By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
The Nation’s Report Card that measures how well kids across the country are learning has just been released for 2024. The results for Illinois aren’t good. Here are some top level findings:
- Just 9% of black 8th-grade students are proficient in math.
- Only 20% of Hispanic 4th-graders are proficient in math.
- Just 37% of white 4th-graders are proficient in reading.
- Overall reading and math proficiencies statewide in both 4th and 8th grades were either the same or down compared to pre-covid 2019.
- Statewide 4th-grade reading proficiency for all students is down to just 30%, five percentage points lower than in 2019.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, tests children across the country every two years to assess their reading and math skills. It’s the best apples-to-apples test for comparing education results across states. Nationwide, reading and math results continued to decline in 2024.
Illinois’ NAEP results are yet another indicator that the state’s education system is failing students. Illinois is pouring billions more into education than before the pandemic – $44 billion in 2024 vs. $35 billion in 2019 – yet all the evidence points to that money being wasted. Fewer Illinois students can read proficiently today than could five years ago.
The Illinois State Board of Education downplayed the state’s poor NAEP outcomes by pointing out that Illinois’ 2024 results were slightly up compared to 2022, and that the state’s proficiencies are largely in line with the rest of the country.
But while both are true, what the state board doesn’t mention is just how poor those results continue to be, or that Illinois’ reading and math proficiencies still haven’t returned to their pre-covid levels. Overall, only about a third of Illinois students are proficient in reading and math.
Illinois’ results are even worse than they appear considering just how much more the state spends on education compared to most of the nation. 2022 Census data shows Illinois spent about $21,700 (local, state and federal dollars) on education per student – the 10th-most in the country.
Illinois spends $2,000 to $8,000 more per student than all other Midwestern states, yet its 4th-grade reading results aren’t any better than theirs. Take Indiana for example. 34% of 4th graders in the Hoosier State are proficient in reading, yet the state only spends $14,900 per student, nearly $7,000 less than what Illinois spends.
Illinois’ excessive spending is one of the major reasons why its residents pay the nation’s highest property taxes and one of the country’s biggest overall tax rates. Judging by the educational results of other states, Illinois could return billions of dollars to taxpayers without negatively impacting reading scores.
By now, everyone should recognize that K-12 education is in big trouble nationally and that Illinois is participating in that same decline.
Some states are doing big things to counter that decline by enacting phonics, ending social promotion, and most importantly, embracing school choice. Universal school choice has the biggest chance of disrupting the illiteracy and innumeracy that’s gripping much of our nation.
Among our neighbors, Iowa just adopted universal school choice, while Indiana’s updated model is effectively universal, too. Ohio and Louisiana just became the latest two states to adopt choice, both creating universal models as well. Texas will soon be next to join the big wave toward universal.
The trend toward school choice in America is undeniable, which makes Illinois’ recent actions all the more damning. Illinois’ Democratic supermajority leadership killed the state’s only school choice program last year even though more than 1.1 million schoolchildren statewide can’t read at grade level.
The dishonesty from Illinois’ leadership makes the situation worse. Rather than sound the alarm and champion an obsession around literacy, those in charge are twisting Illinois’ dismal results into a success. Here’s what Gov. J.B. Pritzker had to say about the latest NAEP results:
“Illinois students are proving what we’ve always known — when we support our schools, our kids thrive. The 2024 Nation’s Report Card shows our 8th graders outperforming the national average in both math and reading, a testament to the great strides Illinois students are making academically. Congratulations to our students, parents, dedicated educators and principals whose hard work and dedication made this achievement possible.”
Only in Illinois, where the share of black students proficient in math collapses from 18% in the 4th grade to just 9% by the 8th grade, can such numbers be considered “great strides.”
Appendix.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Chicago Public Schools should reject union demands for 9% yearly raises and implement a salary freeze instead.
- We don’t need “experts” at the U.S. Department of Education. We need disruptors. We need School Choice.
- Politicians’ five-step guide for making parents think all’s well in Illinois schools
- Fresh data: Illinois officials graduate record 88% of students despite tragic literacy, numeracy rates
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.
This is why DEI doesn’t work. The education CPS students get, most of whom are minorities, is so below standard, yet they still get promoted until they graduate high school as illiterates. So, how can they get jobs in the real world when they have poor math and reading skills? So DEI is there to qualify them for jobs when merit and education can’t. And this poor education is nationwide, not just in Chicago.
The correlation between money spent and quality of education is clear.
Maybe teacher salaries should be cut so the education level will go up.
