Dist. 203 touts 'outstanding' achievement on tests

Naperville Unit District 203 is once again touting its “outstanding” achievement as students have met nearly 97 percent of federal standards it is responsible for under No Child Left Behind.

As a whole, the district cleared 337 of 347 hurdles in its latest round of standardized test scores, with

one of its two high schools Naperville Central overcoming the odds and making adequate yearly progress.

For high school students, adequate yearly progress is determined by scores on the Prairie State Achievement Examination, which includes the ACT, and is taken by juniors. For most elementary and junior high students, it is based on Illinois Standards Achievement Test scores.

For a school to make adequate yearly progress, No Child Left Behind requires that the percentage of students meeting standards in each subgroup rises every year.

For this round of tests, 77.5 percent of students in each group needed to meet standards for the district to be considered making adequate yearly progress.

Overall scores in District 203 for reading and math at the elementary and junior high levels increased slightly this year, with slight dips in the “meets” category and corresponding increases in the “exceed” category.

In reading, 93.5 percent of elementary and junior high students met or exceeded standards, up from 93.2 percent last year. In math, 95.2 percent met or exceeded standards, compared to 94.8 the year before.

Dave Chiszar, director of assessment and quality, said it is tougher to meet standards at the high school level.

“High school districts tend to have a much lower percentage of ‘meet' and ‘exceed' than the elementary districts,” Chiszar said. “The truth is, the rigor to get a ‘meet' on the Prairie State is more difficult than the rigor to get a ‘meet' on the ISAT. It's just what it is.”

For 2010, 78 percent of the district's high school students met or exceeded standards in reading, compared to 79 percent last year.

Slight gains were made in math, where 81 percent met or exceeded standards, up from 78 percent last year.

Naperville North failed to make adequate yearly progress for the fourth consecutive year, while Naperville Central ended a two-year skid with significant improvements in both the reading and math scores of the school's students with disabilities.

At North, low-income students rallied to reach benchmarks in reading and math, while students with disabilities failed to make Safe Harbor Targets in both categories. At Central, students with disabilities scores jumped to 44 percent meeting and exceeding in reading, up from 32.9 percent last year. Math scores also jumped to 41.7 percent meeting and exceeding, up from 29.4 percent last year.

Officials said while they are happy with overall scores, it's one of many ways of evaluating students.

“This is a picture of a period in time, and a very small one at that. We ascribe things to these tests that they were never intended to do. But for lack of anything else, they take on a disproportionate amount of importance,” Supt. Mark Mitrovich said Monday night. “That is not to say that schools are abdicating their responsibility in terms of student growth. What we are really doing is defining what that means, and actively getting a better handle on what a child knows and what they are able to do.”

For the 2010 tests, schools will need 85 percent of students in each subgroup meeting standards to make adequate yearly progress.