Big News for Our Schools Tomorrow: Illinois Report Card
Tomorrow, Illinois will release its annual school report cards. We heard from insiders that the results are strong and positive for Lake Forest Districts 67 and 115.
That is excellent news for our students, families, and community—and a reason to celebrate the people who made it possible.
Why Parents Care Demanded Academic Achievement in Lake Forest Schools
When Parents Care began, academic performance was disappointing, yet much of the districts’ attention was devoted to an educational initiative called Portrait of a Learner.
Its six defining competencies included adaptability, citizenship, communication, and empathy. All admirable qualities. But conspicuously absent from that list was academic achievement.
We asked a simple question: Shouldn’t teaching children to read, write, think critically, and master mathematics be the first priority of our schools?
We thought so. And we said so. Loudly, repeatedly, and sometimes to the considerable discomfort of district leadership.
In January 2023, Parents Care cofounder Jeff Brincat wrote directly to Superintendent Montgomery, warning that declining test scores and record school budgets should be treated as a flashing red light. He demanded measurable academic goals and greater accountability. (Read Jeff’s 2023 email to Superintendent Montgomery, PDF.)
That September, we publicly challenged the districts’ priorities again, publishing the disappointing test scores alongside their Portrait of a Learner.
Here’s what we were saying back in 2023:
Historical 2023 graphic. The score panels shown are Lake Bluff District 65 (51% ELA; 46% math) and Lake Forest District 115 (61% ELA; 64% math). The graphic criticized the absence of academics and achievement from the Portrait of a Learner and called for quantifiable academic goals, accountability, and defined measures of success.
“We’ve consistently requested that the Superintendents and Boards of Education make public quantifiable academic achievement goals for our students.”
We weren’t simply criticizing disappointing test scores. We were challenging a system of priorities that failed to place measurable academic achievement at its center.
Academic Achievement Became a School Board Priority
Both school boards subsequently elevated academic achievement among their stated priorities. That was precisely the change Parents Care had been demanding.
Oversight works. Engaged parents make a difference.
We don’t pretend Parents Care accomplished this alone. Nor do we claim responsibility for the academic achievements of our students.
Lake Forest Students, Teachers and Families Deserve the Credit
We didn’t teach the lessons, grade the papers, or prepare children for their exams. Our teachers did that. Our students did the learning. Families supported them.
But we did insist that academic achievement become a priority worthy of our schools and our community.
As we celebrate these strong results, the greatest credit belongs to the students who earned those results and the teachers who work with them every day.
Their success should reinforce something we have believed from the beginning: our schools are strongest when their priorities, attention, and resources are focused where education actually happens.
In the classroom.
Tomorrow, we will have a great deal to celebrate. Let’s use that success to strengthen our community’s commitment to academic excellence and to the people who make it possible.
Teachers and their students are the mission.
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