Brandon was voted in for mayor to do just one thing which is contract negotiations for CTU and nothing else. So he reminds me of Garrett Morris as Chico Escuela on SNL. Chico was to talk about sports but only knew baseball. Baseball been berry berry good to me. He knew nothing about other sports.
https://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2018/12/baseball-been-berry-berry-good-to-me-the-famous-snl-catchphrase-of-garrett-morris-as-chico-escuela/
The Chicago Teachers Union should be proud of their achievements. Never have so many, been paid so much for such poor results!
We need education for kids – no doubt. It is vital that this issue get fixed. But, wow, there is just no value provided, for the dollars spent. The cause of this lack of value could be uninvolved parents, stupid regulation, bloated administration, too many taxing bodies, crappy or discouraged teachers, etc. The education industry seems to have evolved into a day-care, food service and transportation entity. The industry from the national and state boards of education through the districts seems to have turned into an uncontrollable mob so bogged down in regulation and red tape that it can’t or… Read more »
Great Data;
Go to the following site for more details including a State by State scoring as well as racial breakdowns. Makes for great discussions with liberals who blab but have no real info to backup what they say.
NAEP Reading: National Achievement-Level Results
Sounds like once again Illinois is spending money in the wrong ways regarding education
Once again folks: do not confuse a Democratic Party jobs program and donations mechanism with “education.”
There are plenty of cuts that can be made in education funding if Illinois is ever forced to make cuts due to near bankruptcy. The education spending increases aren’t sustainable as well. Those cuts may be forced in time. Plenty of bloat, and plenty of bad teachers.
Please be advised that I’m trying to respond here to the thread generally rather than your comment specifically. You guys always seem to want to apply widget maker mentality to the processes and expense of public education. It doesn’t work like that! Education has been defined as permanently changing a person’s thought processes and behaviors. That might be easy enough in the lower-level years of schooling where most might presume children are more pliable mentally and behaviorally, but as a person ages it becomes ever harder. How easy is it, for example, for any adult to change another adult’s point… Read more »
Wow, what a long, boring, aimless, and meaningless comment to what I posted. As I said, plenty of education cuts to be made, and plenty of bad teachers.
Did you even comprehend my first sentence? I responded to you somewhat randomly rather than necessarily disagreeing with your commen as that sentence clearly said.. Haters are driven to hate as a go-to response. Do you think that’s an appropriate way to change another person’s point of view? Generally it isn’t. All that does is drive a more cemented wedge between people.
I read the entire waste of words you wrote.
Good for you! Now, all you have to do is ponder them rather than dismiss the whole message there. I hope the mental effort doesn’t cause undue stress.
Your bloated, dumb, meaningless post what just to distract from the facts I posted.
Yeah, apparently to you it seems obvious I’m “out to get you”. Get real; there are bigger fish to fry than you.
You have no fish to fry as you are unimportant.
Well, everyone has the right and personal obligation to determine what’s important to them. I’m neither insulted nor agitated about your position.
Sister Mary Knuckles had no problem changing a kids thought process and behavior and Old Joe was a beneficiary of her ruler!
Sister Mary Knuckles wouldn’t last long as an educator in today’s America? It’s likely you were a beneficiary of her attitudes. That doesn’t necessarily say that others weren’t damaged by that same set of teacher behaviors. I had a maybe 5’ tall math teacher in high school all four years. She was a very strict teacher, sort of a General Patton personality; what we did was as learners was done her way or suffer the consequences. The other side of that coin is that’s she had the backing of the school principal who apparently agreed even as her classes became… Read more »
You seem to be arguing that trying to educate children is a futile task, doomed to failure. That’s been the theme of almost all your comments. It’s hard to understand how you see this as a defense of teachers, and we should keep paying them more and more. It’s a far cry from the arguments we heard for increasing teacher pay years ago. Then, people understood education as the key to lifting people out of poverty to a better life. All societies have needed to educate the populace in order to rise above subsistence level existence. Now we are supposed… Read more »
As long as students are required to be in school by law, take courses the state and colleges either mandate or strongly recommend with no significant regard to their own personal wishes academic performance in general has a hard time improving. The never-stated assumption is that a student only needs to breathe to be allowed to take those harder level college prep courses I’ve obliquely mentioned. Nope, breathing is the minimum requirement! If a student is to be successful he has to buy-in to why he’s there and see some continuing relevance both to his current life and his future… Read more »
Valid points, thanks for replying. Now ask yourself- who has promoted the idea that anyone who breathes should be forced into school seats? The same people who know that more butts in the seats increases the money that flows their way. Who is now agitating for every possible third world immigrant to be enrolled in their classrooms? The same people. I’ve pointed out before that nothing has happened in schools without the support of the education establishment. Education is the ultimate closed system, no outside input wanted or needed. They are the professionals. Listen to Randi Weingarten and Becky Pringle… Read more »
I can’t speak for anyone else as to answering your posting, but as for me I HATE waste of any kind, and taxes spent foolishly gall me no end. I think it would be wiser to use the old-fashioned European model for education. Give make-or-break tests every few years to separate the real learners and start tracking the students who might benefit society as opposed to those who are simply sucking up oxygen and taxpayer dollars to no good, lasting purpose. The ones who don’t do well can still take apprentice training so as to be economically self-sustaining and maybe… Read more »
James, I appreciate your comments. With NAEP reading comprehension scores at 30 yr low nationally it a disaster, especially for low income minorities. I think most would like more not less “widget maker mentality’ applied to how their education tax $s are spent. —As a city resident, taxpayer, homeowner and former CPS parent & graduate: For CPS (CTU), they are just recently moving away from “widget maker mentality” test score rankings (SQRP) to some kind of new touchy-feely assessment ranking that I can’t figure out and I don’t think any parents/ taxpayers w 1/2 a brain cell will be fool… Read more »
What you say is true, in part, but money alone spent in a wasteful manner will not solve the problem. Yes, it takes money. But New York spend far more than Iowa (per student) and the results are not even close.
