Will County Gazette

Dr. Karla Guseman, superintendent, of Joliet Township High School District 204, briefed the school board on the state's recent school report card at its Nov. 16 meeting.

"While it's not perfect, I do think this is much better than how we were measured in the past, because there's a lot more to what a school does than just proficiency on one test at one point in the year," she said. "So this is all of our focus."

Guseman reminded the board that the testing data is still getting back to a bit of a baseline due to procedural changes and the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. The state report card came out in October and showcases all districts’ academic proficiency and growth and school quality. 

Both Joliet West and Joliet Central earned a designation of Commendable for the 2021-22 school year, and this was the first year that Central rose above the Targeted designation. The schools will continue to receive support until they have three years in the commendable category to ensure the school’s growth and improvement. 

One of the biggest focuses of school quality for high schools is graduation rate and the percentage of students who are on track to graduate in four years. As a result of the recent struggles of the pandemic, the school district is offering online classes in addition to a full courseload for students who are just one or two classes short of graduating on time. The other major area that the district is working on is chronic absentee levels - students being absent more than 10% of the school year. Central has a 57.9% absentee rate while West has a 41.7% rate.