How to read Illinois’s revised school performance profiles

Illinois families looking at the state’s revised school performance profiles will encounter a final designation alongside measures that explain different aspects of a school’s performance. Reading those measures together can reveal information that a single designation cannot convey.

The Illinois State Board of Education’s report card resources include materials for the 2026 profiles. In a report on the state’s 2026 report card, Chalkbeat Chicago’s Makiya Seminera described changes to school categories and the measures that contribute to them.

ISBE’s October guide to reading a performance profile describes core measures covering proficiency, growth and, where applicable, graduation. It also describes other measures involving English learner progress, consistent attendance and participation in a school climate survey. The profile considers performance among student groups as well as the measures presented for a school.

Those parts need to be read on their own terms. A measure of student growth addresses a different aspect of performance from a measure of proficiency. Attendance and survey participation add further dimensions to the profile. The guide presents these as components to examine, rather than as interchangeable descriptions of a school.

ISBE illustrates how a school can receive a strong final designation while having a weaker individual measure. That illustration explains how to interpret a profile; it is not a finding about a particular school. The agency recommends looking at individual measures and student groups, then bringing local evidence into discussions about improvement.

Mira Vale analysis

A summary designation offers a starting point for understanding a profile. It cannot, by itself, tell a family how each measure or student group is doing. The useful next step in reading the document is to look beneath that summary and consider the individual measures alongside the group information. The state’s guide can explain how its framework is organized, while local evidence can give a community more context for its discussion.