Report: Low-income scholarship students score better than public school peers

A report shows low-income students receiving Invest in Kids tax-credit scholarships were more proficient in reading and math in nearly every grade in 2023 than low-income students in Illinois public schools. Their high school reading bested statewide scores.

Low-income students receiving scholarships from the Invest in Kids program were proficient in reading and math at a higher rate in nearly every grade compared to low-income public-school students in Illinois, according to data release by the state.

High school students receiving the scholarships beat the state average for all public high school students in reading.

That success wasn’t adequately tracked in a report released by the Illinois State Board of Education. Rather than comparing the low-income recipients of the scholarship funds to other low-income students in the state, the report errantly compared them to all public school students statewide, including those from upper-income homes.

That flawed analysis led media to assert students in the tax-credit scholarship program “fared worse in both reading and math.”

A more accurate comparison shows that isn’t true.

Scholarship recipients, most of whom were from households earning less than $49,025, were more proficient in reading and math compared to their low-income peers in Illinois public schools, despite slight differences in the definition of “low-income” impeding a precise apples-to-apples comparison by the state.

Lawmakers killed the Invest in Kids program in November 2023 after teachers unions funneled nearly $1.5 million to lawmakers ahead of session and publicly opposed the program with misleading information. But a new bill in Springfield aims to resurrect the scholarships for thousands of low-income students in Illinois.

The nearly two-thirds of Illinois voters who support the Invest in Kids scholarship ought to have a detailed look at how low-income students in the Invest in Kids program fared compared to their counterparts in Illinois public schools.

Differences in the definitions

WestEd, the group hired by ISBE to analyze the achievements of scholarship recipients compared to public school students, noted the files for Invest in Kids recipients lacked student-level demographic information, inhibiting analysis and comparisons.

“Instead of conducting student-level analysis matching public and private school students by demographic characteristics, WestEd could only compare [Invest in Kids] scholarship recipients’ scores to average statewide scores for public school students,” the report stated.

Yet the terms of the Invest in Kids Act and the availability of other state data make a more appropriate comparison possible. First, Invest in Kids scholarship recipients had to have a household income of less than 300% of the federal poverty level. Annual reports on the Invest in Kids scholarship showed two-thirds of the students in the 2022-2023 school year had a family income of less than 185% of the federal poverty level, and 27% had a family income below the poverty level, or less than $26,500. Scholarship recipients were, by definition, low-income students.

Second, ISBE records proficiency data by subsets, including a subset for “low-income” students.

ISBE defines “low-income students” as “those who receive or live in households that receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families benefits; are classified as homeless, migrant, runaway, Head Start, or foster children; or live in a household where the household income meets the U.S. Department of Agriculture income guidelines to receive free or reduced-price meals.”

In Illinois, a family’s household income must not exceed 165% of the federal poverty level to be eligible for SNAP benefits.  To receive free or reduced-price meals, an Illinois family’s household income cannot exceed 185% of the federal poverty level.

While the poverty level of scholarship recipients and those defined as low-income by other laws are not a perfect match, it does at least allow for a more comparable study of proficiency than that produced by WestEd.

Invest in Kids recipients more proficient than Illinois’ low-income public students

Scholarship students in grades 3 through 8 attending private schools through the Invest in Kids program were more proficient in reading and math on average compared to low-income public students in Illinois in 2023.

Scholarship students in third through eighth grade were nearly two percentage points more proficient in reading compared to low-income public-school students. In math, they were nearly four percentage points higher.

As noted in the WestEd analysis, proficiency for scholarship students in third through eighth grades was lower than proficiency for all Illinois public school students in both reading and math. But again, that’s comparing low-income children to all other children in Illinois, including those in wealthy families and school districts.

Reading proficiency is highest among high school scholarship recipients

Scholarship students at private high schools on average outperformed not only the reading proficiency rate for low-income students, but also the average reading proficiency for all 11th-grade students in Illinois public schools on the 2023 SAT.

Specifically, the reading proficiency rate on the SAT for students in the Invest in Kids program was nearly 20 percentage points higher than the rate for low-income public school students and about three percentage points higher than the rate for all 11th-grade students in Illinois public schools.

In math, the average proficiency rate for all public students was higher than for scholarship recipients, but scholarship recipients still outperformed low-income Illinois public school students by nearly 13 percentage points.

Scholarship students more proficient in nearly every grade compared to low-income public school students

Students with Invest in Kids scholarships had higher proficiency rates in reading compared to low-income public school students in every grade except for fifth grade, where low-income public school students reached higher proficiency by less than one percentage point.

In math, scholarship students were more proficient in every grade than low-income public school students.

Invest in Kids program offered lifeline to low-income families

The flaws in the state’s report are significant and the thousands of low-income students from whom scholarships were ripped by lawmakers in the fall deserve better than to have their achievements tarnished by incomplete reporting. Insult is being added to injury.

Using more-comparable sub-groups to analyze proficiency demonstrates the Invest in Kids program was benefiting scholarship recipients. Invest in Kids students from low-income families were given a better chance of reaching proficiency than low-income students in Illinois public schools.

But this chance was stolen by teachers unions who dropped cash and threats on state lawmakers to ensure their power was placed ahead of the interests of Illinois’ low-income families.