Here's The Best School District In Illinois: Report

BARRINGTON, IL — A new report has ranked the best school district in Illinois, and the answer might surprise you. The website 24/7 Wall St., a Delaware corporation that publishes financial news and commentary, sifted through various school data to determine the best school district in every state.

In Illinois, Barrington Community Unit School District 220, serving portions of Cook, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties, topped the list. The district has 8,910 students and spends $17,869 per student, higher than the state average, the analysis found. The high school graduation rate is 98.2 percent and 61.5 percent of adults living in the district have a bachelor’s degree.

The company evaluated the districts by creating an index based on data in the following categories:

• child poverty
• spending per student
• graduation rate
• teachers per student
• percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree
• preschool enrollment
• Advanced Placement enrollment

Several school districts in the U.S. spend more than $50,000 per student on education each year, 24/7 Wall St. said, but others spend less than $2,000 per student.

“That difference in spending contributes to major disparities in student outcomes throughout the country,” the authors wrote. “The majority of a school’s budget is spent on staff and teacher salaries. A school that is able to attract the best teachers can give their students a major advantage.”

Indeed, wealthier areas often reap those rewards.

Local sources, including property taxes, account for about 44 percent of all school funding in the U.S. This means most of the best school districts are located in affluent counties where the majority of households earn more than double that of a typical American household.

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In Cook County, one of the counties served by the district, the median household income from 2012-2016 was $56,902 — slightly higher than the national average of $55,322. The poverty rate in Cook County was 15 percent, higher than the national average of 12.7 percent.

In Lake County, the median income was considerably higher, at $79,886, and the poverty rate is lower than the national average at 8.7 percent. The same goes for McHenry County, with a median income of $79,836 and a 7.3 percent poverty rate. Kane County, meanwhile, has a median income of $71,602 and a 10.5 percent poverty rate.

The nationwide rankings report, published on Monday, follows a January report from the same site that found Illinois ranked 16th in the country for best schools.

Here’s a breakdown of schools in Illinois, according to 24/7 Wall St.:

• High school graduation rate: 85.5 percent (25th highest)
• Public school spending: $13,403 per pupil (17th highest)
• 8th grade NAEP proficiency: 32.2 percent (math) 35.1 percent (reading)
• Adults with at least a bachelor’s degree: 34 percent (13th highest)
• Adults 25-64 with incomes at or above national median: 53.7 percent (15th highest)

More than 85 precent of Illinois high school students graduate with a diploma — slightly higher than the national average of 84.1 percent.

Reading proficiency in fourth- and eighth-graders in Illinois is also slightly higher than the national average. Some 35.5% of fourth-graders and 35.1% of eighth-graders in the state are proficient in reading, compared to 34.8% of fourth-graders and 32.7% of eighth-graders nationwide. According to 24/7 Wall St., high early childhood education enrollment rates could be responsible for the better outcomes in reading in Illinois.

In Illinois, just 53.7 percent of kids live in families with incomes at least double the poverty level income, the report said. That's less than the 58.7 percent of children nationwide.

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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