All four schools in the Mahomet-Seymour Community Unit School District 3 received the highest possible designation of “exemplary” on the 2025 Illinois Report Card.
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) released the annual report on October 30, using data from the 2024 school year that includes academic performance, student demographics, graduation rates, and district finances.
To receive an “exemplary” designation, schools must meet three criteria:
- No student demographic subgroups performing at or below the level of the “all students” group in the lowest 5% of schools
- A graduation rate greater than 67%
- Performance in the top 10% of schools statewide as measured by the multi-measures accountability index
The 2025 report card is the first year of implementation for Illinois’ recalibrated proficiency benchmarks, which state officials describe as “right-sized” to better align with college and career readiness expectations. The ISBE adjusted cut scores after determining that previous standards were among the highest in the nation and risked mislabeling students as underperforming.
In August, ISBE released new assessment performance levels designed to provide families and educators with more accurate data on student achievement and college readiness. These changes addressed concerns that prior standards mislabeled high-performing students as “not proficient.”
The recalibration means that future proficiency rates will not be directly comparable to previous years, but parents and educators will still be able to track growth using raw scores and Student Growth Percentiles. These reforms benefit students from underserved backgrounds and intend to make Illinois’ assessment results a more effective tool for guiding resources and supporting educational improvement statewide.
For the first time, all three state assessments—ELA, Math, and Science—will use the same set of unified performance levels: Above Proficient, Proficient, Approaching Proficient, and Below Proficient. These benchmarks were set according to actual college entrance and success data, replacing prior standards that were harder to meet than those in almost any other state, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
According to ISBE data, the Mahomet-Seymour School District served 3,411 students in 2024. The District provided ISBE with data that shows Middletown Prairie Elementary had 21.5 students per class, (22.4 in 2023; 21.7 in 2022; and 21.9 in 2021); Lincoln Trail Elementary had 25.9 students per class (25.9 in 2023; 25.9 in 2022; and 26.7 in 2021); Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School had 25.7 students per class (25.5 in 2023; 27.2 in 2022; 26.4 in 2021) and Mahomet-Seymour High Scool had 20.1 students per class (18.3 in 2023; 18.8 in 2022; 19.9 in 2021). District-wide, Mahomet-Seymour reported a 20:1 student/teacher ratio.
Mahomet-Seymour High School achieved a 97% graduation rate for the class of 2024. The percentage of ninth graders on track to graduate—defined as earning at least five full-year course credits with no more than one semester F in a core course—serves as the strongest predictor of future graduation success. Mahomet-Seymour’s ninth-grade on-track rate stood at 96.9% among all students, though analysis revealed disparities between white students and students of color.
In 2020, the Illinois Report Card reported that 77.4 percent of students graduating from Mahomet-Seymour High School enrolled in college courses within 12 months. The 2024 data shows that 67.1 percent of those graduating enrolled in college courses.
Chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 10% or more of the school year, remains a challenge for Illinois schools following pandemic-related disruptions. Coming out of the pandemic, Mahomet-Seymour focused on chronic absenteeism, and in 2024 the district’s rate was at 12%, up from over 25% in 2021 and 2022.
The Report Card data shows that 65.8% of students in the district were proficient in ELA (English Language Arts), 58% were proficient in math and 64.5 were proficient in science. Statewide, 30.8% of students in eighth grade passed Algebra I, while 26.6% passed at Mahomet-Seymour Junior High in 2024.
The Mahomet-Seymour School District maintained an 89% teacher retention rate, while educators in the district earned an average salary of $62,028, which is approximately 21% below the state average. Administrators’ salaries, on the other hand, were closer to the state average. The average administrator salary at Mahomet-Seymour was $114,421 while the state average was $123,642, a 7.46% difference.
