QualityEducation203.org's Annual Analysis of ACT Scores and Operating Costs of District 203 and the Top Performing School Districts

We annually look at how District 203 compares to the top seven high school districts and top seven unit districts, on the basis of ACT scores and OEPP (operating expense per pupil) costs. You can find the complete analysis at the QualityEducation203.org website. There are links in the analysis for two supporting spreadsheets with all the details.

Just as last year, there are only four high school districts in the Chicago area (all of Illinois really), whose students post a higher composite ACT score than D203 students. What is significant to me is that those four districts, combined with their feeder elementary districts, spend on average, 37%, or $4524 more per student, than D203 spends. A huge differential. D203 is the top performing unit district in Illinois, as it has been for the six years we've done this analysis. In those six years, there has never been a district that spends less than 203, but whose students post equal or higher ACT scores.

Recently USN&WR report, ranked what they believe are America’s top high schools. Like the Newsweek analysis, both claim to use a variety of factors to determine their ranking. Where both studies go wrong (in our opinion), is they both end up using AP participation and tests as proxies for their ranking; the other factors become irrelevant. If you look at the page with the Illinois schools, you will find that the AP participation/testing score (college readiness), perfectly aligns with the ranking. If anyone thinks that the larger the number of kids taking AP classes and tests, the better the school, fine, but we think it is a very narrow criterion.