By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Our 2022 and 2023 data tables showing the dozens of Illinois schools where zero students are proficient in reading and math continue to make the rounds on social media. But it’s time for an update now that the state’s 2024 Report Card data is out… and the results are still dismal.
In 2024, there were 80 Illinois schools where not a single student tested proficient in math and 24 schools where no student tested proficient in reading. In 2023, it was 67 and 32, respectively.
Incredibly, officials in those schools graduated nearly 70% of their students in 2024.
More than 18,000 students attend Illinois’ zero-proficiency schools. Every single one of those children will struggle in life because they lack basic reading and math skills.
Each school on the above list represents a complete failure by local and state education officials.
Take Dunbar Vocational Career Academy on Chicago’s Near South Side. The school, whose motto is “Restoring the Legacy of Excellence” Aiming for Success… and, Nothing Less!!!” spends $26,834 in operational costs on each of its 366 students. The Illinois State Board of Education declares the school “commendable,” the state’s 2nd-highest rating. Despite that, not a single student taking the SAT tested proficient in math and just 2% tested proficient in reading. And yet 72% of students there graduate.
Farther south is Harlan Community Academy HS, which spends nearly $35,000 per student. Not a single student there tested proficient in math or reading on the SAT in 2024. Yet Harlan’s graduation rate is 64%.
Wirepoints’ count of zero-proficiency schools is based on data straight from ISBE’s 2024 Illinois Report Card. The state board measures students’ reading and math proficiencies based on the test results from the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (grades 3-8) and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (grade 11).
It’s important to note that some of the schools on the two lists above are part of Chicago’s Youth Connection Charter School network – schools that target dropouts and other at-risk students. For sure, educating those students represents a major challenge – but that’s no excuse for allowing every single student to fail at those schools. Especially since officials still end up graduating about 40% of students.
We’ve also gotten pushback in previous years from some saying we’re pointing out the worst of the worst – they argue that most Illinois schools are doing well.
Not according to the numbers straight from the state’s report card. We could have just as easily written this piece about the 307 schools where fewer than 10% of students can read at grade level. Or the 853 schools where fewer than 10% can do math.
That’s 9% and 24% of all grade 3-12 schools in the state, respectively.
Illinois education is failing its students
Teaching students the basics of reading and math is the bare minimum function of an educational system. Unfortunately, an increasing number of Illinois schools don’t accomplish that, even though covid is one more year behind us.
In pre-covid 2019 there were 21 zero-reading schools and 37 zero-math schools in Illinois. Now it’s 24 and 80.
Educational freedom for these children can’t come soon enough. Either our lawmakers will finally join the national wave of universal school choice that’s taking over the country, or Illinois will continue to lose. More Illinoisans will leave. Our work force will be increasingly weakened. And more people will become dependent on government.
Ultimately, it all depends on what Illinoisans vote for.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Illinois isn’t building homes. Housing stock is up less than 1% vs. 2020, nation’s 2nd-worst performance.
- ‘Record’ number of Illinois jobs: Don’t be a chump.
- Illinois metro areas take the top four spots for nation’s highest property taxes. Rockford takes the crown.
- Illinois lawmakers ignore where the real transit savings are
- More than $1 billion in market losses is a reminder of how close Chicago pensions are to the brink
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
I often get a good laugh out of watching Americans surprised the education failing when they let kids come to school with portably dumb computers. Given to them by dopamine addicted parents who dont want to do anything for their child except make sure they are alive and not bothering them.
Shame on them and shame on the US’s lack of discipline.
Ban phones from children until they are old enough to understand the damage they are doing to children.
DUMB portable computers are the new smoking.
But they know pronouns and how to transition.
That’s completely irrelevant! These kids, mostly from predominantly black and brown neighborhoods, are barely thinking about that! They are worried about surviving, both physically and mentally. They are dealing with issues in their homes and bringing that trauma to school. No wonder they can’t perform like they should! I know this to be true because my school, Chicago Collegiate, is on this list. I graduated in 2017 from the elementary part and knew the crazy things that were happening in my classmates’ families. They would crash out at school and continue to fall behind. I pushed my grade to focus,… Read more »
I mean there are lots of poor people its really just technology that is going to make the gap larger between poor and rich education. The fact that kids that are poor af can sit around and have ipad’s shoved in their face before they can even walk is the main culprit here.
Parents are too dumb to know the damage they have done.
Not only have we spent far too much on this failure they are hiding the damage that tax and diet are doing to our children. From politicians to big pharma all in on it.
I would like to see a listing of administrative payrolls (title and amounts), and vendors (accounts payable report), with company, owner and amounts paid for the last ended fiscal year for all Illinois schools, especially those that have either zero percent proficiency in math or reading.
