Rockford Public School’s graduation rate jumped nearly 5% this year. It’s one of many new data points in this year’s Illinois Report Card.
Rockford administrators like superintendent Ehren Jarrett have been saying for years that their work on graduation rates was going to start to come to fruition this year.
Jarrett says that’s what happened, as the district graduation rate now sits at around 74%.
“The fact that we're not only performing better than we did last year," he said, "but that we're performing better than we did in 2019, I think, is a testament to the work of our staff in all of our high schools."
It’s still much lower than the state average, but the superintendent says it’s important progress. He points to their work starting in middle school keeping track of which students are on track.
Last year, most Rockford elementary schools extended their school day to focus on improving literacy.
The new Illinois Report Card shows a 4% increase in reading proficiency for 3rd through 8th graders at RPS and Jarrett says that’s not an accident.
“We've been really intentional with reading. I think, in terms of opportunities for improvement, it's going to be continuing to start early," he said. "I think we can do more for early childhood interventions, early learning partnerships, from birth on to help kindergarten readiness, third grade reading, those are all key indicators to driving graduation rates.”
The district continues to struggle with chronic absenteeism. Almost half of RPS students miss 10% or more of the school year. That’s much higher than the state average and much higher than Rockford’s pre-pandemic rates.
The superintendent says they have attendance specialists in every building working with families to improve the issue, and that there’s a ceiling to how much academic improvement you can make when a student is barely at school.
The annual report card offers information on everything from test scores, attendance, teacher retention and more.
You can find much more education data over at illinoisreportcard.com.
