Hillcrest High School in Country Club Hills is celebrating positive academic progress as students settle into the 2026-27 academic year.
For the 2025-26 academic year, the District 228 school reported a 99% freshmen OnTrack rate and 99% course pass rates during both semesters, according to a news release. The school also achieved a 91% graduation rate, an increase from last year.
School officials said over the past five years they worked toward strengthening the overall success of students by implementing grade-level teams, support staff and stronger relationships between students and staff.
Five years ago, the school looked at how it was supporting freshmen and officials decided it wanted to expand that support across all grades.
“We looked at all the success we started to see at the freshman level, and we were like, ‘Why shouldn’t we do this across all grades,'” said Colin Milton, associate principal for student success.
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At Hillcrest, there are now learning centers for all grades. School administrators said the expansion of learning centers for all grades reflects the school’s efforts to support students of all ages.
The school has a freshman learning center, a sophomore learning center, an academic learning center for juniors and seniors and a digital learning center for students who fall behind on credits, school administrators said.
Milton said the student success team helps operate the learning centers, and there is a coordinator in each one, along with part-time tutors and full-time professionals.
Grades from Power School, a K-12 cloud software program, are accessible to staff in the learning centers so they can best assist students and make sure students are on top of things, said Ronald Towner, assistant superintendent for personnel.
At Hillcrest, there are about 80 staff members who work together to support students, according to a news release.
For example, Associate Principal Jim Curtin said once a month they have a school improvement day where they meet with all the staff and identify students that may be struggling.
The student success team reviews data and student progress prior to each weekly meeting. Curtin said data that tracks student progress is pulled out of Power School.
He said by having these meetings and a grade-level team system, staff are able to identify students that may otherwise go unnoticed and get left behind.
Hillcrest has also experienced a 77% reduction in major disciplinary incidents, officials said. Curtin defined major disciplinary incidents as school violations such as drug use and fights.
He said understanding what children are dealing with at home and raising expectations has helped improve behavioral outcomes.
“As we raise the expectations for kids, they just keep on meeting those expectations or surpassing them,” Curtin said.
Milton said this holistic approach to support has also helped improve attendance by 26% over the past five years.
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Rather than treating academics, attendance and behavior as separate issues, school officials said grade-level teams consider how each factor affects student success.
“That was always sort of a light bulb moment as a teacher, when you found out what a child might have been going through outside our building,” Towner said.
Principal Eric Washington said in a news release he is proud of the work the staff has done.
“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.