West Aurora School District 129 saw chronic absenteeism rates fall and its graduation rate rise slightly, according to the latest data from its 2026 Illinois Report Card.
The district also saw growth in student proficiency rates, but those figures still fell below the state averages.
Here’s a look at how West Aurora measured up.
According to the latest figures, West Aurora D129 saw a decrease in the percentage of its students who were chronically absent, defined as students who have missed 10% or more of school.
Its chronic absenteeism rate declined from about 22% to a little less than 18%, the district’s Illinois Report Card shows. The latest figures put West Aurora almost six percentage points lower than the state average.
That rate, however, still remains stubbornly above pre-pandemic levels, following a statewide trend.
The district has worked to rebound from higher absenteeism rates following the COVID-19 pandemic by working to build a school culture that makes students “want to show up on a daily basis,” according to Brent Raby, West Aurora’s associate superintendent of teaching and learning.
“It’s really about how welcoming the environment is, how connected the parents are, do they understand the importance of being there,” Raby told The Beacon-News on Friday, “and making that time meaningful when they are within your classroom.”
“I can’t say that there’s some kind of … magic to that,” he added, “but it’s been a focus of ours, and usually you get results in what you focus on.”
Graduation rates also improved at West Aurora High School.
The latest figures show a little over 91% of students in the district graduating in four years, an increase over the prior year’s figure.
The district continues to outperform the state average slightly in terms of graduation rates. This year, the state saw a new high of nearly 90%.
That work, Raby said, starts freshman year.
He said West Aurora has, for example, early intervention efforts meant to support West Aurora students starting early in high school, as a means to “catch kids early, when they start … falling off of that trajectory.”
Some of those programs came about after the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, noting that the district is hoping to eventually be able to move away from some of those specific interventions as the district’s numbers improve.
As for academic performance, District 129 saw improvement in proficiency rates — a measure of whether students are meeting goals for their grade level — across English Language Arts, or ELA, math and science. But it continued to lag behind state averages.
The latest figures put the district’s ELA proficiency rate at about 43%. Science was a little over 38%, and math around 29%.
Raby said he “(doesn’t) like to see scores in the 20s and the 30s around proficiency,” and that closing the district’s proficiency gap is a major goal.
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But, to do so, he said, it “has to be about growth year after year.”
Student growth in math and ELA at West Aurora — a measure of how much students have improved compared with their peers — generally hovered around average compared to the rest of the state, according to ISBE’s 2026 figures. District 129 students showed above-average growth in math and ELA on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, or IAR, in the 2026 report card, but slightly below-average growth when it comes to high school assessment.
Additionally, Raby said, there needs to be a focus on the district’s multi-language and special education programs as the district looks to improve.
He’s also hoping that the district’s new literacy program will help proficiency scores continue to grow going forward.
Last year, the district made changes to how it teaches literacy at the elementary level, Raby said. It has a more structured program now, he noted, and it also redid the district’s elementary schedule so that literacy and math — and some social-emotional learning work — are a major focus during the school day.
The district will be looking at math next year, Raby said.
West Aurora also saw improvement in its average math scores on the ACT, but saw a slight decline in ELA.
Per the recently released figures, West Aurora’s average ELA score went down from 17.2 to 16.5, continuing to hover below the state average. Its ACT average math score, meanwhile, increased from 17.2 to 17.6, but that also remains below the state average.
Average science scores were roughly the same compared to the prior year, hovering at a little under 18.
West Aurora’s total enrollment declined slightly, from just under 11,000 to around 10,600 on this year’s report card. Student enrollment also fell statewide by 1.6%, continuing a long-term decline as birth rates fall and more people move out of state.
This year, ISBE redesigned its accountability system for schools. Under the new system, all of West Aurora’s schools were designated as “exemplary,” “approaching exemplary” or “commendable.”
This, Raby said, is something the district is “pretty excited” about.
He said the new designations help the district “tell the right story” to its staff, in the sense that the categories are criteria-based and give schools clearer guidance on how to improve.
But he said the district is “never content” where they’re at, pointing to ongoing efforts and a need to keep looking at things like proficiency rates.
“We know it’s going to take time to continue to let that proficiency grow within our district,” Raby said. “That doesn’t happen overnight.”
West Aurora D129’s full Illinois Report Card for 2026 can be found at: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/District.aspx?districtid=31045129022.
The baiduhai’s Robert McCoppin contributed.