The 2025 Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Report Card that tracks performance at the state’s public schools showed that six Springfield District 186 schools had improved their designations and four schools’ designations had declined (“State report card improves for District 186,” Dec. 4).
The ISBE Report Card ranks schools’ performance with the summative designations of exemplary, commendable, targeted, comprehensive and intensive. These designations are based on proficiency testing in several subjects, including reading and math, plus attendance, graduation and other data.
In this in-depth review, we focus on two schools whose designations rose, Lanphier High School and Butler Elementary, and two whose designations dropped, Southeast High School and Enos Elementary. Do the Report Card scores tell the real story? Are higher-scoring schools more successful while lower-scoring schools are less so, or are there factors that dilute the distinction between the scores?
That depends on how you define success, as we discovered during visits to each school and in-depth interviews with the people who work in them.
Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) coordinator Brad Hodapp, school improvement coach Betsy Hunsley-Hunt, and principal Alicia Miller walk the hallways of Lanphier High School.
Lanphier High School
“You have to want to work.”
From 2024 to 2025, Lanphier High School moved up two designations from intensive (lowest performing 5% of schools or a graduation rate below 67%) to targeted.
“We are the pride of the north side and we are looking forward to achieving more success,” said Lanphier High School principal Alicia Miller when asked about the institutional attitude that fueled Lanphier’s rise in the state Report Card rankings. More specifically, Miller credits administrator-educator collaboration, a focus on individual student determination and a push to get students looking beyond high school as factors in Lanphier’s success.
“It really takes all of us: our community partners, parents, students and every staff member here for us to experience success academically, socially and emotionally,” Miller said. “Lanphier is a place where you want to be here, but you have to want to work. We celebrate every growth point that we receive and let the kids know we’re proud of them.”
Miller points to the school’s “thinking classrooms” where students are “authentically learning, but more importantly, they want to learn.”
“The kids are working on math problems with a group of students where one is writing out the problem, but it’s the group telling their classmates how to solve it,” Miller said. “It’s important to get the kids talking, using academic language, and for teachers to be walking around, seeing what’s going on and helping them. Students feel comfortable doing that around their peers, and it builds confidence and empowers kids to believe they can do it.
“Students have to join us in putting the work in and be willing to take risks academically,” Miller added. “We have the supports in place and have teachers who are willing, ready and able to help them be successful academically.”
Also high on Miller’s list of Lanphier positives is the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program, a college and career preparatory initiative. Lanphier graduation rates have gone up significantly, to 71% last year from the 53% that existed before Miller became principal. The school uses a post-secondary coach to help students focus on opportunities for college, career and beyond.
Brad Hodapp is a history teacher and the Lanphier AVID coordinator.
“I’m very intentional about getting these kids focused on college and career,” Hodapp said. “I make it a point to go into freshmen and sophomore classes to see these kids, get them motivated so they know where we’re going over the next few years and stick with it.”
“It’s a constant battle of making it seem relevant, showing them the ‘why,’” Hodapp added. “But when they actually make the connection and get it, that’s one of the reasons I do this job. You may not get every student all the time, but when you get the majority, when you get a challenging student, you feel validated. You feel like what you’re doing is making a difference.”
Lanphier has a school improvement coach, Betsy Hunsley-Hunt, whose job entails exactly what the title implies. Right now, one of her focuses is on improving Lanphier’s Ninth Grade on Track numbers, a metric that follows the proficiency that freshmen have with an eye toward high school graduation in four years.
“One of our assistant principals works with that group and she’s in constant contact with their parents. If they’re not in school, she’s on them,” Hunsley-Hunt said. “She has special nights where she meets with them in the auditorium and goes through what is going on, what students need to do to graduate, and where they are right now.”
Attendance is another issue on Hunsley-Hunt’s agenda, and fighting chronic truancy is a problem that Lanphier shares with other District 186 schools. The chronic absenteeism district-wide for 2025 was 41%, down slightly from 42% in 2024. But four-tenths of the student body is still a big number.
“We know that our families across the district have multitudes of reasons why, but we just want our kids to show up every day, to come to school to work,” said Hunsley-Hunt, whose efforts come with some personal rewards.
“We have some of the funniest and best kids. I’ll go to a restaurant and they’ll be like, ‘Hey Mrs. Hunsley,’ That’s the best feeling in the world, and I would not want to be any other place. This is my home,” Hunsley-Hunt said.
