Test scores now in schools' hands
A year after an avalanche of errors delayed reporting of student test scores, Illinois education leaders Wednesday trumpeted the earliest-ever release of exam results, though they offer a mixed academic picture.
Elementary and middle school scores climbed while high school scores dropped, again, amid tougher standards.
The high school slide came despite state efforts to inject more rigor into classes and stiffen graduation requirements.
This, as the pressure of the high-stakes exams grows. The federal No Child Left Behind law this year required 55 percent of students to read and calculate math at grade level, up from 47.5 percent in 2006. The expectations mount until 2014, when all children are to test at grade level.
Yet standards cannot be met or missed without test results.
Illinois schools -- all 3,980 of them -- now can review scores and report card data six months after students sweated through the battery of state exams. The earlier report is the result, state education leaders said, of better planning, more oversight and a $34.5 million investment in test vendors.
"We want to make sure there is never another instance like last year," Illinois State Board of Education spokesman Matt Vanover said. "Certainly, this is something we want to build upon."
Getting scores in September rather than March allows educators to use test scores to adapt lesson plans and refashion classes as needed.
"This is exactly what we were whining about last year," said James White, superintendent of DuPage County's Queen Bee Elementary District 16. "Kids took the test last March, so you want to adjust the instructional program where you need to the following school year."
Statewide, 78.7 percent of third- through eighth-graders satisfied state expectations, up from 77 percent last year.
Just over half of Illinois high school juniors scored at grade level in reading, math and science, slipping to 52.6 percent from 54.3 percent in 2006.
Students with disabilities faltered on the alternative assessment, slipping 3.5 percentage points to 59.1 percent.
Children new to English, meanwhile, improved their academic standing with 63.4 percent of students scoring at grade level in reading and math, up from 61.6 percent in 2006. An extra three hours mandated by state lawmakers for bilingual students to complete exams for the second year helped, many said.
The Illinois State Board of Education released statewide averages Wednesday. Individual district and school scores will be unveiled by Oct. 31, before the legal deadline for publication. Schools may opt to release results earlier, however.
Where scores have been released, suburban schools mirror the state's split trend.
In Elgin Area School District U-46, the state's second largest district, all but one of 40 elementary schools satisfied state learning standards. But all five high schools slipped below the 55 percent threshold required of all students and all groups of students in reading and math.
Naperville North High School faltered also as low-income students and those with learning disabilities missed the mark. On average, Naperville Unit District 203 scores eclipsed state averages with 80.5 percent of teens scoring at grade level and 94.3 percent of grade-schoolers.