Rockford schools leader discusses 2024-25 Illinois Report Card | Video
Ehren Jarrett, superintendent of Rockford Public Schools, discusses the district’s progress in areas of literacy and graduation rates.
- Rockford Public Schools’ graduation rates have increased to 77% in 2025, up from 68.9% in 2023.
- Despite improvements, Black students’ graduation rates continue to lag behind those of white and Hispanic students.
- Chronic absenteeism remains a significant challenge, with over 40% of students missing 17 or more school days.
ROCKFORD, IL — New Illinois School Report Card data released Oct. 30 shows Rockford Public Schools is making strides when it comes to graduation rates but continues to struggle with chronic truancy.
High school four-year graduation rates increased 8 percentage points for all students since the 2022-2023 school year, going from 68.9% to 77% in the 2024-2025 school year.
Although Black students continue to lag behind white and Hispanic students, they also took a big step forward with 68.8% graduating in 2025 compared to 54.8% in 2023.
In conjunction with graduation rates, the percentage of Rockford freshmen on track has also increased from 72% in 2023 to 77% in 2025.
As the district transitions to a new superintendent, Jarrett said he’d like to see Rockford beat the state’s overall graduation rate of 89%.
“Our district is moving in the right direction,” Jarrett said. “The hard work of our teachers, staff, students and families is paying off in meaningful ways. These results show real momentum for Rockford’s future.”
Jarrett noted that Rockford has not reduced standards to improve graduation rates. Among Rockford Public Schools graduates, 56% took advanced coursework through advanced placement classes, dual credit or the seal of biliteracy.
District highlights include the performance of the Gifted Academy at Marshall Elementary and Marshall Middle schools as well as the STEAM Academy at Haskell, each of which achieved exemplary status placing them among the top-performing schools in the state.
In targeted status since 2018, Conklin Academy was rated commendable. And McIntosh Elementary more than doubled its summative proficiency rates from 20.6% to 45.3%, climbing to targeted status for the first time ever.
“When I look at overall school-by-school performance, we have a tremendous number of success stories,” Jarrett said. “Our average scores on the school level scorecards have gone up across the board over the last few years.”
Chronic absenteeism remains one of the district’s biggest challenges. Although it has always been a problem in Rockford Public Schools, Jarrett said it became more pronounced after the global pandemic in 2020. Rockford’s chronic absenteeism rate of 42% is 17 points higher than state average of 25%.
“We’re still way above where we want to be on our overall chronic absenteeism rate,” Jarrett said. “So that is not okay where we’re at. We saw significant gains with our elementary schools, but our high schools and middle schools were still relatively flat. So, we have work to do there.”
Jeff Kolkey writes about government, economic development and other issues for the Rockford Register Star. He can be reached via email at jkolkey@rrstar.com and on X @jeffkolkey.
