Lake County Gazette

Nearly 6 in 10 Lake 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 Lake County Gazette of test scores compiled by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE).

ISBE reports that in the 2023-24 school year, 56.6% of Lake County's 9,477 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.

North Chicago Community High School (93.2%), Waukegan High School (89.4%) and Zion-Benton Township High School (83.9%) had the highest failure rates in Lake County in the 2023-24 school year. Meanwhile, Deerfield High School (29.1%) and Adlai E. Stevenson High School (28.2%) had the lowest.

Of the 19 Lake County high schools, eight schools had passing rates of more than 50%, including Highland Park High School, Barrington High School, and Lake Zurich High School.

Countywide, English test failure rates rose from 55.8% in the 2022-23 school year to 56.6% in the 2023-24 school year.

The failure rate rose in nine Lake County high schools in the 2023-24 school year, with the most significant increase happening at Grant Community High School, where the failure rate rose by 9.3%, reaching 75.9% 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%.

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
North Chicago Community High School	220	96.3%	93.2%
Waukegan High School	991	91.5%	89.4%
Zion-Benton Township High School	555	86.8%	83.9%
Grant Community High School	427	66.6%	75.9%
Wauconda High School	353	60.1%	68.6%
Warren Township High School	903	65.7%	65.2%
Mundelein Consolidated High School	543	63.5%	64.3%
Antioch Community High School	346	61.5%	61.3%
Grayslake Central High School	340	51.8%	59.7%
Lakes Community High School	339	59.7%	56%
Grayslake North High School	294	61.5%	55.8%
Highland Park High School	424	44%	49.5%
Barrington High School	668	43.5%	45.4%
Lake Zurich High School	445	42.4%	41.6%
Vernon Hills High School	342	40.4%	40.1%
Libertyville High School	479	32.2%	35.9%
Lake Forest High School	334	35.8%	31.7%
Deerfield High School	347	28.6%	29.1%
Adlai E. Stevenson High School	1127	27.8%	28.2%