According to the Illinois Board of Education, 12 schools out of 44 in Rockford Public School (RPS) District 205 were cited as underperforming.

The statistics look specifically at three categories: whether students are ready to move on to the next level, how well high schoolers do on standard SAT tests, and how many of them move on to college.

In District 205, students fell short of state averages in two out of the three categories.

The State Board of Education broke down scores by children who are considered low income, and those who are not.

According to the results, low income kids are 6 percent below the Illinois average on the SAT in English. They’re about 7 percent lower in math.

Non-low income students are 16 percent behind state numbers in English, and 20 percent shorter in math.

“We didn’t see a significant down tick in terms of how students are performing at the classroom level,” said Superintendent Ehren Jarrett. “So that means we have to do work to ensure that what we are teaching better aligns with the SAT. And that is important, because the SAT is a test that allows students access to post-secondary opportunities.”

District-wide, only about 22 percent of students are considered proficient, compared to 23.5 percent in 2017.

RPS did see a slight increase in students who enroll in colleges or universities.

Jarrett credits that increase to more access to advanced placement courses and investment in high school academies, which expose students to careers.

“Students are in smaller learning communities,” Jarret said. “We are getting students really authentic college and career readiness experiences while they are in elementary, middle school and ultimately, high school. So, I think the college attendance rate is a result of some of that paying off.”

Jarrett believes that to improve RPS’ overall scores, the district needs additional resources from the state.

“The Illinois IL-Empower process is a state program [that] will be giving $100,000 that those schools are able to invest, over the next few years, each year. We are really focusing, also, on getting additional district resources to those schools,” Jarrett said.

Rockford school administrators say the are disappointed in the overall report card, but remain optimistic that at least one school will be on the exemplary list next year.

“We feel like the district’s role is to be very clear on what success looks like and that is lined up with the state,” Jarrett continued. “And that the school’s role is to make sure that they use those additional resources and align those resources to get better results.”

To see how your child’s school fared, click here.