Illinois Kids Count 2011 Report Released

According to the recently released Illinois Kids Count 2011 report, children make an important transition in their education in third and fourth grades from learning to read to reading to learn. But in Illinois, reading scores at these grade levels have barely improved, and wide disparities among student groups remain; challenges are particularly great among the 45 percent of public school students who come from low-income families.

This year's Illinois Kids Count data book focuses on the multiple factors that affect school success and the cognitive, social-emotional and physical development of young children. Entitled ?Great at Eight, the report also explores the challenges of investing in the ?whole child? from birth to age 8.

The study has implications for early childhood development at CCCS, including activities that will bridge early childhood and K-12 education. Success in reading is a critical predictor of future academic achievement.

Only 47 percent of low-income students in Illinois were at or above the basic achievement level in fourth-grade reading, compared with 80 percent of other students, according to the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Among the 10 largest states, Illinois had the second widest NAEP reading achievement gap between low-income students and other students.

This year's Illinois Kids Count report highlights five major challenges to children's learning that state and local policymakers must address as they formulate education policy:

- Reading achievement among Illinois children at the beginning of fourth grade has improved only modestly since 2003, and wide disparities remain among racial-ethnic groups and between low-income students and other students.

- In fall 2009, children from low-income families represented 45 percent of enrollment in Illinois public schools - up from 37 percent a decade earlier. Among the state's largest school districts, low-income enrollment is above 70% in Chicago, Cicero, East St. Louis, Peoria, Rockford, and Waukegan.

- Children who grow up in poverty have more limited early learning opportunities and are less likely to do well in school. The recession has led to a sharp rise in child poverty nationwide. In Illinois, the child poverty rate jumped from 17 percent in 2008 to 19 percent in 2009, which was the highest level since 1993. (The number of children in poverty increased from 525,000 in 2007 to 590,000 in 2009.) In 2009, almost 40 percent of Illinois children lived in low-income households (below 200 percent of poverty level), up from 36 percent only a year earlier.

- School readiness is affected by children's health, as well as by the families and communities in which they live. Low-income children are more likely to have chronic health problems and developmental delays and suffer from trauma due to exposure to violence. They are more likely to be affected by family stress - especially in times of economic hardship - and less likely to live in safe and supportive neighborhoods.

- The state fiscal crisis threatens to further erode important investments in early childhood education and care, health insurance coverage, children's mental health services, family supports and other essential programs and services. For example, participation in state-funded pre-K programs increased 70 percent between FY 2003 and FY 2009, but has declined in the past two years as a result of budget cuts and delayed payments to preschool providers.

According to Nobel Laureate economist James Heckman, supporting children's learning from their earliest years reduces social costs, mainly in savings from later costs of lost earnings potential, poor health, incarceration, greater use of public benefits and other challenges that arise from lack of education.

Illinois Kids Count 2011 presents data on a wide range of indicators related to the development of the whole child from birth to 8, including education, economic well-being, health and developmental factors affecting families and entire communities. The report also includes essays by policy experts, advocates and community leaders, who provide a broader context for understanding the major findings.

Illinois Kids Count is a project of Voices for Illinois Children and is part of a nationwide network of state-level projects supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The data book is widely regarded as the most thorough annual examination of children's lives in the state. It uses the best available data to monitor the educational, social-emotional, economic and physical well-being of Illinois children. The entire report is available here: www.voices4kids.org