A new method for grading public school performance in Illinois led to a strong showing by Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 elementary schools. In contrast, its middle schools showed room for improvement.
Modifying its accountability system for its 2026 school report card, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) no longer bases its highest designation — exemplary — on the top 10% of the state’s schools, but on clearly defined criteria.
A year ago, none of District 60’s schools were considered exemplary, but this year Clark Elementary School made the grade, and three others — Cooke Magnet, Little Fort and McCall elementary schools — are “approaching exemplary.”
Amanda Milewski, the district’s associate superintendent for strategy and accountability, said the four schools earned their grades based on set criteria for overall student performance and improvement.
“It was based on growth in test scores and more students testing at grade level,” Milewski said, referring to Clark. “’Approaching exemplary’ means they are not quite ‘exemplary’ but are better than ‘commendable,’” she added, referring to a designation going to a majority of schools statewide.
The grades of District 60’s schools were part of the 2026 ISBE report card released Friday in Springfield, showing not only the overall designation but a wide array of data from graduation rates to test scores in reading and math to the demographics of the schools and much more.
Rather than classifying schools against each other as it had in the past, the ISBE chose a broader range of indicators including proficiency, student growth, graduation rates, consistent attendance, climate survey participation, and English learner progress, according to an ISBE news release.
“Schools will now be evaluated against clearly defined performance criteria rather than solely in relation to one another, making results easier to understand and use for improvement,” the ISBE said in the release.
Along with Clark’s “exemplary” rating and the “approaching exemplary” ratings of Cooke, Litte Fort, and McCall, all elementary schools scored “commendable” except Glenwood Elementary School, which was rated “developing.”
Waukegan High School and the district’s five middle schools were “comprehensive” or “developing.” Schools in the lower 5% statewide are considered “comprehensive” and needing the most improvement.
“’Developing’ means the average performance of the school typically has lower metrics in one student group with more disparity in performance,” Milewski said. “’Commendable’ is good but you always want to strive for more.”
Scores at schools in North Chicago School District 187, Zion Elementary School District 6 and Beach Park School District 3 ranged from “comprehensive” to “commendable.” In Zion-Benton Township High School District 126, Zion-Benton Township High School was rated “commendable” and Zion-Benton East, a selective enrollment school, is “approaching exemplary.”
With John Lewis and Edith Smith middle schools earning “developing” ratings and Jack Benny, Miguel Juarez and Robert Abbott middle schools classified as “comprehensive,” Milewski said efforts to help students there have been ongoing over the past three years.
Ranking below the elementary schools and high school, a “redesign” began during the 2023-2024 school year. It included a new schedule at Lewis Middle School designed to take pressure off students. A year later, the schedule went district-wide.
Milewski said young people in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades are growing in a lot of different ways. Those needs must be considered to help their academic performance improve and, with it, the school’s ISBE classification.
“Developing students at that age go through a lot of change in expectations,” Milewski said. “They go from one teacher who takes care of them all day long to having six or seven teachers through the day. They need to develop skills such as organization of work habits and homework habits to meet grade-level expectations.”
As they progress from sixth grade to seventh and then eighth, Milewski said their standardized test scores have shown improvement.
Rated “commendable” last year, Waukegan High School slipped to “developing.” Milewski said one reason was the inclusion of all students’ ACT (college entrance exam) scores starting their freshman year rather than only the junior class who are in the process of selecting colleges.
“It wasn’t our graduation rate because that increased,” Milewski said, “It was because of a slip in the performance on the ACT, primarily in math. It does help the freshmen know where to focus. It’s useful preparation for their junior year.”
In District 187, A.J. Katzenmaier Elementary School received a “commendable” score while both North Chicago Community High School and Neal Math and Science Academy middle school were rated “developing.” Evelyn Alexander and Forrestal Elementary Schools were “comprehensive.”
Ana Fuhrer, District 187’s chief operating officer, said despite the scores, student performance is improving. Changes to ISBE’s formula for rating schools did not give sufficient credit for ongoing improvement, she said.
“For the past two years, we’ve been on a steady upward trajectory,” Fuhrer said. “We know we have made gradual progress in literature and math. We are on the right track. Since 2022, students have done steadily better on their assessments.”
Zion-Benton Township High School District 126 Superintendent Jesse Rodriguez said in a text that the “approaching exemplary” designation for Zion-Benton East and “commendable” at Zion-Benton Township High School comes from “dedicated commitment to professional practice and continuous improvement.”
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“Across all learning spaces, we emphasize clear learning intentions and success criteria alongside constructive feedback, ensuring our students receive high-quality instruction every day,” Rodriguez said.