Back to school: Illinois students return to class in public schools posting poor results in reading, math and attendance
State data shows that reading and math proficiency remain low and chronic absenteeism remains high.
Students in Illinois are heading back to class in a public school system with a lot of room to improve.
While proficiency rates in the 2025 school year may seem higher than in previous years, those numbers come with a major warning: Beginning with the spring 2025 assessments, Illinois changed the scores considered proficient.
Even under the loosened standards, nearly half of Illinois public school students were not proficient in reading, and over half weren’t proficient in math.
High absenteeism also plagues the state’s public schools.
It’s important for parents and community members to stay engaged with what’s happening in their schools and encourage their school boards to create pro-parent, pro-transparency and pro-taxpayer policies aimed at ensuring the best educational and financial outcomes in their districts.
Here’s an overview of how Illinois public schools are performing:
Proficiency: Just half meet grade-level reading standards
The most recent assessment results show that 53.1% of third- through eighth-grade students met proficiency standards in English language arts on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness in 2025. Just 38.5% were proficient in math.
Those rates are troubling on their own. They’re even more concerning because the state lowered the performance levels used on the IAR in 2025. The change makes student performance appear better on paper and prevents parents from making a clean comparison with prior years.
Among 11th-graders taking the ACT as the state assessment, 51.7% were proficient in English language arts and 39.3% in math. In other words, nearly half of Illinois juniors were not proficient in reading and about 3-in-5 were not proficient in math.
Third-grade reading: Over half not reading at grade level
Third grade is a critical reading milestone. Students must move from learning to read in the early grades to reading to learn in later grades. When a child can’t read proficiently by the end of third grade, every subject becomes harder.
Yet just 47.3% of Illinois public school third-graders met or exceeded the state’s reading proficiency standard in 2025.
The results were worse among student groups already facing the greatest barriers. Only 27.8% of Black third-graders, 34.7% of Hispanic third-graders and 32.7% of low-income third-graders met the reading proficiency standard, according to the state’s 2025 report card.
The early elementary years are when schools must identify gaps and intervene before students fall further behind.
Public school enrollment in Illinois has increased only twice during the past 15 years. The largest single-year decline came in 2020-2021, when enrollment fell by nearly 70,000.
Falling birth rates threaten to continue the state’s enrollment decline, along with outmigration and families making other schooling decisions.
Families make those choices for many reasons. But persistent academic struggles, high absenteeism and a lack of confidence in whether schools are meeting students’ needs should concern state and local leaders.
Absenteeism: One in four students were chronically absent
Illinois’ chronic absenteeism rate fell for the third consecutive year in 2025 but remained far above pre-pandemic levels. About 25% of Illinois students missed at least 10% of the school year, with or without a valid excuse.
That’s nearly 8 percentage points higher than the 17.5% rate in 2018-19, the last full school year before pandemic-era school closures.
Absenteeism was even more severe among low-income students, with 35.1% in that group chronically absent. Black students recorded the highest rate among major racial groups, at 39.3%, while 31.7% of Hispanic students were chronically absent.
Literacy reforms offer way forward for Illinois
As the school year begins, Illinois’ low academic proficiency, high absenteeism and enrollment declines are concerning. But the most important goal is ensuring every student graduates with the skills to succeed after high school.
A vital first step is making sure more students can read proficiently by the end of third grade. Fortunately, other states have paved a path forward with five practical literacy reforms:
- Screen every student in first through third grade early in the school year so reading deficiencies are identified before they become entrenched.
- Provide timely, individualized interventions for students who are behind.
- Notify parents quickly and keep them involved in the diagnosis, intervention plan and progress monitoring.
- Use evidence-based reading instruction grounded in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
- Require parents, teachers and school leaders to discuss advancement to the next grade when a student’s reading deficiency has not been remedied by year’s end.
Students who don’t master reading in the early grades face greater difficulty throughout school and could enter adulthood with fewer opportunities.
Related articles:
How a school district cut chronic absenteeism by 65%
5 things to know about Illinois’ new school rating system