Principal Miller said the rate of behavior problems has dropped at Lanphier in recent
years, and when discipline must be administered “we address it and then welcome our students back into the classroom to learn.” Miller and her staff “try to look at things from a trauma-informed lens”
because “the trauma they experience outside of school can impact what happens in school,” she said.
Lanphier has a support team in place for students that includes social workers, school psychologists, and the Mosaic Program offered through Memorial Behavioral Health where students can have therapy in school if they need it.
“I’m proud of Lanphier and our students, even the ones who don’t always make the best choices,” Miller said. “I always tell them they have a purpose, and we’re going to work with them to see them through.”
Miller maintains that Lanphier is a “great place” and she is encouraged by the school’s recent Report Card scores.
“I’m excited for our growth because often you see or hear negative things in the community or in the news or social media that doesn’t reflect what’s really taking place in our building,” Miller said. “The kids know, the parents know. We have amazing kids and amazing staff. How do you like us now?”
Resource teacher Jamie Hasquin and first-grade teacher Ashley Barham pose with Butler Elementary School students.
Butler Elementary School
“This is why we do what we do.”
Butler Elementary School went up from targeted to commendable in the 2025 Report Card. Butler had no underperforming student groups, and one or more groups of students earned between 98-100% of the possible points for proficiency in one or more of the Report Card testing areas of English language arts, math and science.
Butler’s previous state Report Card showed that the school had two targeted groups that needed improvement in their scores, Black students and students with disabilities. That’s when the school administrators and educators started the instructional practice of co-teaching.
Within Butler classrooms there is one general education teacher and one special education teacher providing instruction. First-grade teacher Ashley Barham is part of a co-teaching classroom.
“Often students who are identified as needing additional support in one area are higher performing in other areas, and having the co-teaching model allows us to have those flexible groupings and meet the kids where they are,” said Barham, who has been a teacher for 21 years. “This allows for two professionals to provide instruction to not just special education students, but all students in the classroom. As long as both teachers are invested in the process and understand the outcome, we’ve seen really great success with it.”
Co-teaching involves a lot of planning and flexibility.
“A day or two in advance we’ll meet and discuss who will work with students on the carpet and who will work with them at the small group table. Other times we’ll look at each other in the middle of a class and pivot,” Barham said. “Some days are hard, but it’s wonderful to see when all of the hard work is paying off.”
That payoff is what educators like Barham live for.
“When you see them make that first connection or read that first passage independently, and the joy that they have when they learn to love reading, it’s amazing,” Barham said. “When you give them free choice time and they choose to read a book rather that use technology, and several kids sit down to read their books together, that’s when it’s ‘oh my gosh, this is why we do what we do.’”
Jamie Hasquin has been a resource teacher for 11 years and is part of a Butler co-teaching team.
“I have a girl that didn’t know letters and sounds at the beginning of the year, but she has just grown by leaps and bounds,” Hasquin said. “Now she can do something that she couldn’t do before, and I’m proud of her.”
Hasquin said the relationships between co-teaching team members and the students are critical to the plan’s success.
“Those relationships matter, transferring that ownership to the kids themselves, letting them know they can do this,” Hasquin said. “They know it may be hard, but we show them that they have this ability, they are smart, and they can learn.”
Sarah Beveridge, who previously served four years as Butler’s assistant principal and has now been principal for five years, has made continual improvement a top priority at the school. That means time must be deliberately carved out during the day for planning.
“Embedded within our schedule is time for teachers to look at and analyze the data and make plans for instruction,” Beveridge said. “If necessary, I will cover their classrooms because I love being in a classroom, and I’m a teacher first.”
Time is also scheduled to address student needs.
“Each grade level has a 30-minute intervention time; we call it ‘what I need’ or WIN time,” Beveridge said. “During that time classroom teachers and service providers come in to provide small group individualized instruction to students. We have focused our systems of support, both academics and behavior, to make sure every student receives exactly what they need to be successful.”
“Instructional minutes matter in our building from the time the first bell rings to the end of the day. Every instructional minute is intentionally planned,” Beveridge added. “When you walk in, instruction begins at nine o’clock and goes until 3:30. Often I’m the one having to tell teachers that we need to get the kids outside, we have to end the day. All teachers will say there’s never enough time in the day.”
Like all District 186 schools, Butler’s educators and students take the Panorama Survey to measure the culture and climate of the school. Beveridge said the survey shows that Butler staff value continual professional learning, trust each other, and have a sense of belonging.
