Joliet PSD 86

The Joliet PSD 86 district in Illinois comprises 20 schools, including 16 elementary schools and 4 middle schools, serving students from pre-kindergarten through 8th grade. The district faces significant challenges, with most schools performing well below state averages in both English Language Arts and Mathematics proficiency.

A few schools stand out as high-performing within the district, including Eisenhower Academy, which ranks 17th out of 2,056 Illinois elementary schools and has exceptional test scores, with 94.4% of students proficient or better in ELA and 87.1% in Math. Forest Park Individual Educational School and Thomas Jefferson Elementary School also stand out as high-performing, with above-average test scores. However, the majority of schools in the district struggle, with chronic absenteeism rates significantly higher than the state average and most schools performing well below state averages in both ELA and Math proficiency.

The data reveals stark performance gaps between the highest-performing and lowest-performing schools in the district, and a strong correlation between poverty and academic achievement, as the schools with the highest rates of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch tend to have the lowest test scores. Addressing these challenges and learning from the practices of the district's high-performing outliers will be crucial for improving educational outcomes for all students in the Joliet PSD 86 district.