Fairview plans to focus on reading, writing skills

Mount Prospect's Fairview Elementary School on Thursday presented its academic improvement plan, which will focus on reading and writing this school year.

School administrators told the Mount Prospect School District 57 school board they believe those two subjects are the foundation upon which all others depend.

The school already has exceptional math scores, with third through fifth grades all scoring in the upper 90th percentile on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, Principal April Jordan said.

While reading scores are also in the high 80th and low 90th percentiles, the school saw room for greater improvement in those areas, Jordan said.

The school's goal is to have 80 percent of the kids pass a standardized reading fluency test. Now, around 70 percent of kids pass the test, Jordan said.

Another goal is to have 60 percent passing a standardized reading comprehension test. Currently, about 56 percent pass that particular test.

Part of the plan has to do with informing parents about the school's goals, especially those regarding the writing portion, Jordan said.

Perhaps as early as next month, the school hopes to hold an information session with parents about the six qualities of good writing and the scale that teachers will use to determine how kids are doing in that subject, Jordan said.

For instance, on a scale of one to six, with six being the highest, teachers will assess kids' writing based on ideas, organization, voice, sentence fluency, word choice and spelling/grammar.

Fairview's presentation is required of all District 57 schools, Superintendent Bruce Brown said.

Lions Park Elementary and Lincoln Middle School gave their presentations last month.

Lions Park will focus on reading and writing, while Lincoln will look at how to improve social and emotional well being as well as general academics, mainly tackling new technology involving computers and the Internet, Brown said.

On March 6, Westbrook School for Young Learners, 103 S. Busse Road, will present its plan to the board, he said.