“We trust each other a lot. When someone has an idea, we try it and see if it works, we have open conversations about it and solve problems together,” Beveridge said. “A teacher shares that joy and says, ‘I did this and it felt good and it worked,’ and then a teacher comes and says, ‘Can I come and watch you?’ They’re sharing their successes with each other.”
“We are leading with grace at Butler and we have high expectations,” Beveridge said. “Students know we love them but we’re going to make them work, because they are here to learn and grow.”
Southeast High School Principal Cody Trigg talks to students Nevaeh Lathan and Arden Jones.
Southeast High School
“I’ve always called this process ‘rank and spank.’”
Southeast High School’s designation dropped from commendable to targeted in the latest state Report Card rankings, but its cumulative scores went up. Scores improved in graduation rate, freshmen on track, literacy and math skills, but because its children with disabilities subgroup did not meet proficiency in math and English, the school’s designation dropped to targeted.
“It’s infuriating because we’ve actually gone up almost 9% over two years,” said Southeast Principal Cody Trigg. “When your graduation rate’s gone up 4% and your freshmen on track has gone up 9%, but you drop in designation, I need the state to explain how that makes sense.”
Trigg, in his sixth year as principal, praised the school’s special education department because they go the extra mile for the 400 of Southeast’s 1,200 students who must be taught in different ways because they have an Individualized Education Program (IEP).
“Not every student with an IEP is a cookie cutter, it’s not a one-size-fits-all fix,” said Trigg when addressing the cause for the school’s state Report Card designation drop. “In education today they always try to find ways to criticize teachers and education for what they’re not doing, but I could look at any school in our district and talk about the great things they are doing.”
“I’ve always called this process ‘rank and spank,’ where you rank us and then tell us what we did wrong,” Trigg added.
Trigg pointed to the school’s improved literacy scores, with the English Department leading the way, as one example of what Southeast is doing right. A key player in that effort is English teacher Karmen Goodrich, a 23-year veteran who has helped to infuse literacy efforts into all of the school’s departments.
“Everyone has jumped in, the history and math departments are using more text-dependent questions, and even gym class has a reading component,” Goodrich said. “In English we’re doing a lot with thesis writing, the kids are doing analysis trying to understand the author’s purpose, so they can really understand all types of texts when they get out into the world.”
Goodrich is especially proud that the students themselves are suggesting novels that the class should read, a clear indication that the kids are excited about reading. But improving literacy is a constant struggle when many Southeast students don’t come to class every day.
“If they’re not in their seats, they can’t learn. I have students that miss because they have to work, and that’s really sad,” Goodrich said. “Southeast is an amazing school. The teachers care, they’re working every day trying to better the kids, and I think eventually the Report Card scores will reflect these efforts.”
Principal Trigg agreed that truancy remains a concern at Southeast, and the issue will continue to be a primary focus. The school has a truancy coach whose job is to help remove attendance barriers such as transportation, child care arrangements or homelessness. A parent has been designated as a “face liaison” to work with other parents on family engagement with the school.
Still, daily attendance remains an uphill battle for Southeast, and Trigg pointed to recent snowfalls as an example of the challenges faced by the school.
“Sidewalks weren’t shoveled and kids weren’t coming to school because they couldn’t get on the sidewalk, or we had kids walking in the middle of the street,” Trigg said. “That’s not a district problem, that’s a city problem, because there’s an ordinance that requires you to shovel your sidewalks. I have teachers telling me that they picked up students because they didn’t want to see them walking in the streets.”
“It takes a village, but sometimes that village feels like it’s just the school district. For some families, education is not at the top of their priority list,” Trigg added. “Any type of barrier for one day can be a huge determining factor for success in students, especially students who may be struggling with school.”
Trigg is proud of the Southeast graduation rate, which was 75% in 2025, up from 70% in 2024 and 60% in 2023. Realizing that not every high school graduate will choose to attend college, Trigg said the school is “meeting the kids where they’re at” to facilitate post-high-school plans, whether that means higher education, trade school or joining the workforce.
“Graduation is fantastic, but what are those students doing the day after graduation?” Trigg said. “You have 704 days of high school, but what are you doing on day 705?”
The teacher retention rate at Southeast High School is 93%, another figure to which Trigg points with pride, and said it is an indication of the “can-do” attitude at the school.
