Rockford Sun

Nearly 8 in 10 Boone 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 Rockford Sun of test scores compiled by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE).

ISBE reports that in the 2023-24 school year, 79.5% of Boone County's 728 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 Boone County schools, Belvidere High School (84.9%) had the highest failure rate in the county. Meanwhile, North Boone High School (76.3%) had the lowest.

Countywide, English test failure rates fell from 79.6% in the 2022-23 school year to 79.5% in the 2023-24 school year.

The failure rate increased at one Boone County high school in the 2023-24 school year, with the most significant increase happening at Belvidere North High School, where the failure rate increased by 3.9%, reaching 76.4% 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%.

Belvidere High School and North Boone High School were the only high schools 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."

High School	Student Count	Failure Rate in 2022-23 School Year	Failure Rate in 2023-24 School Year
Belvidere High School	271	87.9%	84.9%
Belvidere North High School	343	72.5%	76.4%
North Boone High School	114	80.2%	76.3%