Dist. 303 sets new goals after improving ACT scores again

St. Charles Unit District 303 announced Wednesday that graduating seniors from last year continued a three-year trend of increasingly higher ACT scores.

The news comes in the same week that school board members raised the bar of expectations for both student and staff performance in the coming academic year.

The goals are part of what the district calls a performance score card. Only one-fifth of the score card relates directly to the grades students bring home or send off on their college applications.

"One of the purposes of the score card is to make sure that people don't think the only thing we focus on is test scores," said Mark Pomplun, director of assessment and accountability.

That said, district staff were pleased to learn they'd already hit their ACT target for score increases just two days after setting the goal. Scores from last year's graduating seniors rose to 22.7, the exact mark the district has set for this year's crop of seniors. The 22.7 average score is 0.5 points better than seniors who graduated in 2007 and nearly a full point better than ACT scores in 2005. The increase has put district ACT scores a full two points ahead of the average in Illinois.

Breaking down the ACT numbers, math, reading and English scores all improved while science achievement stayed flat.

Pomplun attributed the positive trends to the district doing a better job of preparing students for college. The ACT is an attempt to measure readiness for college freshman courses. Pomplun also credited the team approach schools are using. That team approach is known as professional learning communities where teachers within the same department or discipline work as teams. The teams use data from assessments to form teaching strategies based on areas that need improvement.

Looking at other district goals for the year, the staff hopes to see at least 62 percent of students enrolled in advanced placement courses and have at least 80 percent land at their first choice for a college, military or workforce future.

Teachers and administrators have their own work cut out for them. More than 27 percent of teachers quit District 303 within five years. The district hopes to trim that down to 25 percent or fewer by the end of the coming school year. Part of that will require increasing staff satisfaction. District surveys show only about 46 percent of staff felt they received enough respect from administrators, students and parents. The district wants to that number to at least 50 percent of staff this year.

The district also wants fewer discipline problems this school year. Last year, students racked up 1,377 days of suspension and 12 expulsion hearings. This year, the district wants to cut suspensions by at least 2 percent and see no more than 10 expulsion hearings.