Like everything in 2020, the Illinois Report Card is a little different.
The 2020 Report Card takes a look at the previous school year’s data: annual assessments, graduation rates and teacher retention, to name a few data points. In previous years, the Report Card has been a benchmark of comparison for Illinois’ schools, offering a complete picture of students and school performance.
But, due to the stay-at-home order that pushed schools into remote learning at the end of the 2019-20 school year, assessments, such as SAT and the Illinois Assessment of Readiness were not administered.
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has added data qualifiers to indicate the affected metrics.
Still, the 2020 Report Card breaks down the district’s finances, expenditures per students, teacher retention, attendance, enrollment and salaries in an attempt to help constituents gauge the district’s progress.
Since 2018, each school within Illinois has received a Summative Designation of Exemplary, Commendable, Under-Performing, and Lowest-Performing, a measure of progress in academic performance and student success. The designation is based on eight indicators of academic success and school quality, weighted towards graduation rates in high school and growth in English/language arts and math in PK-8.
Due to impacts on various accountability measures as a result of COVID-19, 2020 Summative Designations mirror the Summative Designations reported in 2019.
In 2019, 75 percent of schools received a “Commendable” designation, while only 11 percent of schools received an “Exemplary” designation. An “Exemplary” rating is awarded to schools whose performance is in the top 10 percent of the state.
The Mahomet-Seymour High School, Junior High and Lincoln Trail Elementary received a “Commendable” designation on the Illinois Report Card, which was released on Oct. 30. Middletown Prairie Elementary did not receive a designation.
With 3220 students district-wide, enrollment in the Mahomet-Seymour School District continues to grow.
From 2015 to 16, enrollment increased by eight students, then by 16 students from 2016 to 2017. Enrollment in 2018 enrollment increased by 44 students from 2017 and from 2018 to 19 enrollment increased by 68 students. In 2019, 3,181 attended Mahomet-Seymour.
Grades K, 1, 5, 7 and 10 saw the largest increases at 25,31,33,35 and 36 students, respectively.
The district has 20-percent low-income students, which is near typical. Students with IEPs dropped 1-percent in 2020 to 9-percent.
In 2015-2016 the district reported zero high school drop-outs. By 2017 and 2018, drop-outs were at 1-percent only to increase to 3-percent in 2019, but were down in 2020 at 2-percent.
Mahomet-Seymour High School graduation rates were boosted 4-percent in 2020 with 95-percent of seniors graduating. Those numbers are up from 90-percent in 2015, 92-percent in 2018 and 91-percent in 2018 and 2019.
Freshmen on track also rose in 2020 with 94.2-percent. As a class, 91-percent of freshmen were on track to graduate in 2019. The percentage was at 93-percent in 2017 and 2018 as it has risen from 90-percent in 2016 and 88-percent in 2015.
The district spends roughly $9,000 per student enrolled. According to ISBE’s report, the district spends $11,000 per student at Mahomet-Seymour High School. Expenditures per student at Middletown Prairie Elementary are at $8,400 per student and $7,900 per student at Lincoln Trail Elementary. The district spends $8,200 per student at Mahomet-Seymour Junior High.
The Mahomet-Seymour School District was designated at a Tier 1 school for Evidence-Based Funding in 2020. At $22,727,721 Evidence-Based Funding Resources, they are at 65-percent capacity to meet the $34,966.212 Adequacy Target.
Average class size throughout the Mahomet-Seymour School District has been above the state average since 2015, but the ISBE report shows that the district is closing the gap.
Kindergarten classes in 2020 are three above the state average at 22 per class.
Grade 1 and 2 are within two to three students per class of the state average at 21, but the gap widens in grade 3, 4 and 5 where there are four to five students over state average per class size.
Grade 6 class size average is 27 while the state average is 23. That trend continues in grades 7 and 8 where class sizes are 29 and 25 when the state average is 23.
The Mahomet-Seymour School District, which has a total of 186 teachers and has a student to teacher ratio of 20:1 at the elementary and high school level. The state average is 18.1 at the elementary level and 19.1 at the state level.
The teacher retention rate, the 3-year average percentage of teachers returning to work at Mahomet-Seymour holds steady with the state, at 86-percent.
On average, teachers within the Mahomet-Seymour School district see a lower salary than their state-wide counterparts. This has held true at least since 2015.
Currently, on average, Mahomet-Seymour teachers are paid $54,646 per year. The state average is $68,083.
The percentage of teachers who are absent more than 10 days per year fell in 2020. In 2017 and 2018, 71-percent of teachers had fewer than 10 absences within the school year, but in 2019, 81-percent and in 2020 84-percent of teachers missed fewer than 10 days.
Since 2017, 100-percent of Mahomet-Seymour teachers had received Excellent or Proficient designations on their evaluations, but in 2020 98.2-percent of teachers received those high marks.
The Mahomet-Seymour School District falls behind the state average of administration to student ratio. The state average of admins to students was 171:1 in 2020, but Mahomet-Seymour was at 219:1.
Average administrator salaries were also below the state average. In 2020, Mahomet-Seymour administrators made an average of $95,494 whereas the state administrators made an average of $11,293.
The following data pulled from the Illinois Report Card shows every school district and school in Champaign County in 2020:
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