West Cook News

Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRF) has shown continued improvement in academic performance, according to the 2025 State Report Card released by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). The school’s summative index score increased to 91.79 out of 100, up from 90.36 in 2024. This score places OPRF just below the threshold for Exemplary status, which is reserved for the top 10% of schools statewide.

The ISBE evaluates schools based on eight indicators: graduation rate, chronic absenteeism, freshmen on track, proficiency in math, English, and science, student climate survey participation, and English learner progress to proficiency.

Superintendent Greg Johnson commented on the results: "The annual report card always provides valuable insight to how our school has performed across several metrics, and this year is no different. Over the past few years, we've continued to see a steady increase in several areas, and we are pleased to see that trend continue. This is a report our school can be proud of."

He added: “With that said, there are always areas for us to improve, and we will continue to work purposefully to ensure this district is fulfilling its commitment to every student under our care."

A key area for OPRF has been increasing the percentage of freshmen on track for graduation. In 2024, this rate was at 89.8%. Efforts such as improving data collection and providing support for students who are failing classes have contributed to a rise in this figure; in 2025 it reached 94.1%. Gains were also noted among specific demographic groups—rates for Hispanic/Latino and Black/African American ninth graders increased by 11.3 and 8.3 points respectively.

OPRF serves grades nine through twelve with an enrollment of approximately 3,393 students during the 2019-2020 school year; grade ten had the highest concentration at 26.2 percent of all students (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). The school's population included about 56.9 percent white students, with black students making up about 18.2 percent and Hispanic students about 12.6 percent (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).

For this year’s report card cycle, Illinois revised its proficiency benchmarks for state assessments after an extended review process aimed at better aligning them with college readiness standards set by the College Board when it adopted the SAT as its high school assessment tool in 2017.

Because these new benchmarks establish a fresh baseline for proficiency rates starting in 2025, comparisons with previous years’ rates are not possible; however, student growth data remains comparable over time.

In terms of ACT proficiency scores reported by OPRF:

- ACT English: OPRF scored at a proficiency rate of 79.3%, compared with a state average of 51.7%, placing its student growth percentile at the excellent level (63rd percentile).

- ACT Math: The school posted a proficiency rate of 64.5%, above the state average of 39.3%, with a student growth percentile categorized as above average (58th percentile).

- ACT Science: Proficiency was reported at 73.4% versus a state average of 48.7%.

Chronic absenteeism continues to be an issue despite some improvement—a rate of 19% was recorded for OPRF in the latest report card period, down slightly from last year but still representing one out of five students missing at least ten percent of instructional days.

Dr. Johnson addressed this concern: “That does little to mitigate the fact that one out of five students in our school missed at least 10% of instruction last year, approximately 17 days,” he said.“This will continue to be an area of focus for us.”

More detailed information can be found on OPRF’s complete State Report Card available online.