Copyright Chicago Tribune
When the 2025 Illinois Report Card that rates school quality came out recently, Evanston-Skokie District 65 learned that two of its schools dropped a level in the ratings this year. Kingsley Elementary School and Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies dropped from a “commendable” rating (the second from highest) to “targeted” (the third from highest), according to the Report Card, released Oct. 30. However, Dr. Bessie Rhodes School is scheduled to close permanently at the end of this school year, and the district has recently announced it will probably close two more schools permanently. Indications point to Kingsley and Lincolnwood Elementary as the likely schools to be shuttered. One can’t make exact comparisons because this year, ISBE changed the way it analyzes students’ standardized test scores. For example, an Illinois eighth-grader previously needed to score a 750 in math on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness to be deemed proficient. Now, they would only need a 745, according to previous reporting. Superintendent Angel Turner wrote in a letter to district families, “The learning standards have not changed, only how student performance is reported.” However, critics have said that the Report Card change lowers expectations for students’ academic progress. The Illinois State Board of Education releases the report card with a compilation of data including student enrollment, retention rates, absences, scores on how students performed on standardized testing for math and English, among other information, each fall. Twelve District 65 schools scored a “commendable” rating, and Orrington Elementary School retained its “exemplary” rating, the highest of the five tiers, according to Turner. In her letter, Turner said that ISBE has new metrics on how it measures standardized testing scores for English language arts and mathematics. “New performance levels and score cut-offs were set to better show how students are progressing toward college and career readiness,” Turner wrote. The Illinois State Board of Education defines an exemplary school as having no underperforming subgroups, a graduation rate higher than 67% and a ranking in the top 10% of schools statewide. The state board defines “commendable” schools as those that have no underperforming student groups, a graduation rate greater than 67%, and whose performance is not in the top 10 percent of schools statewide. “Targeted” schools, the third-highest category, have one or more student demographic groups performing at or below the level of the “all students” group in the lowest 5% of all schools, according to the state board. “Schools that receive an (sic) ‘Targeted Support School’ designation will receive “targeted” support and enter a 4-year cycle of continuous improvement,” according to a 2025 ISBE report with definitions on school ratings. The fourth and fifth categories are “Comprehensive” and “Intensive,” respectively. Turner highlighted the district’s achievements in her letter. D65 continues to outperform state averages for English Language Arts, Mathematics and Science and outperforms the state in eighth-grade algebra, with 83.6% of D65 students passing compared to 30.8% statewide. Student surveys showed that students feel safe, comfortable and respected in school, she wrote, and student attendance is at 93.6%. Chronic absenteeism has also lessened slightly in the last year, Turner’s letter indicated. Students who missed more than 10% of all school days with or without a valid reason dropped from 18.9% to 17.2%. Student who were chronically absent spiked in 2023 when 21.6% of students were chronically absent. Enrollment has continued to slump district-wide. In 2018, the district had 7,943 students, and this year had 6,047 students for a 23.87% drop in enrollment.
