Despite dismal student performance on annual exams covering math and reading, high school graduation rates remain high across the region, according to a SW Illinois News analysis of 2016 data from the Illinois State Board of Education.
Of the 10 schools analyzed in Perry, Monroe and Randolph counties, Red Bud High School showed the greatest disparity. In a year when 91 percent of seniors graduated on time, just 16 percent of students actually passed annual tests that the state uses to determine who is "ready for the next level."
The end-of-year tests known as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, are administered to third- through eighth-graders in Illinois, testing them based on Common Core standards. High schoolers also took the tests through 2016.
A composite score combines the results of the subject tests. Students whose scores either meet or exceed expectations are considered "ready for the next level."
Schools' graduation fraud index shows the difference between the composite passing rate and the graduation rate.
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Graduation fraud index
| SW Illinois high school | School district | City | Annual exam pass rate (%) | Graduation rate (%) | Graduation fraud index |
| Red Bud High School | Red Bud Cusd 132 | Red Bud | 15.6 | 90.5 | -74.9 |
| Sparta High School | Sparta Cusd 140 | Sparta | 8.9 | 82.7 | -73.8 |
| Chester High School | Chester Cusd 139 | Chester | 21.1 | 92.1 | -71 |
| Pinckneyville Comm High School | Pinckneyville Chsd 101 | Pinckneyville | 30.9 | 89.4 | -58.5 |
| Duquoin High School | Duquoin Cusd 300 | Du Quoin | 32.9 | 89.6 | -56.7 |
| Valmeyer High School | Valmeyer Cusd 3 | Valmeyer | 46.2 | 97.3 | -51.1 |
| Steeleville High School | Steeleville Cusd 138 | Steeleville | 41.1 | 89.7 | -48.6 |
| Waterloo High School | Waterloo Cusd 5 | Waterloo | 47.1 | 93.8 | -46.7 |
| Coulterville High School | Coulterville Usd 1 | Coulterville | 59.1 | 100 | -40.9 |
| Columbia High School | Columbia Cusd 4 | Columbia | 61.9 | 91.2 | -29.3 |
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