SAT Scores Up In Hinsdale School District 86

HINSDALE, IL – Former Hinsdale High School District 86 Superintendent Tammy Prentiss drew a lot of criticism in her four years at the helm.

However, her critics would be hard-pressed to use the school's SAT scores to make their case. The school board ousted Prentiss in June.

On Monday, the state released schools' SAT scores, among other data, on the Illinois Report Card website.

Since the pandemic, statewide averages for percentages of students meeting state SAT standards declined.

At Hinsdale Central High School, 76 percent of juniors who took the SAT last school year met state standards in English language arts.

That's above the 75 percent in 2019, the last school year before the pandemic and the last one under Prentiss' predecessor, Bruce Law. The latest number is also an increase of 4 percentage points from the previous year.

At Hinsdale South High School, 47 percent of juniors met the state English language arts benchmark last year. That was an 8 percentage point increase from a year earlier. In 2019, 44 percent of students met the benchmark.

The biggest decline over the last four years was in the SAT math section at Hinsdale Central. According to the state, 70 percent of Central students met standards in that area last school year. That was a 3 percentage point drop from the previous year. In 2019, 79 percent of students made the benchmark.

At Hinsdale South, 44 percent of students met the standards in math last year, up 5 percentage points from a year earlier. That was above 2018's 43 percent but below 2019's 47 percent.

As with most wealthier schools, Hinsdale Central and South were ahead of statewide averages.

Across Illinois, 32 percent of juniors met the English language arts standards last year, compared with 36 percent before the pandemic.

In math, 27 percent met the benchmark statewide last school year, down from 34 percent pre-pandemic.