On the school report cards issued by the Illinois State Board of Education on Oct. 30, our analysis shows that 185 public high schools, out of more than 685, report that more than half their students come from low-income homes. That represents about 27 percent of the public high schools in the state.
If you would like to see our snapshot of high schools in Illinois and how many students come from low-income homes, please click the link below:
irc.schoolsnapshots.org/sch_zoom.pl?q=1031:1036:1035
This particular report combines the dropout rate and school enrollment with the low-income percentage, as reported on the Illinois school report cards issued on Oct. 30 for the 2010 school year. And although the number may sound bad, a few more schools make it onto the list of high schools with dropout rates lower than 1.0 percent. In Illinois, 208 public high schools reported dropout rates of 0.9 percent or lower.
The downside of this report is that only a handful of schools made both of my lists. These schools have dropout rates lower than 1.0 percent and more than half their students coming from low-income households:
- Thompsonville High School, enrollment 98, 55.1% low income, 0.0% dropout rate
- Academic Career Ed High School (Rockford), enrollment 79, 82.3% low income, 0.0% dropout rate
- Century Jr/Sr High School (Ullin), enrollment 178, 84.3% low income, 0.0% dropout rate
- Thornridge High School (Dolton), enrollment 1,663, 68.3% low income, 0.1% dropout rate
- Eisenhower High School (Blue Island), enrollment 2,050, 68.6% low income, 0.2% dropout rate
- Crete-Monee High School, enrollment 1,666, 62.8% low income, 0.4% dropout rate
- Noble Street Charter High School (Chicago), enrollment 3,683, 87.2% low income, 0.4% dropout rate
- Thornwood High School (South Holland), enrollment 2,190, 51.6% low income, 0.5% dropout rate
- North Chicago Community High Sch, enrollment 845, 84.9% low income, 0.5% dropout rate
- Southeastern Jr/Sr High School (Augusta), enrollment 219, 52.1% low income, 0.7% dropout rate
- Woodruff High School (Peoria, school closed), enrollment 894, 83.4% low income, 0.7% dropout rate
- Vienna High School, enrollment 388, 52.1% low income, 0.8% dropout rate
- Devry Advantage Academy High Schl (Chicago), enrollment 218, 72.9% low income, 0.9% dropout rate
I took this snapshot because a recent project by the Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest, one of 10 regional educational laboratories funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, shows a geographical map for high school dropout rates, combining data with Census Bureau data and other sources for Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ohio. Their research suggests but does not prove a possible connection between the proportion of students at a high school living below the federal poverty line and the dropout rate.
Our coverage is limited to public high schools in Illinois, since we have no money, and I run this site pretty much as my little hobby.
I will provide snapshots periodically, as we continue to look at the School Landscapes of Illinois through our SLICE project.