More than 4 out of 5 Illinois public schools were rated “commendable” or “exemplary” in the recently released annual Illinois School Report Card. Wish it were so.

This recalls the observation by retired radio host Garrison Keillor that all the kids in the fictional town of Lake Wobegon were above average.

Many rural schools in my central Illinois region confines fall far below the state averages in math, yet they are somehow commendable. The official, bottom-scraping low bar for achieving “commendable” status is that a school graduate just 67% of its students and perform better than the lowest-performing 5% of schools.

Do readers think the school superintendent trumpets the fact that Johnny and his classmates are doing lousy in math, or back-pats herself at school board meetings about winning the official state imprimatur as a commendable school?

Unfortunately, with the hollowing out of community newspaper reporting staff, there is now rarely a gimlet-eyed journalist at the local school board meeting to cast a more sober tone on the school’s status. The community is the loser.

The Illinois report misleads parents and communities. “Isn’t it great that the state says our school is commendable?” says Mom to hubby. “Guess there is nothing we need to do to help Johnny succeed with his education.”

Overall, Illinois public schools are just above the middle of the pack against national averages for achievement. But the pack fares badly against international comparisons.

The Program for International Student Assessment reports that for 2022 15-year-old students in the U.S. scored on average 465 in math on a 1,000-point scale, below the developed nations’ average, while students from South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan scored from 527 to 575 points. 

China participated only selectively in a 2018 Program for International Student assessment, and scored 591 points. This isn’t necessarily comparable, so let me give you a clue as to how well students there are likely doing.

In 2005, I was a visiting professor at Fudan University in Shanghai. On Saturday mornings, from my apartment window, I enjoyed seeing elementary youngsters in cute uniforms walking by — on their way to school! The students attend each Saturday until noon, and for one more hour of instruction each week day than in American schools. If Chinese parents were told their children could not attend school on Saturday, I imagine riots in the streets. If American parents were told their children had to attend school on Saturday, I also imagine riots in the streets.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping understands the importance of education in his quest to overtake the U.S. as the superior “Middle Kingdom” of the world, which China once was. Since Xi’s succession to power in 2012, four-year university enrollment in China has surpassed that of the U.S., and China is now the largest producer of peer-reviewed scientific articles in the world, according to a 2018 article in Nature magazine.

The Han Chinese majority are a very proud people. Xi has not forgotten how the advanced West humiliated backward China and its empress in the 19th century, forcing opium and serious addiction upon many Chinese, among other depredations. Now, according to my Chinese acquaintances, Xi wants to rub our noses in the muck of what he perceives to be America’s decadence.

It sounds alarmist, yet America should be on the equivalent of a war footing when it comes to education, the fount of economic success and military readiness in this digital century. China certainly is.

Education leaders must not lull parents into thinking that Illinois and the U.S. are doing well in educational achievement, when we’re not. Political leaders bear the responsibility for straight talk about education.

There is also opportunity at present to strengthen our teacher corps. Rare is the Ivy Leaguer who goes into teaching. 

College students from up and down the achievement scale have deep concerns about job prospects in an AI world. Work is shifting from production of goods to the provision of services. What better pursuit than nurturing young minds via jobs that aren’t going away? Policymakers can work with educators to make teaching attractive and more highly respected, as it is in Finland and Japan. 

All is not commendable in American education. Educators and school boards do not all deserve a prize. We should aspire to excellence rather than celebrate unwarranted self-congratulation.

Jim Nowlan is a former member of the Illinois House and a former state agency director. Nowlan worked for three unindicted Illinois governors and taught American politics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the lead author of “Fixing Illinois.”

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https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/09/opinion-illinois-students-achievement-china/