Illinois had 851 public school districts as of July 2025, per the Illinois State Board of Education's directory: 367 elementary districts, 96 high school districts, and 387 unit districts that run kindergarten through 12th grade. In most Chicago suburbs your address feeds an elementary district and a separate high school district, so you are checking two report cards, two boards and two tax levies, not one. The 2025 Illinois Report Card, released October 30, 2025, is where to compare them, and the table shows why the headline numbers need a careful read.
| District (2025 Report Card) | Type | ELA / math proficient | Graduation | Chronic absenteeism | Funding adequacy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Trier Twp 203 (Winnetka, Northfield) | High school | 87.7% / 86.1% | 97.5% | 13.0% | 187.8% |
| Hinsdale Twp 86 | High school | 79.4% / 70.8% | 93.4% | 18.8% | 155.4% |
| Evanston Twp 202 | High school | 68.7% / 55.1% | 93.9% | 25.4% | 114.8% |
| Naperville 203 | Unit (K-12) | 80.7% / 70.3% | 96.1% | 15.4% | 120.6% |
| Indian Prairie 204 (Aurora, Naperville) | Unit | 71.6% / 63.0% | 95.1% | 15.8% | 84.9% |
| Barrington 220 | Unit | 78.0% / 62.7% | 96.4% | 12.6% | 118.2% |
| Chicago Public Schools 299 | Unit | 42.0% / 27.0% | 82.5% | 40.1% | 79.3% |
| Champaign Unit 4 | Unit | 39.9% / 31.0% | 82.7% | 34.8% | 91.7% |
| Normal Unit 5 | Unit | 53.7% / 39.3% | 88.5% | 24.3% | 76.1% |
| Illinois statewide | 52.4% / 38.4% | 89% |
Figures are from each district's 2025 Report Card on illinoisreportcard.com, pulled October 2026. Proficiency combines every tested grade in the district.
Why 2025 scores cannot be compared with 2024
ISBE rewrote the proficiency cut scores for the 2025 cycle and swapped the SAT for the ACT as the high school test. Its own guidance says the 2025 rates "set a new baseline and cannot be compared to prior years." Any real-estate listing or ranking site claiming a district "jumped 12 points" this year is comparing two different yardsticks. Statewide, 52.4% of students scored proficient in English language arts, 38.4% in math and 44.6% in science; the four-year graduation rate reached 89%, a 15-year high.
The practical effect: use the 2025 numbers to compare districts with each other, not to judge whether a district is improving. Trend data restarts in 2026.
How to read an Illinois Report Card without getting fooled
Four numbers do most of the work, and three of them are not test scores.
Growth, not just proficiency. The state's summative designations (Exemplary, Commendable, Targeted, Comprehensive, Intensive) weight student growth far more than raw scores. For elementary and middle schools, ELA growth and math growth count 25% each, while ELA and math proficiency count 7.5% each, per ISBE's 2025 indicator weights. For high schools the graduation composite alone is 50%. Exemplary means the top 10% of schools statewide with no student group performing like the bottom 5%, and, for high schools, graduation above 67%.
Chronic absenteeism. The share of students missing 10% or more of the year is on page one of every report card. It runs from 12.6% in Barrington 220 to 40.1% in Chicago Public Schools, and it predicts how much reteaching happens in a classroom better than any ranking does.
Percent of adequacy. This is the state's Evidence-Based Funding measure of how close a district's revenue comes to what the formula says it needs. The FY2026 range ran from 61% to 354%, and 539 districts sat below 90%, per ISBE's FY2027 budget hearing presentation. New Trier at 187.8% and Normal Unit 5 at 76.1% are not operating in the same financial world.
Spending per pupil. The report card's site-based expenditure table gives total per-pupil spending for the prior year: $34,881 at New Trier, $30,189 at Evanston Township, $29,000 at Hinsdale 86, $20,461 at Naperville 203, $16,805 at Champaign Unit 4 and $15,188 at Normal Unit 5. High per-pupil spending in a high school district partly reflects that high schools cost more to run, so compare like with like.
Local note: district lines ignore city lines. Naperville addresses split between Naperville 203 and Indian Prairie 204, whose central office is in Aurora, and the two districts sit 36 points apart on funding adequacy. Always look up the parcel, not the town.
What the designations look like inside a real district
Designation counts are more useful than a district's overall rank because they show spread. Naperville 203 had 6 Exemplary and 15 Commendable schools among its 22 in 2025. Indian Prairie 204 had 6 Exemplary, 23 Commendable and 2 Targeted. Hinsdale 86 split, with Hinsdale Central rated Exemplary and Hinsdale South Commendable, which matters if your address feeds South. Both New Trier campuses were Exemplary; Evanston Township's single high school was Commendable.
Chicago's 621 schools covered every category: 19 Exemplary, 407 Commendable, 119 Targeted, 54 Comprehensive and 38 Intensive. A citywide proficiency rate of 42% says almost nothing about the specific school your child would attend, which is why the attendance-area lookup on the CPS site is the first stop, not the district average.
Downstate, Champaign Unit 4 had no Exemplary schools and 11 in Targeted or Comprehensive status, while Normal Unit 5 had 3 Exemplary schools and a 53.7% ELA rate, above the state average, on 76% funding adequacy. See the Champaign and Normal profiles for the housing side of that comparison.
Chicago's selective enrollment calendar for fall 2027
If a Chicago address is in play, the timeline is fixed and unforgiving. The GoCPS application for the 2027-28 school year opened September 9, 2026 and closes November 13, 2026 at 5 p.m., per the CPS high school application page. CPS eighth graders took the HSAT (the PreACT 9 Secure) in school on October 7; students from private, suburban or out-of-state schools test on October 17-18 or 24-25. Initial offers go out February 12, 2027.
Selective enrollment seats are awarded on points from the HSAT and seventh-grade final grades, and applicants can rank up to six selective programs. Your address tier, a socioeconomic grouping of the city, determines which pool you compete in. Families moving mid-cycle should confirm the tier of a new address before signing a lease, since the tier changes the math.
Before you decide
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Look up both districts for a suburban address (elementary and high school) on illinoisreportcard.com, not just the one the listing names.
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Read chronic absenteeism and percent of adequacy before the proficiency rate.
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Check the summative designation of the specific school the address feeds, not the district count.
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Treat any 2024-to-2025 score comparison as invalid; ISBE reset the scale.
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In Chicago, confirm the address tier on the GoCPS site before relying on a selective enrollment plan.
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Pair this with the family life guide and the Chicago vs. suburbs decision guide for the cost side.
Quick answers
How many school districts does Illinois have? 851 as of July 2025: 367 elementary, 96 high school and 387 unit districts. Most Chicago suburbs run separate elementary and high school districts.
Which Illinois district scored highest on the 2025 Report Card? Among districts in this comparison, New Trier Township 203 led with 87.7% ELA and 86.1% math proficiency, a 97.5% graduation rate and both campuses rated Exemplary. Its 187.8% funding adequacy is a big part of that story.
Can I compare 2025 scores with earlier years? No. ISBE changed the cut scores and moved high schools from the SAT to the ACT in 2025, and says the new rates are a fresh baseline.
Related reading
Reviewed by the Illinois Community editorial team. Spotted an error? Send a correction. Read our editorial policy.
