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Education Desk
The Education Desk is our education blog focusing on key areas of news coverage important to the state and its improvement. Evidence of public policy performance and impact will be reported and analyzed. We encourage you to engage in commenting and discussing the coverage of education from pre-natal to Higher Ed.Dusty Rhodes curates this blog that will provide follow-up to full-length stories, links to other reports of interest, statistics, and conversations with you about the issues and stories.About - Additional Education Coverage00000179-2419-d250-a579-e41d385d0000

Illinois Provides Data On Schools Via Award-Winning Report Card

When you think of a report card, you think of a basic form that provides average test scores and little more. But the new online report cards for each Illinois public school offer more granular data, such as teacher retention and principal turnover rates, the percentage of high school freshmen deemed "on track" for graduation, and even survey results for how safe students feel at school.

The Illinois State Board of Education will release online the latest data on school achievement later this week. The news varies by community, but the website itself has already earned an A+.  Mary Fergus, spokesperson for the board, said the new format earned Illinois recognition from the national Education Commission of the States.

"The Illinois report card was ranked number one for not only content but for transparency and for that accessiblity that's so important."

Data Quality Campaign, a nonprofit education advocacy organization. The report cards can help families decide which school is best for their child, as well as guide administrators trying to improve their schools.

The information will be avilable at illinoisreportcard.com.

After a long career in newspapers (Dallas Observer, The Dallas Morning News, Anchorage Daily News, Illinois Times), Dusty returned to school to get a master's degree in multimedia journalism. She began work as Education Desk reporter at NPR Illinois in September 2014.
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