If a student cannot does not read to finish required novels add storybooks or not able to do his addition & subtraction and multiplication tables, he needs to be offered remediation.
If he struggles with that the why not waste time sitting a classroom chair befuddled looking at his phone or worse. Time to think about Technical-line – work “school” options or farming agriculture “camps” where he can join in do animal husbandry and work towards a trade as an apprentice.
The thought that the trades or jobs in animal husbandry don’t require reading or math skills is terribly misguided.
For the CPS schools listed, I wonder if any of this has to do with the federal Title I $ received. Some schools outside of Chicago are in more isolated areas.
Douglass Academy spends $93,787 per student. Seems like that might be just a tiny bit too much.
It’s become multi-generational problem. The fix will require multiple generations, and it can’t start until the core problem is addressed, that being the entire public school system. Unless you are young, or are brave enough to move out of Illinois, don’t expect it to be fixed in your lifetime.
I have faith. I’m about to graduate college. I feel the weight of the incredible responsibility to be on the right side of history and to address the educational issues that plague our city. To say that we put children first is clearly a lie if we are content with the trajectory of their dimmed futures because of our failures.
A program called ” reading recovery ” is 100% effective in teaching reading to primary students. But it is expensive, specialized teacher training, and one on one contact.
Sounds like the schools will need more funding.
What they really need is teachers that know how to teach reading.
Based on your own comment, one on one intervention with a teacher was required. As you’ve noted, it’s expensive and requires specialized training. Better open that checkbook to train those teachers as they won’t manifest out of thin air. Your comment demonstrates that improvement can happen but it would be quite costly. I’m sure all the people complaining about test scores will surely support more funding for your program.
Sounds like school vouchers for all and busting the parasitic vermin Public Sector Teachers Union monopoly is the solution here.
That won’t happen. Teachers unions are protected by the Illinois Constitution. All your yammering about unions won’t change that legal fact.
It looks as if union leadership is going to be forced to decide between layoffs (+ school closings) and pension funding in order to address the budget problems faced by both the City and the District. Salary increases plus COLA plus early retirement jack up the pension obligations to those already receiving benefits — so the draw-down on the poorly funded system will increase. Republican majorities in the U.S. Congress may increase. Bankruptcy might intrude as the governor and state legislature could be forced to remove the barriers to filing. State and Federal courts could re-interpret the “contract rights” clause.… Read more »
Trying to fix Illinois by violating the US and Illinois constitution is not the answer. Illinois will need to cut back on spending and directing more money towards pension funding. All of your speculation about courts disregarding established contract law and Republicans gaining more seats may make you feel better but we are no where near those outcomes.
I’ll continue to point out illegal “solutions” that won’t be allowed to happen. Sorry that dose of reality doesn’t meet your liking.
Man on white horse or on one trick pony? Disregard or non-enforcement of existing law runs rampant in IL and who can forget Biden ignoring immigration law. Trump is governing on emergency decrees, as did Pritzker. The boy who cried “wolf” meets the man who seeks salvation from a few judges. Trump don’t need no stinkin’ judges … but robe worship persists. I’m no advocate for lawlessness, nor do I pay tax or tribute to Illinois. We each have our own reality and that of public employees is lamentable. They’ve destroyed our major cities and seek to strangle the rest… Read more »
The unions will never choose funding pensions over retaining current member jobs. They believe, as PPF has told us many times, that they can force increased taxes to pay pensions. They see no limiting factor in the taxes they can demand. Therefore, there is no reason to reduce current demands for more staff and higher salaries. They will essentially keep drawing down their retirement funds, confident the taxpayers will be forced to replenish the bucket.
So it’s the unions, hiding behind the robes of the Supreme Court, against reality. I wonder who will win?
Reality always wins. Math always wins. IL is already a sinking ship. The pensions and public unions will sink with it. So glad I moved. I can watch the pensions collapse from a distance.
Reality does win. The reality is that the state of Illinois will be forced to pay pensions first instead of other spending. The reality is that taxes will continue to increase if we don’t cut spending in allowable areas of the budget. As you stated, math always wins. Those pensions backed by the state of Illinois won’t be sinking anytime soon. Plenty of taxes left to be raised.
You continue to show your stupidity when you say there are plenty of taxes to be raised in a state with the highest tax burden and people fleeing it. In the next major downturn your pension will be cut. Math always wins, and math says people can only pay so much in taxes. A state with the highest tax burden would have far less room to raise taxes than one with a low one. A state losing people has even less room to raise taxes. That is just math and reality. Once the state meltdown starts there will be major… Read more »
You are wrong and bankruptcy will come as will rolling back taxation without representation.
