Every Elmhurst District 205 school placed in one of the state's top two performance categories on the 2026 Illinois Report Card, released Friday, Oct. 30.

Eleven of the district's 12 schools earned an Exemplary designation, the highest tier. The remaining school received an Approaching Exemplary designation, according to a district announcement. The district did not identify which school received the lower mark.

D205 shared the results at its annual State of the District event Thursday, Oct. 29, at York Community High School.

New rating system changes the baseline

The results arrive under a brand-new state accountability framework called Profiles of Performance, which the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) launched this year. Under the old system, Exemplary was reserved for the top 10% of schools statewide, as Shaw Local reported. The new system judges each school against fixed criteria rather than ranking schools against one another.

That means any school meeting the established benchmarks can earn the Exemplary label. The shift makes direct comparisons to prior years' designations difficult.

The new system rates schools across five tiers instead of the previous four. Ratings are based on proficiency, student growth and, for high schools, graduation rates. Consistent attendance, English learner progress and climate survey participation also factor in.

District credits five years of work

Superintendent Dr. Keisha Campbell said the results reflect sustained effort across the district.

"We are proud of this progress, and we know there is still work to do to ensure every student has the support and opportunities to reach their full potential," Campbell said in the district's announcement. "We will continue to learn from the data and build on what is working across our schools."

The district attributed the performance to systemic changes over the past five years, including revamped middle school schedules, new curriculum adoptions, expanded student programming and professional development. Chronic absenteeism across all D205 schools also continued to decline, the district said.

That tracks with data presented at the Sept. 22 board meeting. Administrators reported consistent attendance had improved at every level: 94.7% at elementary schools, 91.9% at middle schools and 83.2% at York High School.

Campbell also said the designations tell only part of the story.

"State designations offer one viewpoint of school performance," she said. "We continue to look at a range of measures as we support student growth and improvement across the District."

Statewide gains provide backdrop

Across Illinois, the 2026 Report Card showed proficiency gains in English, math and science. The statewide four-year high school graduation rate hit a record 89.8%, the third consecutive record, according to Shaw Local.

Statewide chronic absenteeism fell for a fourth straight year but remained six percentage points above pre-pandemic levels, with 23.5% of students chronically absent in 2026.

The results are new. So is the system measuring them.

Parents can view individual school results at illinoisreportcard.com. The district's full State of the District presentation is available on D205's YouTube page.