The graduation rate at Rockford Public Schools has jumped 15 points over the past five years, according to brand-new state report card data.
The district's graduation rate now sits at 81%, which is still slightly below the state's average.
English-Language Arts test scores were up slightly, while math was stagnant. The district also saw a 16% increase in discipline incidents, including over 15,000 in-school suspensions.
New superintendent Larry Huff says, this year, they’re trying to be more proactive reaching out to parents to solve problems before they get severe.
"Just this past week, we had a listening session at one of our schools, at Kennedy, where some attention was brought to the high number of disciplinary infractions from last year. Those numbers have reduced at that school as well," said Huff.
Chronic absence rates went down a little, but it’s been a persistent issue since the pandemic. Over 40% of students missed 10% of school days or more last year.
"I'm not happy with chronic absenteeism. I think that we've made a huge progress. If you look around the state, actually RPS is kind of closing the gap faster than other school districts when it comes to that," said Huff. "But I think we would all agree that when you have 40% of your kids not here on a day-to-day basis, it's going to impact not only test scores but the kids' connections to school.”
Of the 39 Rockford schools that receive ratings, seven earned the state’s highest mark: exemplary, while 11 received the lowest rating.
Rockford Public Schools is Illinois' third-largest school district and serves over 28,000 students.
Explore updated education data for every school and district in Illinois at Illinoisreportcard.com.
