West Cook News

Of Proviso High School District 209 juniors taking the state-mandated Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) last year, 88 percent of students scored below grade level in math, and 83 percent below grade level in reading.

That’s according to an analysis of Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) data tracking district performance by West Cook News.

ISBE standards state that the failing Proviso students demonstrated an “incomplete understanding of the knowledge and skills needed relative to Illinois Learning Standards.”

At Proviso 209, which reported 4,214 students in 2021 across three high schools, math and English proficiency has progressively worsened over the past four years for which ISBE makes such data available.

In 2017, only 80 percent of Proviso H.S. students were failing math and 76 percent failing English.

Graduation rates at Proviso 209, however, steadily rose across the same period.

The district graduated 81 percent of seniors in 2021, up from 75 percent in 2017, according to ISBE.

In Proviso 209’s class of 2019, 61 percent of those who attended an Illinois community college had to enroll in remedial classes, ISBE reported. 

Average Proviso 208 teacher salary: seven percent higher than Illinois state average

The West Cook News analysis comes as the district's 266 teachers, who work at Proviso East H.S. in Maywood, Proviso West H.S. in Hillside and Proviso Math and Science Academy in Forest Park, enter their fourth week on strike, demanding higher salaries and lower class sizes.

In 2021, the average Proviso 209 teacher base salary was $75,698, or about seven percent higher than the state average of $70,705. That's before benefits and teachers' taxpayer-funded pension contribution.

Teaches are demanding a 12.75 percent increase, or a raise for the average teacher to $86,349 over the next three years. The school board has offered nine percent, or a raise to $82,511.

Proviso 209 teacher salaries have risen 41 percent since 2013, when the average base salary was $53,819, according to ISBE.

ISBE also reports that the average class size at Proviso 209 is 20 students, or the same as the state average. Measured by grade, it is lower than the state average in grades 10 (19 vs. 21), 11 (19 vs. 20) and 12 (18 vs. 20) and the same (21 vs. 21) for grade nine.

That’s because the district has a higher than average dropout rate, so all students entering its high schools don't reach junior or senior year. 

The district's drop-out rate rose from 1.2 percent in 2018 to six percent in 2020, according to ISBE, or the equivalent of losing 63 students from an entering freshman class.

A far larger number of Proviso students miss school chronically.

Proviso 209's truancy rate was 31.2 percent last year, meaning that 1,314 students were deemed “chronic truants" who "missed five percent of school days within an academic year without a valid excuse."

Effective property tax rates in the communities feeding Proviso 209 are among the highest in the United States, even as home values rise.

In Bellwood, the median home sale price in 2020 was $163,000 and the median property tax bill was $6,071, an effective rate of 3.72 percent, or nearly four times the national average. In Maywood, the rate is 3.65 percent.

The Proviso 209's current school board includes parole agent Rodney Alexander, 54, of Bellwood, 22-year board member Theresa Kelly, 79, of Maywood, Westchester food pantry Executive Director Amanda J. Grant, 44, former senior living manager Nathan Wagner, 57, of Forest Park, Arbdella Patterson, 60, of Maywood, Montessori consultant Claudia Medina, 55, of Forest Park and construction manager Samuel Valtierrez, 50, of Melrose Park.

Current Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch, a Proviso West H.S. graduate who lives in Hillside, served on the Proviso 209 school board from 2001-2013.

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Proviso 209 Math & English Illinois Learning Standards failure rate vs. H.S. graduation rate

Since 2017, a growing percentage of Proviso 209 students have failed the state mandated Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). But school graduation rates have risen.

	Math	English	Grad rate
2021	88%	83%	81%
2019	86%	83%	76%
2018	82%	80%	75%
2017	80%	76%	75%

source: Illinois State Board of Education

Effective Property Tax Rates in Proviso 209 communities

Community	Median Property Tax	Median Sale	Effective Rate
Bellwood	$6,071	$163,000	3.72%
Broadview	$4,768	$194,500	2.45%
Forest Park	$5,922	$230,000	2.57%
Hillside	$5,633	$205,000	2.75%
Maywood	$6,571	$180,000	3.65%
Melrose Park	$4,616	$218,500	2.11%
Stone Park	$5,826	$196,000	2.97%
Westchester	$5,230	$253,500	2.06%

Source: Blockshopper.com

Proviso 209 demographics, 2016 to present

Proviso 209's student body was nearly equally black and Hispanic as recently as 2016. Today, six in ten students in the district are Hispanic.

	White	Black	Hispanic	Asian
2021	2.1%	34.8%	60.7%	1.1%
2020	2.1%	36.3%	58.7%	1.7%
2019	2.5%	39.4%	55.3%	1.0%
2018	2.8%	42.1%	51.8%	1.0%
2017	2.9%	43.7%	49.1%	0.9%
2016	2.6%	46.0%	49.3%	1.0%

source: Illinois State Board of Education