Fox Valley schools removed from academic monitoring list

A pair of Fox Valley school districts and two Elgin Area School District U-46 middle schools have been removed from a list of schools requiring academic monitoring, Illinois State Board of Education officials said Tuesday.

Central Community Unit District 301, Marengo-Union District 165, and U-46's Abbott and Tefft middle schools are among 46 schools and school districts taken off the list after meeting federal No Child Left Behind benchmarks two years in a row.

For the 2007-08 school year, that meant 62.5 percent of a school's students met state standards in reading and math on standardized tests, up from 55 percent in 2006-07.

Another 101 schools and 23 districts will not receive further sanctions because they made adequate yearly progress this year, according to a news release.

Still, 1,196, or 31 percent of the state's schools failed to make the grade this year, up seven percent from the previous year.

Schools and districts are placed on the list when they do not meet benchmarks for two years in a row. After failing to meet benchmarks for six years, schools face federal sanctions, among them students receiving school choice and supplemental educational services.

District 301 Superintendent Brad Hawk said he believes aligning curriculum at the elementary, middle and high school levels helped the district's schools improve scores across the board.

"Sometimes you end up with situations with gaps in your curriculum where you assume other grades are teaching specific skill or duplication," he said. "This way we looked at was being covered."

The information was released as part of the state board's analysis of 2008 school report cards.

Statewide averages were released by the state last month. Specific scores of schools will be unveiled Oct. 31.

• Daily Herald news services contributed to this report.