“If you get them in the doors, our educators will take care of the rest. We will make sure they are included, they’re cared for, they’re loved, and we’re setting them up to be lifelong citizens, not just graduates,” Trigg said. “People want to be here. The kids want to be here. The environment that kids are surrounded with here at Southeast is second to none.”
Principal Claudia Johnson points to students’ work that is highlighted in the hallways at Enos Elementary School.
Enos Elementary School
“That report card is not a true depiction of what happens within these walls.”
Enos Elementary School dropped from commendable to targeted on the state Report Card, a move that doesn’t sit well with educators at the school.
“They use standardized testing because it’s cheap and fast and easy to implement, and then they can give everybody a number,” said Enos Elementary School teacher Nathan Grieme. “But children don’t work that way. You can’t quantify a child with a number.”
Grieme, a fourth-grade teacher with 23 years of experience, said the primary reason that Enos dropped in the state Report Card rankings is because of the school’s high population of students with special needs.
“A lot of my kids are reading three to four years behind. If I am able to raise that kid up one level, like taking him from a first-grade reading level to second-grade, that kid has made more growth than he’s ever made throughout his educational history,” Grieme said. “But the students still don’t get credit for it, so we should be able to look at some kind of improvement score. Assessing a child’s ability to read in 40 to 50 questions does not show true overall reading ability.”
Reading ability is the focus of Enos’ literacy coach, Emily Drennan, who has been at Enos for six years and has been a teacher since 2008.
“I work with small groups of students for reading. Right now my fourth-grade group is working on words with a silent E, and we have been practicing the same skill every day,” Drennan said. “Today we were reading a passage with a lot of silent E words, many of them more complex and multi-syllable, and the students got it. It made everyone really excited, we got fist bumps going, and we celebrated this small win together.”
Drennan said each week Enos students have been focusing on a specific standard related to the tests the students take for the state Report Card rankings. This teaches students the skills they need to know, but will also help to ensure a more accurate score when the next round of testing occurs.
“That way when students get the test, it’s familiar to them and they won’t be surprised by the vocabulary in it and what they are asked to do,” Drennan said.
Claudia Johnson has spent 22 years in District 186 school administration, 15 of which have been as Enos principal. She has been the main force behind the push to improve literacy skills at the school.
“Prior to seeing the scores, we had already identified writing as one of our deficit areas. We had already started a writing plan and have been working with our collaborators monthly,” Johnson said. “We also have resource teachers that work with all of the children, so you’ll never know which students have services because everyone gets the same amount of attention, care and instruction. The teachers switch in and out as needed.”
The primary challenge, which Johnson and her colleagues are meeting head-on, is the fact that many Enos students who come into the school are already far behind.
“We have students that enter the building in fourth grade and they’re reading at kindergarten level, yet they are still expected to test at a fourth-grade level,” Johnson said. “We are seeing growth in the students, but you wouldn’t be able to see that because you don’t know where we started, you are only looking at the end.”
“It’s always disappointing because the report card only gives you a snapshot of one week and that’s what everyone sees, but we get to see the growth that takes place every day here,” Johnson added. “People on the outside only see the school report card, but that report card is not a true depiction of what happens within these walls.”
Johnson said the school celebrates each student’s accomplishments, no matter how big or small that progress may be. Students who do well on a test or paper may have their work posted outside of the classroom for others to see, or highlighted on Thrill Share, a messaging system for District 186. Johnson often gives students a “shout out” over the school intercom for their achievements.
“We have a good time here at Enos, and we come in each day giving all that we have to give,” Johnson said. “Your child’s growth may not show up on the Report Card tests, but I can guarantee they’ll learn more than when they started.”
Grieme, the fourth-grade teacher, wiped tears away as he recalled one recent instance of a breakthrough moment he had with one of his students who was “really close to being functionally illiterate” at the beginning of the school year.
“This kid was a champion at just sitting and staring at you for hours, waiting you out, because he knew if he waited long enough, he wouldn’t have to do anything,” Grieme said. “But recently the kids wrote about their favorite teachers and gave those writings to the teachers as Christmas presents. This kid worked with his resource teacher and knocked out five paragraphs about me.”
“We immediately walked around the entire building and showed everybody, because he did something he never thought he could,” Grieme recalled. “If my kids can do that, it’s a beautiful thing. That’s why I do this.”
This article appears in January 29-February 4, 2026.
