met or exceeded state standards on the 2013 Illinois Standards Achievement Test, while an average of 61.9 percent met that same benchmark statewide, according to the Illinois State Report Card website. In 2012, 82 percent of students met or exceeded state standards.

At Stevenson High School, 89 percent of juniors met or exceeded state standards in 2013, while 85 percent did in 2012, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In District 67, 85 percent of students met or exceeded the state's standards,
while 82 percent did so in District 65.

Many schools throughout the state saw a significant drop in its scores from 2012 as part of the state board's move to raise expectations — or cut scores — for the ISATs, which is given to third- through eighth-grade students. 

The move was meant to help "align with the more rigorous Common Core Learning Standards and give a better indication of college and career readiness," according to a Illinois State Board of Education press release. 

As part of those changes, schools meeting or exceeding expectations in 2012 on average dropped throughout the state nearly 20 percentage points from 82.1 last year to 61.9 percent this year. 

The scoring on the Prairie State Achievement Exam, which is given to 11th graders, did not change this year and statewide, the composite score increased from 51.3 percent to 51.9 percent statewide, according to the ISBE press release. The composite meets or exceeds percentage for math and reading was set at 53.3 on this year's State report Card.

A new metric, “Ready for College Coursework,” on the Illinois State Report Card refers to the percent of students at each high school who earned a combined score of at least a 21 on the ACT college admissions test. Statewide, 45.7 percent of Illinois public school students from the Graduating Class of 2013 posted at least a 21 on the ACT.

At both Lake Forest and Stevenson high schools, 87 percent were listed as "ready for college coursework." 

See how your school fared by visiting the Illinois State Report Card website.

The Daily Herald has published an online tool meant to help examine your child's school and make better sense of the Illinois State Report Card data. Visit the Daily Herald website to learn more about your child's school. 

— Amie Schaenzer contributed to this story