When it comes down to it, the key statistic in the 2025 Illinois Report Card for Oak Park and River Forest High School District school board president Audrey Williams-Lee is freshmen on track for graduation.
The Illinois Report Card, released Oct. 30 by the Illinois School Board of Education, showed 94.1% of OPRF’s ninth graders were on track in school year 2023-24. That’s up from 89.8% for 2024.
“It’s good to see movement on that number,” Williams-Lee said. “It’s been a bit stubborn over the last couple of years.
“There’s been work on how do we help students recover credits,” she said. “We’ve seen improvement in our Black ninth graders and our Latino ninth graders. We’ve seen the numbers rise in terms of those who are on track. Even freshmen not on track, by the time they are seniors, they are ready to graduate.”
Supt. Greg Johnson echoed those sentiments.
“It’s a combination of efforts,” he said. “(There was) a really clear effort last year to make sure our freshmen are actively working not to get off track. If they don’t get a credit during a semester, we work directly with them and the teachers on reclaiming credits.”
Overall, OPRF was again awarded Commendable status by ISBE with a score of 91.79 out of 100, up from 90.36 a year ago and 89.53 in 2022-23. That was roughly 1.3 points short of being considered Exemplary, which is the top 10% of schools in the state. Commendable makes up is the next 67% of high schools.
“I would say I’m very pleased with the progress we’re making, and every school wants to be in the top,” Williams-Lee said. “We know we have areas of improvement.
“We’re not where we want to be, but we’re progressing in the areas where we need to make progress.”
OPRF enrolled 3,276 students in 2023-24, 51.6% male and 48.3% female. A total of 52.3% of students were white, while 17% were Black and 16.3% Hispanic. Almost 97% of students graduated.
“The annual report card always provides valuable insight to how our school has performed across several metrics, and this year is no different,” Johnson said. “Over the past few years, we’ve continued to see a steady increase in several areas, and we are pleased to see that trend continue. This is a report card our school can be proud of.
“With that said, there are always areas for us to improve, and we will continue to work purposefully to ensure this district is fulfilling its commitment to every student under our care.”
One of those areas, like many nearby districts, is chronic absenteeism, which sat at 19%, down by about a point from a year ago. Chronic absenteeism is the percentage of students who miss 10% or more of school days per year either with or without a valid excuse.
Why is this a challenge not only for OPRF, but other area school districts?
“It’s a too-often used cliché, but that’s the million-dollar question,” Johnson said. “It is across the country we’ve seen this shift.
“We do have a number of students who miss instruction for a variety of reasons, for academic, extracurricular and personal pursuits. Like any statistic like this, I’m glad this is part of our state report card (because) it’s an opportunity to dig deeper. We’re happy to see improvement in this number, but we’re not near where we want to be.”
The ACT Suite of assessments is the new designated high school assessment for Illinois, replacing the SAT, and here, OPRF scored 79.3% of students considered proficient in English-Language Arts. In math, 64.5% of students were considered proficient, while 35.5% were considered not proficient.
“We are an incredibly high-performing school and we see that here,” Johnson said. “This is the first year of new proficiency targets to the ACT. Comparing this to previous years is very difficult. This is kind of new thing for us and we’re looking to understand it.
“I’m happy with the fact that we continue to see a strong level of performance for our students, but keenly aware we have things to do.”
What’s next? Besides a full review to Williams-Lee and the full board Nov. 20, Johnson said there is still work to do, especially in two areas.
“For a long time, we have been intent on finding ways for more and more students to find and have success in higher-level courses,” he said. “We’re thrilled to see that and it’s something we’re going to continue working on.
“We’re looking to increase participation in college and career pathways, so more students are experiencing coursework to look at what post-secondary worlds can be like.”