“The unions will never choose funding pensions over retaining current member jobs.” Can always count on PP to remain completely ignorant on this matter. You either refuse to learn about this issue or you purposely are lying. Let me break this down for you one more time and see if you can finally comprehend the issue. It would be foolish for unions to negotiate for “funding” their pension fund in lieu of other compensation or benefits. 1. The Illinois state courts have already told pensioners that they have no right to a set funding level and only have the right… Read more »
I understand your theory of poor innocent union members rightfully demanding their pound of flesh. I just don’t buy it. Union retirees benefited every step of the way from the tax money diverted from pension payments to other uses. Pension pickups, money poured into failing schools, lavish insurance benefits. That’s why the pension payments were skipped- to shower more taxpayer largesse on the union members. Union retirees were instrumental in creating the mess. Now you contend that they should walk away scot-free, while the taxpayers should be solely responsible for cleaning up the piles of dung union members left in… Read more »
Nothing is permanent, including their lousy union. You can count on that.
Big time. The only way. To continue is the definition of insanity.
Please answer why we spend more per child than any where in the world yet still failing?. The entire system should be dismantled and privatized. Screw paying absorbatent property taxes for a lifetime for this failure. Let schools compete for our dollars and create vouchers for the poorer parents yet still give them a choice! Every politician in this state should be ashamed.
Obviously this is not just a Chicago problem any longer. It is a statewide problem. So let’s see how JB fares in a debate when he starts getting pounded on his education record. This issue alone will sink him on the national stage.
The teachers will quickly point out that it is a national problem. Go, NEA and AFT! It’s everywhere!
The times they are forever a-changin’. Those young whipper snappers today….. Now, back in my day we …. That’s essentially been the way an older generation generally talks about the younger ones, isn’t it? Face it; we now are the codgers the younger ones also generally deride. There’s nothing new under the sun.
As it should. He is a terrible person.
For some reason the graduation rates do not correlate to the proficiency rates in my mind. Perhaps my thinking is outdated though as I was not trained in the new common core educational standards making my thought process inferior in evaluating the above data.
Oops, my comment I thought I’d written to you appears instead as an unindented reply to Prozac. My bad! Hopefully, you both can deal with it well enough.
Thanks for clarifying that James. I was confused when I read it. I hate to admit to that old codger designation, but you are right.
They are graduating students that are not eligible. I know about it first hand.
This is ALL on the vermin of Teachers Unions. Until Public Sector unions are ruled unconstitutional this will simply get worse. Teachers Unions are neither teachers nor unions. They are socialist terrorist groups.
We can’t properly teach “our” kids unless we get another raise in pay
Give the parents the ~$30,000 per child being spent on schools, and they can stay home and help their children learn. Or, alternatively, enroll them in nongovernment schools that can do the job.
They will all graduate as long as they do not drop out. Just push them through the system teaching methods. As long as the teachers get good pay, benefits and pensions is all that counts to the CPS.
A HS diploma from a CPS is now toilet paper.
There is no doubt that school isn’t and shouldn’t be just in the school building. Parents need to drive the learning process to get home work done and care whether little johnny can read. But, when you look at the results, and the costs of those dismal results, money isn’t the issue. Paying more doesn’t get it done. Paying more doesn’t get little johnny smarter and paying more doesn’t get the parent involved. It just taxes everybody else to pay more for Transportation, Food Service and Day Care. Yet, the Districts are always broke. The administrators need a better retirement.… Read more »
I believe that Common Core teaching protocols are to blame for both parents and their kids. It would be easier to abandon Core and get back to the basics of the 3 R’s.
https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-gates-foundations-common-core-disaster/
https://illinoisfamily.org/education/analysis-top-5-reasons-common-core-has-been-a-disaster/
OK. It’s easy to blame the teachers tho in the Chicago Public Schools I believe 90% just want a check. But how many parents these days sit down and help their kids with homework? How many make sure they do it ?
How many of the parents are themselves products of this failed system, and are incapable of providing any help? How many parents graduated without basic reading and math skills? The schools have been playing this game for a long time.
10 or 15 years from now, the kids graduating today without basic skills will be the parents of the next generation. And people will still be trying to blame the parents for school failure. The only way to break the cycle is for schools to figure out how to teach kids despite lack of parental help.
No PP, the only solution is to abolish “public education” as we know it today. There’s no fixing it with teachers unions, taxing homes and the Democratic Party.
Agree Old Joe.
It is unfortunately already too late to feed classroom education to kids who have little experience or understanding of why they are sitting in a classroom. Anything less is unacceptable.
The parents are more stupid than their kids. So this makes them useless in helping their own.