Why so many 8th-graders make the grade but later fail

Suburban eighth-graders sail through state tests.

But many of those same students struggle to make the grade once they reach high school.

Most haven't lost real academic ground. Juniors perform worse on state assessments because high school tests are rigorous and elementary tests are not, some educators say.

As a result, Illinois grade-schoolers can coast for years under the impression they're on track -- only to have that illusion shattered when they reach high school.

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"We just have to recognize that the difference between the passing rates is not because students somehow lose their way in high school," said Steve Cordogan, who crunches test score data in Northwest Suburban High School District 214.

Indeed, suburban high school officials say students who pass the eighth-grade reading and math tests often land in remedial classes as freshmen.

And many students get another wakeup call when they arrive at college.

At Harper College in Palatine, for example, the percentage of recent high school graduates who arrive unprepared has held steady for several years. Generally, about 50 percent require remedial math, 20 percent require remedial English and 15 percent require remedial reading.

"You would expect if you're meeting state standards you wouldn't need remediation," said Judith Levinson, director of assessment and evaluation for Evanston Township High School District 202.

At the behest of the Evanston school board, Levinson wrote a letter to state lawmakers complaining that students who meet standards as eighth-graders can be "wholly under-prepared" to make the grade as juniors.

"So yes, I think there are problems in the system," Levinson said. "How are you supposed to prepare kids from elementary to high school to meet so-called state standards when the standards are essentially different?"

National measure

Illinois eighth-graders must only rank at or above the 38th percentile nationally in math and the 40th percentile in English to meet state standards, according to a state board of education analysis.

High school juniors, meanwhile, must score above the 50th percentile nationally to earn a passing grade in math and reading, according to a District 202 analysis.

Internal school data supports the thesis that the test format -- not student achievement -- causes high school passing rates to plunge.

Palatine High School District 211 analyzed the scores of incoming eighth-graders on state tests and compared them with those students' scores on the national Explore test, an ACT exam for eighth-graders. ACT also provides the state test that determines whether Illinois juniors meet standards.

In the district's two feeder elementary districts, Palatine District 15 and Schaumburg District 54, 90 percent of eighth-graders met standards in math. And yet, only 63 percent of District 15 students and 52 percent of District 54 students scored as "on-track for college" on Explore.

A substantial variance also appeared in math.

About 93 percent of District 15 students and 92 percent of District 54 students passed the state's eighth-grade math test. But just 64 percent of District 15 students and 62 percent of District 54 students tested as "on track for college" on Explore

A 30-point gap exists, then, between the percentage of students who pass the eighth-grade test and the percentage who pass the test closely aligned with the one they'll take as juniors.

The eighth-grade Explore test seems to be a solid indicator of how students will fare as 11th-graders. Last year, for example, 67 percent of District 211 juniors met state standards.

State board of education officials also consider Explore a valid measurement. This year, they provided more than $2 million so that every high school district in the state could offer the pre-ACT test.

The testing gap reveals "significant problems" that render common learning standards "meaningless," District 211 officials wrote in a memo to the state. The memo pointed to the gap between eighth-grade Explore scores and state test results.

Too hard -- or easy

The high school test may be harder to pass, but educators are divided about whether it's too hard -- or the elementary tests are too easy.

Max McGee, president of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, was state superintendent when Illinois incorporated the ACT into the state test for juniors.

"It's a good test, and it's a hard test," McGee said. "It has succeeded in making the high school curriculum more rigorous."

He said high school administrators "have a right to be concerned when they look at students entering high school #8230; because it's nearly impossible to make up deficits in pre-K through eighth-grade.

"Part of what we can do is insist on more rigorous tests, and perhaps a higher level of standards, because the students will work up to it," McGee said.

But some high school officials say setting the bar too high is dangerous given the punitive climate created by the federal accountability law, No Child Left Behind.

"If they scale the test too difficult, as we have done at the high school level, you end up with a variety of schools that technically do not meet standards that can be among top schools in the country," District 214's Cordogan said.

Indeed, suburban high schools are on the hot seat.

In the Daily Herald coverage area, 36 high schools have failed to meet standards on state tests for at least four consecutive years.

Schools that fail year after year face progressively harsher state and federal sanctions, which can culminate in a state takeover or the removal of school board members, teachers and administrators.

Meanwhile, elementary school students, taking the test developed by the state of Illinois, are passing state tests at record rates.

Cordogan said easy tests can give parents and educators a false sense of security, but hard tests force some good schools to spend thousands of dollars to comply with federal regulations -- perhaps unfairly.

"It's a very delicate balance, and states will be willing to set more realistic cut scores, when penalties from NCLB are not so expensive and inappropriate," Cordogan said. "In light of the current situation with NCLB, I think the (state's elementary test) cut scores are appropriate."