Ill. State Report Card shows progress with student recovery from the pandemic

MOUNT VERNON, Ill. (KFVS) - The Illinois State Report Card is out, and many local schools are seeing positive progress since the pandemic.

According to the report, there is strong progress with student recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, with increased proficiency rates along with the highest graduation rate in 13 years.

Black students also led the significant improvement of the report in many indicators, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

Mount Vernon Township High School saw positive improvements according to their Superintendent.

“At Mount Vernon Township High School, we are trending up in the right areas and trending down in the right areas as well,” said superintendent Melanie Andrews.

Andrews says she is happy with where the Rams sit for the State’s Report Card:

Graduation Rate: 85.9%
Teacher Retention: 92.7%
Chronic Absenteeism: 34.8%

“And we were commendable this year, so that’s where I want to be,” Andrews said. “Of course we want to strive for exemplary, but I’ll take commendable and go from there.”

Andrews says the school is also seeing improvements in many of their subjects.

“Looking at our performances in English, language arts, math and science--we’re up in all of those areas,” Andrews said. “Not a lot, but we’re up. So we’re showing growth.”

The report also says there is strong progress in recovery from the pandemic and high graduation rates across the state.

Andrews says they are noticing the same things across their halls.

“Would I like to see more growth in some areas? Absolutely. But I also have to remember that we are still coming off of COVID--I’m tired of using that as an excuse but I think you still have to look at that as a reason why some of these scores are the way they are,” Andrews said.

The Illinois State Superintendent says educators and families should be proud of the progress on the 2023 state report card.

The full report can be found here.