But I am pleased that you posted here.
You’re right that money alone will not improve the situation with education. The main problems there in terms of productive results are much wider and deeply rooted. There may be some minor correlation with dollars spent, but it’s far from a predictable and reliable straight-line one. To me it’s mostly a matter of a student really wanting to be a successful learner rather than a clock watcher and the continuing parental oversight to make that a family and community shared value. “You can lead a horse to water, but ……”
James, I am always particularly interested in a teacher’s perspective on the role of bad parenting. That’s clearly a big part of the problem. Has it worsened in recent years from what you’ve seen? As I’ve written before, the collapse in test scores here and nationally clearly started around 2012 to 2014.
Social media addiction is part of it. Almost everyone is addicted to it now. That is why I don’t have it.
He said while posting a comment to a website that allows users to share their thoughts and opinions in an online forum, respond to others, as well as provide likes and dislikes based on those opinions. Good thing you stay away from social media.
I knew some idiot would make that comment. The award of idiot goes to you. TikTok and Instagram are nothing like this site. And you, (and all your names) comment more than anyone by far. You are the loser here. Wirepoints is a news site with comments. It is not a video feed nor a picture feed designed for addiction like TikTok or Instagram. The only person on here whose life is affected by comment addiction is you, daily. I’ll get back to my life, and you get back to your addiction and mathematical delusion.
Ahhh, so only certain social media platforms are addictive. Reddit, Quora and Wirepoints allow interaction that qualifies as social media. Why so angry? Your lack of understanding shouldn’t cause so much anger. Very unhealthy.
Actually, you lack the understanding that Wirepoints is not designed for addiction like the major social media sites are such as TikTok, Instascam, Fakebook, and Twitter. Very weak people get addicted to comments, however, such as you. I can’t wait to not comment to your next comment, but your addiction won’t allow you to do the same.
Don’t have it either and don’t want nothing to do with Social media period.
I wouldn’t know, but here’s one thing that has changed over the last several decades. Students these days have far more kinds of distractions available each day, and probably most have ready access to cell phones throughout each school day and beyond. That all sucks away time, motivation and personal interest from doing what’s necessary to be a dedicated, successful learner. You can’t have, say, six strong personal interests frequently interrupting your chain of thought for higher- purpose matters.
Wow. There’s hope for the Republic. James and I agree on something. I think that one major change between today and 2012 is Cell phones in classrooms. There should be ZERO tolerance of cell phones in classrooms. They have no place in a classroom and are simply a distraction to kids prone to and seeking distractions within the mental discipline that education requires. I saw it with my own kid’s education starting in about 2010. His private elementary school prohibited them after a year’s experiment. Cell phones had to remain within lockers. If discovered in classroom, cell phones were seized… Read more »
I agree with you that cell phone usage during class time is mostly a detractor unless some teacher builds that into his lesson plans. But, try telling that to any parent or school community whose children have been in a school where a shooter enters the class room. Your point of view there will be quickly dismissed. I have two complaints re cell phone usage during class time, the first I’ve already mentioned. The second problem is that students can record their test answers to give to others, or use answers given by other students who have supplied them. That’s… Read more »
It seems that one of the main reasons for poor performance for student outcomes is Common Core. Here are some articles showing results before Common and after. https://pioneerinstitute.org/academic-standards/study-finds-historic-drop-in-national-reading-and-math-scores-since-adoption-of-common-core-curriculum-standards/ https://www.nas.org/academic-questions/36/3/what-happened-to-common-core https://www.chalkbeat.org/2019/4/29/21121004/nearly-a-decade-later-did-the-common-core-work-new-research-offers-clues/ The blame should not entirely be put on teachers or parents. Understanding Common Core if difficult enough for students so if they bring homework home and ask the parents for help it is like showing them hieroglyphics or Mandarin Chinese. Going back to the basics like it was 30-40 years ago should be a priority like we learned and now with the entire knowledge at the kids fingertips results should… Read more »
That seems reasonable to me, but really I have no ax to grind on that topic.
