Newly released data from state assessments show just half of Illinois public school students could read at grade level and 2-in-5 could do math proficiently in 2025. That’s after the state lowered proficiency standards to make the numbers look better.
Just over half of Illinois public school students could read at grade level and 39% were proficient in math on 2025 state assessments, according to newly released data from the Illinois State Board of Education.
That’s after the state artificially inflated the number of students meeting standards by lowering the scores needed to be considered “proficient” in reading and math in 2025.
That means many students are reported as “proficient” but are struggling. And by changing the standards, parents are unable to compare proficiency rates in their schools or districts to previous school years.
The data also shows enrollment continues to decline and absenteeism remains high.
How many students are reading or doing math at grade level?
Data released on Oct. 30 by the Illinois State Board of Education shows the reading and math proficiency rates for third through eighth grade students on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness and 11th graders on the ACT.
Even after changing the way the state determines if a student is proficient under the IAR, the scores are still troublesome:
- 53% of students were proficient in reading on the IAR for 3rd-8th grade
- 39% of students were proficient in math on the IAR for 3rd-8th grade
- 52% of students were proficient in reading on the ACT for 11th grade
- 39% of students were proficient in math on the ACT for 11th grade
That means nearly half of students still did not meet proficiency standards in reading on both the IAR and ACT, and more than half could not perform math proficiently, even after the state manipulated the numbers.
1-in-4 students chronically absent in 2025
Absenteeism skyrocketed across Illinois and the nation following pandemic closures. Five years later, 1-in-4 Illinois students were still listed as chronically absent in 2025, missing at least 10% of the school year without an excuse.
In 2019, the final full school year before schools were closed to in-person learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only 17.5% of Illinois students were chronically absent. That number peaked at 29.8% in 2022 before gradually decreasing the next three school years. Despite three years of declines in the rate of chronic absenteeism, the current absenteeism rate remains nearly 8 percentage points higher than the rate in 2019.
High absenteeism is a warning sign for students, as research suggests frequent absences from school put students at a higher risk of poor outcomes, such as dropping out of school and lower academic achievement.
Enrollment continues to drop
Illinois public schools enrolled 1,848,560 students in Preschool through 12th grade in the 2024-2025 school year. That’s a drop of about 2,700 students from the previous year.
In the past 15 years, enrollment in Illinois public schools increased just once.
The largest drop in enrollment was in the 2020-2021 school year, with 69,702 fewer students enrolled compared to the previous school year, followed by 2019-2020, with 27,501 fewer students.
Illinois should pursue rigor and transparency in public schools
Rather than holding students and teachers accountable to high expectations, Illinois chose to loosen its benchmarks. Yet even after adjusting proficiency benchmarks and inflating proficiency rates, Illinois still has a proficiency problem. Enrollment continues to decline, and schools are struggling to engage students as chronic absenteeism remains high.
Meanwhile, other states like Virginia have taken an opposite approach, raising the cut scores needed to meet proficiency standards in reading and math in an effort for rigor and transparency. Illinois should follow suit.
