84.1% of Union County students not ready for college based on English performance in on 2023-24 SAT

Tony Sanders State Superintendent of Education | Official Website

By Southern Illinois News

Dec 22, 2024

More than 8 in 10 Union County public students aren't at grade level based on their performance in the English portion of the 2023-24 SAT.

That's according to an analysis from Southern Illinois News of test scores compiled by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE).

ISBE reports that in the 2023-24 school year, 84.1% of Union County's 151 public high school students failed the ELA portion of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and have "minimal (or) incomplete understanding of the knowledge and skills relative to Illinois Learning Standards."

Students can achieve four proficiencies in their subjects: partially met, approaching, meets, and exceeds standards. This report concludes students who partially met or approached the standards have failed in the subject.

Of three Union County schools, Shawnee High School (87.6%) had the highest failure rate in the county. Meanwhile, Cobden High School (78.2%) had the lowest.

Countywide, English test failure rates rose from 76.9% in the 2022-23 school year to 84.1% in the 2023-24 school year.

The failure rate increased at two Union County high schools in the 2023-24 school year, with the most significant increase happening at Anna-Jonesboro High School, where the failure rate increased by 9.3%, reaching 85.4% overall.

Data shows that the largest growth in failure rates occurred in Vermilion County, which increased by 20.8% to 89.7%; Clark County, which grew by 22% to 89.3%; Kendall County, which increased by 24.1% to 89.4%; Fayette County, which grew by 24.6% to 91.2%; and Shelby County, which increased by 27.3% to 92.3%.

Shawnee High School was the only high school in the county improvements between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years.

Statewide, 67.7% of Illinois students failed the 2023-24 school year state English exam, down from 68.4% in the 2022-23 school year.

The SAT test is administered to Illinois high school sophomores "to fulfill the requirement that students take an assessment for college and career readiness in order to receive a regular high school diploma."

ELA Failure Rates in Union County High Schools in the 2023-24 School Year