The school’s report card is essentially a report of the changes in things like test scores, participation and proficiency rates, as well as graduation and attendance rates. The data that is shown can be compared to the overall state of Illinois and past school years.

“While there are definitely positives in this year’s report card, there are definitely things we can still work on,” said Dr. Jeff Prickett, the Upper Campus principal.

In the academic progress category, percentages in areas like SAT performance, proficiency and participation have seen positive changes from the percentages of the last school year.

Other noticeable rises and falls in percentages include graduation rate and the number of 9th graders are “on track” to graduate on time.

In the 2022-2023 school year, the percentage of students who met expectations on the SAT was 18.1%, and the percentage of those exceeding expectations was 6.8%. This means that only 24.9% of students met expectations of performance on the test.

SAT performance has seen an increase in progress in the English and language arts category since then, with the overall percentage of students meeting expectations rising to 29.3% (20.6% meeting expectations, 8.7% exceeding them).

These changes in SAT performance could be a result of the test moving to an online format, as well as the decrease in time taken on tests. Vallianatos speaks of ways that have facilitated the boosts in scores.

“We continue to work to help students strengthen their skills since the pandemic and we are one year farther away from that very difficult period for learning. We also had a great incentive last year for students to take the SAT in March to get more practice and exposure,” said Vallianatos.

Prickett states, “I am happy that our ELA scores are on an upward trajectory, but our math scores still need some work.”

In 2022-2023, MCHS had a 25.6% rate of expectations being met. Only 1.2% of test-takers out of the 25.6% were able to score in the ‘exceeding expectations’ category.

Despite the rise in progress in the ELA category, there has been a decrease in progress in the mathematics category compared to the previous school year. Although the decrease is less than a 1%, it is still a change.

Although the overall percentage decreased, instead of only 1.2% of students exceeding expectations, 4.8% have been able to achieve that as of this year.

Proficiency in the ELA category has increased from 24.1% to 29% since the previous school year. A decrease occurred in the mathematics section with 24% proficiency last year to 23.8% this year. The science category also showed a decrease in proficiency from 54% to 51.8% proficiency.

Participation in standardized tests by students have increased from 96.6% to 97.3% for this year in the ELA section. There has also been an increased percentage in the math section, with a previous 96.3% and present 97.1%. The science category saw a noticeable decrease in the area, starting at 100% last year and dropping to 94.6%.

The graduation rate of MCHS by students who enrolled as freshmen in the 2019-2020 school year is 88.4% this year, a drop from the previous year’s 92.4%.

Despite the decrease in graduation rates, there has been a rise in the percentage of “on track” freshmen, meaning that 88.3% of them are expected to graduate within the 4-year period. This is an improvement from last year’s 84.6%.

Prickett states, “Students and teachers working together to understand how to get better goes a long way toward success.”