There’s a common attitude in towns like Springfield: our schools could be better, but they’re still a lot better than Chicago or East St. Louis. That’s cold comfort to kids from Springfield’s toughest neighborhoods whose families are every bit as desperate for strident school reform as kids in Bronzeville. But that conventional wisdom–one that says Springfield is only a new football facility away from being competitive with neighboring bedroom communities or Chicago suburbs–undercuts the education of kids from all sides of town. The fact is, Springfield schools aren’t as good as they think, in part because middle class schools in general aren’t as good as Americans like to believe.

School research rockstar and Wilmette native Jay Greene, along with Josh McGee, have launched a major new project called the Global Report Card. As the pundits are wont to say, the world is flat. We should be comparing our schools to those across the world. The new global report card is now by far the most in-depth comparison of American schools to their international competitors. The results for towns like Springfield are stunning.

When ranked alongside students from 25 developed countries, Springfield students on average fall in the 25th percentile in math and the 36th percentile in reading. If Springfield was transplanted 1,000 miles to the north, our students would rank in Canada’s 17th percentile in math and 26th in reading.

I know what you’re asking yourself right now: but what if Springfield was located in Singapore? We’d rank in the 13th and 28th percentiles in reading and math, respectively. And so it goes.

Peoria, Rockford, Decatur–all return similar results.

The decade just ended was the most prosperous in history for most of the world’s emerging nations. Their kids are hungry for opportunities, and their school systems are providing them. It’s a beautiful thing. But it’s also a sobering fact for Illinois. Future job growth will follow talent, new businesses and new ideas–new markets and private investment will take root in areas where, barring absurd economic policies, people are smartest and best-educated.

There has been important but incremental progress in school reform in Illinois over the last decade. The Global Report Card reminds us of just how far we have yet to go.