Joliet Township High School District 204 received its 2025 Illinois School Report Cards for both Joliet West and Joliet Central.

While the district is touting its much-improved graduation rates for the year, improvement is needed for students with disabilities at Joliet Central.

The Illinois State Board of Education released its annual school report cards in October, revealing how each school performed in 2024 across critical metrics, including standardized testing, graduation rates, college readiness and overall attendance rates across different student demographics.

In addition to raw data, the school report cards give each school a ranking from comprehensive to exemplary.

Schools scoring in the top 10% of schools statewide receive an exemplary designation, while schools in the bottom 5% receive a comprehensive designation.

Schools that largely perform well but have one or more demographic groups slip into the bottom 5% are listed as targeted.

The majority of schools receive a rating of commendable, which means all student groups are performing above the bottom 5% statewide.

Neither school in District 204 saw a change in its designation from last year. Joliet West was listed as commendable, while Joliet Central remained in the targeted category, with the area of focus highlighted as students with disabilities.

“We’re really focused on Central, especially on achievement for English language learners and special education, and looking for ways to support those learners more,” Superintendent Dr. Karla Guseman said.

Among the ways Guseman said the district is hoping to improve outcomes for special education students is strengthening not only the district’s co-teaching model, but also implementing a new “consult model” in which special education tutors are assigned certain students who still attend regular classes, which the teachers can “push in and pull out.”

This means the staff member can look at individual students’ progress and either come into the classroom to work with them individually during class time, or pull them out individually or with a small group for more focused work outside the classroom.

This model has so far been introduced for freshmen and sophomores, with plans to expand to all grade levels in the coming years.

Graduation rates and college credit

Guseman said the biggest point of pride for the district in the report cards is both schools’ high graduation rates, something which accounts for half of a school’s evaluation.

“Our graduation rates at both campuses improved a lot last year,” Guseman said. “That is a real positive.”

Joliet West had the higher graduation rate of the two schools, with 86.6% over Joliet Central’s 80.8%. However, Central experienced a higher jump in rates from the previous year, increasing by more than 5%, while West improved by just over 3%.

The state average graduation rate is 87.7%.

“Our previous district rate was 79%, so that’s a pretty solid area of growth for one year, especially in a district this big,” Guseman said. “We’re excited to be trending in the right direction.”

Guseman said the district has made concerted efforts to increase the graduation rate over the past few years by increasing virtual tutoring options and expanding recovery programs for students who fall behind on credits.

In addition to graduation rates, Guseman said that internally, the district uses data from the schools’ Advanced Placement and Dual Credit programs to determine success and college and career readiness.

Guseman said that JTHS students earned 3,811 college credit hours at Joliet Junior College, University of St. Francis, College of DuPage, and Lewis University in 2024-2025.

She also noted that Joliet students took over 1700 AP tests last year and received passing grades on 63% of them.

Outside of college credit, JTHS students earned 474 certifications in career and technical programs, including culinary arts, cosmetology and nursing.

Test scores

While students at District 204 schools have achieved success in multiple other areas, the ACT proficiency scores fell below the state average in English Language Arts, math and science.

Joliet West performed higher than Joliet Central with proficiency rates of 38.2% in ELA, 27.8% in math, and 38% in science.

Joliet Central received proficiency rates of 27.7% in ELA, 18.5% in math, and 26.9% in science on the ACT. In the school’s targeted group of students with disabilities, proficiency scores were 11.4% in ELA, 10.6% in math and 10.6% in science.

The state averages in each subject area are 52.4% in ELA, 38.4% in math and 44.8% in science.

Guseman noted the data is a baseline since the state switched the required standardized test from the SAT to the ACT and created new benchmarks for proficiency.

She also pointed to a district-specific challenge in standardized testing.

“I think it’s important to remember that in Illinois at the high school level, the tests are only provided in English,” she said. “This is a problem for districts like JTHS with a higher-than-average non-English speaking population.”

Guseman said that schools are required to have at least 95% of their students take the assessment, yet nearly a quarter of the district’s student body are English learners.

This issue is particularly prevalent at Joliet Central, where 32.3% percent of the students are classified as English learners. Joliet West has 17.8% of its students in that demographic.

“It’s a problem with the evaluation system that it requires students to take the test who can’t read it,” Guseman said. “It lowers the overall proficiency score, and it’s an unfair expectation to put on those students.”

Despite this challenge, Guseman said the district is committed to improvement.

“We are a great district, and we are committed to improvement year over year,” Guseman said. “I believe the data shows that work has been impactful so far. We’re committed to ensuring we maximize every student’s growth while they’re with us.”