Do you know how many public high schools there are in Illinois? 688.
That's why I'm forever indebted to the Illinois State Board of Education for pulling just the chronic truancy rates for those schools into a single spreadsheet for The Courier-News. That's how I learned Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville had one of the 10 worst truancy rates in Illinois. (I had an inkling it was up there.) That's all in today's cover story.
Here's how all Elgin School District U46 and Carpentersville-area Community Unit School District 300 high schools rank in terms of truancy:
- 10. Dundee-Crown High School, Carpentersville (Community Unit School District 300)
- 93. Larkin High School, Elgin (School District U46)
- 94. Hampshire High School, Hampshire (Community Unit School District 300)
- 117. Elgin High School, Elgin (School District U46)
- 121. Jacobs High School, Algonquin (Community Unit School District 300)
- 160. South Elgin High School, South Elgin (School District U46)
- 231. Streamwood High School, Streamwood (School District U46)
- 361. Bartlett High School, Bartlett (School District U46)
What were the Top 10? Where did my school rank? After the jump.
Here are the Top 10 high schools with the worst truancy rates in Illinois, according to ISBE data:
- 1. Tomorrow's Builders Charter School, East St. Louis, East St. Louis Public Schools District 189 -- 100 percent truant
- 2. ACE Technical Charter High School, Chicago, Chicago Public Schools -- 99.1 percent truant
- 3. Paul Robeson Achievement Academy High School, Chicago, Chicago Public Schools -- 56.9 percent truant
- 4. Cairo Junior/Senior High School, Cairo, Cairo Unified School District 1 -- 56.6 percent truant
- 5. East St. Louis Senior High School, East St. Louis, East St. Louis Public Schools District 189 -- 53.6 percent truant
- 6. School of Leadership High School, Chicago, Chicago Public Schools -- 45.2 percent truant
- 7. Ridgewood Community High School, Norridge, Ridgewood Community High School District 234 -- 43.7 percent truant
- 8. Lovejoy Technology Academy, Lovejoy, Brooklyn Unit School District 188 -- 40.2 percent truant
- 9. Chicago Vocational Achievement Academy High School, Chicago Public Schools -- 31.3 percent truant
- 10. Dundee-Crown High School, Community Unit School District 300 -- 30.8 percent truant
ISBE did not comment on whether high schools with 100 percent or 99.1 percent truancy might be calculating their rates differently than other schools. But Dundee-Crown officials said 30.8 percent was not a surprising number at the Carpentersville school.
For more on what factors are contributing to those high truancy rates, check out my cover story in today's Courier-News!
-- Emily McFarlan, Readers' Reporter
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