A Brief Overview of Education in Illinois Elementary Schools

Fifth most populous state in United States, Illinois is noted for microcosm of entire country. Rich in natural resources and a transportation hub for the country, it is also well known for its well organized elementary education system.

State Board of Education

State Board of Education in Illinois that is also known as the ISBE is autonomous of both the governor and the state legislature. It administers the public education in the state which is a unique feature of Illinois educational system.

Some of the features of education in the state of Illinois are –
Local municipalities as well as their corresponding school districts operate individual public schools.
However the audit wing of the ISBE performs annual audit of all the schools.
The ISBE issues Illinois school report card and makes recommendation to the state leaders on expenditures relating to education and educational policies.

Primary and Secondary Schools

Some of the unique features of elementary and secondary education in Illinois are as follows –
Education is compulsory from the levels of kindergarten through the 12th grade in the state.
Education is commonly divided into three tiers in both primary and secondary education systems.
These three tiers are elementary schools, middle schools that are also known as junior high schools, and high schools.
Usually district territories are complex in their structures. Many areas in the state of Illinois are located in two school districts.
One of the two districts is for high school while the other is for elementary and middle schools.
Education districts need not share boundaries necessarily.
One high school may have several secondary feeder elementary districts while some of the elementary feeder districts feed into multiple high school districts.

Studying Deficiencies

Experts have pointed out a number of deficiencies in the elementary education systems in Illinois. For instance the first graders are not taught the mechanics of readings and instead are asked to guess words by their shapes. Second graders are asked about the color math without being taught the basic arithmetic. Fourth graders in many cases are yet to be exposed to real history or geography while the fifth and sixth graders are often presented with depressing topics.

Yet the state of Illinois claims a strong state standard of education, especially in the top elementary and secondary schools.



State university website is a comprehensive schools and colleges directory that offers information on top elementary and secondary schools in the country. Besides, the site also offers state wise information on the status of education and about the academies like Illinois elementary schools.