Lake Forest High School Illinois Report Card 2025: How We Really Measure Up

The Purpose

Parents Care’s mission is to provide objective, spin-free reporting on how our local schools are truly performing. Our goal isn’t to attack, it’s to inform so that families can make decisions based on facts, not filtered talking points.

Just last week, under Superintendent Dr. Montgomery’s direction, a community-wide email was distributed celebrating Lake Forest High School’s progress as measured by the 2025 Illinois School Report Card released by the Illinois State Board of Education.

To be sure, there are some things worth celebrating. However, when we reviewed the official 2025 Illinois School Report Card for Lake Forest High School (LFHS) and compared it with verified data published by the Chicago Tribune, we found that the data paints a more complicated picture than the district’s upbeat email suggested.

The Good

• Strong results overall: 85.5 % of juniors met the state benchmark in English Language Arts (ACT 23) and 77.6 % met it in Math (ACT 24).

• Top 10 % statewide: LFHS earned the state’s “Exemplary” designation — meaning the school ranks among the top 10 % in Illinois and no student subgroup is underperforming.

• Excellent attendance and graduation: Chronic absenteeism is among the lowest in the state, and graduation remains near 100%.

  
  

Where The Data On The Lake Forest High School Illinois 2025 Report Card Tells A Different Story

Historical Decline

• Declining ACT Scores: A decade ago, LFHS students averaged 26–27 composite, placing the school among the top performers in Illinois. In 2025, scores fell to 24 in ELA and 25 in Math — a 2- to 3-point decline that equates to roughly a 10-percentile national drop. Once an academic leader, LFHS now shows clear performance erosion compared to its historical peak.

• An Oversight or a Misleading Omission? Despite clear evidence of declining ACT scores, the district’s communication did not acknowledge any drop in performance. Instead, it highlighted selective data points and framed the results as an improvement, leaving the public with an incomplete and potentially inaccurate understanding of LFHS’s academic trajectory.

  
  

Falling Behind Peer Districts

• Trailing Top North Shore Schools: According to the Chicago Tribune’s statewide analysis (Oct 30, 2025), Lake Forest remains well above state averages (≈ 18.8) but trails top North Shore schools.

• Unsupported Ranking Claim: District 115’s claim that LFHS ranks “third among comparable districts” is not supported by this data; LFHS sits solidly in the middle of the pack — strong, but not leading.

Selective and Misleading Framing

• Ignoring historical decline: The district omitted that ACT scores are lower than they were a decade ago and instead suggested growth.

• Invalid score conversion: The district “translated” ACT scores into a fictional 72 % SAT pass rate to claim improvement. ISBE explicitly warns that ACT–SAT conversions are invalid.

• Creating the illusion of growth: Because 2025 marks a new baseline year, there is no trend data yet. Any claim of “improvement” is not just premature — it’s misleading, at best, using invalid score conversions for this cohort despite ISBE warnings, and at worst, dishonest, contradicting the big picture: 2012-2017 historical data.

  
  

Parents Care's Take

• Lake Forest High School’s students and teachers continue to work hard — and they deserve credit for that effort.

• But the public deserves honesty, too. District 115’s communication omitted the decline, blurred the comparisons, and oversold the results.

• Accountability starts with transparency — showing every number, not just the ones that support a narrative.

• Parents Care will continue to provide the facts — no spin, no omissions — through detailed reports on Districts 115, 67, and 65.

• Our mission is simple: make sure truth and transparency drive student improvement, not administrative public relations.