Kids Count Report – Illinois

Posted on February 18, 2011 by townsend

• Group says early education investment saves money, By Zachary Colman (AP), February 17, 2011, Chicago Tribune: “With more Illinois children falling into poverty, investing in early childhood education today could save the state millions of dollars in the future, an advocacy group said Thursday. Voices for Illinois Children acknowledged the state has a huge budget deficit and is cutting many programs. But the group’s president, former state lawmaker Kathy Ryg, said services for children in fourth grade and below should be spared from budget cuts if the state wants to prevent a drain on social services when the children are older…”
• Organization reports disparities in children’s reading skills, By Kathy Millen, February 18, 2011, Naperville Sun: “If the measure of reading skills at the beginning of fourth grade is a predictor of future success, then many Illinois children may be looking at a lifetime of struggles. By the time they’re leaving third grade, children typically make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn. But in recent years, reading scores at these grade levels have barely improved in Illinois. Wide disparities among student groups remain, especially among the 45 percent of public school students who come from low-income families. That was the conclusion of a report from Voices for Illinois Children, a group focusing on improving the lives of children throughout the state…”
• Report shows Knox County students perform better than state averages, By Tom Loewy, February 18, 2011, Galesburg Register-Mail: “An annual report focused on the well-being of Illinois’ children released more data Thursday that showed an increasing number of kids in Knox County live in households struggling to make ends meet. But the Voices for Illinois Children’s ‘2011 Illinois Kids Count’ data reports did show that despite economic and social challenges, Knox County’s third-graders performed above the state averages on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test during the 2009-2010 school year. According to ‘2011 Illinois Kids Count,’ 81.8 percent of third-graders in Knox County meet or exceed the state standard in reading. Only 73.7 percent of their counterparts in the state meet or exceed the state standard in reading…”