(The Center Square) – State Rep. Regan Deering is calling for greater accountability in Illinois schools following concerns about academic performance at Hillcrest High School in Country Club Hills.
While appearing on Newsmax, education whistleblower and author Geno Young said a tenured Hillcrest teacher told him the school was testing at about a fourth-grade level across academic subjects. Hillcrest has an about 81% graduation rate.
Young later clarified that the fourth-grade reading-level claim was relayed to him by a teacher while he was working at Hillcrest nearly two years ago and that he does not personally possess the assessment document behind the statement. Young said he does not want to characterize the claim as an independently verified statistic.
However, Young said publicly available Illinois assessment data support concerns about academic performance at the school. Hillcrest’s English language arts proficiency was about 5% in 2022 and 7.2% among 11th-grade students in 2022-23, compared with roughly 30% statewide, according to data cited by Young. He said more recent data also show Hillcrest remains significantly below the state average.
Young also said the 9% literacy figure he cited during his Newsmax appearance came from U.S. News & World Report at the time of the interview and has since been lowered to 6%.
Deering, a former educator and current school board member, said such performance would represent a serious failure to prepare students for life after high school.
“In those kinds of proficiency levels and scores for somebody that should be, you know, an eighth grader or high schooler, reading at a fourth-grade level is really a tragedy,” Deering said.
She said students must develop strong reading skills early because academic expectations shift from learning to read to reading to learn.
“When you have comprehension that now comes into play, when you have subject textbooks, if you literally can't read the words off the page, you for sure are not comprehending what is in the text in front of you,” she said.
Deering said students graduating without basic academic skills are being failed by the education system.
“We are failing them by a lack of preparing them, a lack of accountability,” she said.
The problem can follow students into higher education and the workforce, Deering said.
“Even our community colleges are having to teach remedial classes,” she said. “So now they have to do additional work just to get the student ready for a community college class.”
Deering said Illinois needs to return to academic fundamentals, including phonics, math skills and higher expectations.
“We've really just gotten away from the fundamentals,” she said. “And so, I think getting back to that, getting back to having that higher expectation, making extra resources available to our students” is necessary.
She also pointed to summer school, tutoring and Illinois' school cellphone restrictions as potential interventions.
For taxpayers concerned about students graduating without mastering basic skills, Deering urged them to become more involved.
“I'd say start showing up and demanding answers,” she said. “You need to attend your school board meetings. You need to have some accountability at the local level.”
The Center Square asked Hillcrest High School about the claim that students were testing at approximately a fourth-grade academic level. In response, the school pointed to what it described as significant gains during the 2025-26 school year, including a 99% freshman OnTrack rate, 99% course-passage rates during both semesters and a 91% graduation rate.
Principal Eric Washington said the school’s progress reflects five years of work but acknowledged that additional improvement is needed. “Everyone in this building has put in a lot of hard work over the past five years to achieve the success we’ve had. However, there is more to be done. We are happy, but we are not satisfied,” Washington said.
School officials attributed the reported gains to improved attendance, stronger relationships between students and staff, targeted academic interventions and systems designed to identify students who need additional support. The school said approximately 80 staff members participate in efforts to monitor student progress and provide academic, behavioral and social-emotional support.
Hillcrest also reported a 77% reduction in major disciplinary incidents and said its grade-level teams, learning centers, interventionists, mentoring, study tables and individualized or small-group support are being used to address student needs.