100% Freddy. Kids are already hopelessly behind in reading and math by 4th grade. That becomes an almost insurmountable obstacle to more advanced learning. It’s not a surprise that kids who don’t read well are apathetic about learning as they advance through school.
Reading in school or for school has fallen by the wayside for many. What’s taken its place are sports, extra-curricular activities, TV and cell phones. As far as homework and tests are concerned for far too many the ever popular ways of cheating have obliterated scholarship to a great extent with the focus of getting a high grade the priority one sway or another rather than having to work intently for it.
James, your observations are neither aimless or meaningless but there is an additional factor you should consider. Public schools (especially teachers) are not the right venue for dealing with individuals’ thought problems or parents’ inattention or family poverty or whatever else contributes to their inability to concentrate or to read or maintain self-control. These are psychological or sociological problems and teachers are not trained to deal with them, nor do they have the time. To be sure, the professionals who do deal with these problems are both in short-supply and expensive. “Kids who miss breakfast” is a relatively trivial problem… Read more »
I greatly enjoy your comments here and especially where you mentioned the psychological training needed to deal with the deep-seated problems some students have that hinder theirwillingness for active engagement in the schooling process. People who want to place blame primarily on teachers likely are right in some cases, but it’s more often a collection of problems involving that student over quite a formative time period. Kudos to you!
James – I think you provide a valuable perspective. You certainly have a dilemma as an educator. I don’t agree that children in the lower grades present an easier task. Researchers and educators have identified significant deficiencies in vocabulary and language skills in three year olds. Some of these deficiencies may be heritable (a touchy subject), and some may be culturally derived. The dilemma public school teachers have is that they have to educate what the community delivers to them. And they are under pressure to avoid results which show stark differences in performance between and among certain groups, which… Read more »
Again, I very much appreciate your comments here. Be warned, though, mostly we are the hated “them” here, and we’re not likely going to be accepted into the cool kids club anytime soon. All I can offer is the insight that comes with decades worth of been there and done that. Anyone is free to place value in it or do otherwise. Most commenters here choose the latter for unknown reasons that may well vary.
Here’s another possible reason for poor outcomes for kids that I did not mention which how many kids are on some sort of behavioral medications for ADHD/Autism/etc. https://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/children-on-psychiatric-drugs/ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychiatry-through-the-looking-glass/202108/are-children-and-adolescents-overprescribed If these numbers are close to correct this is a staggering number of kids in total. How is someone able to comprehend and learn when they are simply zoned out? Plus Hipaa privacy rules forbid disclosure of what medicines they are on except for a few in schools like nurses. Supers and principals are not privy to that info unless parents give them authority. Way too many kids on RX drugs… Read more »
Maybe school curriculum should focus on three Rs and not promote failing students. Schools need accountability. Throwing more money at teachers and schools has not improved education. Now schools want standardized testing eliminated because these tests demonstrate their failure.
This is the kind of reporting that makes Wirepoints awesome: undeniable facts about performance of the government on major public issues. (I could say about “failure” instead of “performance,” but some day, maybe some day, Illinois government will give you something good to report about? LOLZ.) Some people said during the Covid lockdowns that kids would never recover from the lack of in-person instruction. This drop in performance can be at least partially attributed to that.
The average $21,700 spending per student and total state education spending figures of $44 billion in 2024 vs. $35 billion in 2019 figures do or do not include pension & health benefits? Obviously not pension debt?
That’s the elephant in the room. Even if it is direct to student spending, we’re not getting an acceptable ROI. It always seems that most increases in shool spending never make it directly to the students once you start digging through the numbers. And CPS did add about 2400 new admin positions with all the fed money the last WH administration threw around. How do admin positions directly benefit student learning? It just increases the bureaucracy control over the system. I use CPS as an example of the worst, because other school districts rarely get reported on. They fly under… Read more »