Subgroups impact public schools' scores
Did your school pass or fail?
The results of the Illinois' standardized examinations, given last spring to public school students, were released this week. And as usual, the grades in the Fox Valley are mixed, for a variety of reasons.
The St. Charles, Batavia and West Aurora school districts did not pass, though some schools in those district did. To meet the goal, 62.5 percent or more of the tested students had to meet or exceed standards.
Schools that didn't "make adequate yearly progress," in the parlance of state education officials, are St. Charles East High School; Richmond Elementary School in St. Charles; West Aurora District 129's Freeman, Greenman, Hall, Hill, Lincoln and Smith elementary schools, Herget and Jefferson middle schools, and West Aurora High School, all in Aurora; and Jewel Middle School in North Aurora, which is also a District 129 school.
To best understand the meaning of those results, school officials say it's vital to recognize the scores are only a small barometer of a district's performance and that measure hinges on specific subgroups of students who face big challenges. According to the federal No Child Left Behind Law, specific subgroups within a school, including low-income students, learning disabled students and English language learners, must meet the rising standards on both the reading and math portions of state tests. Otherwise, the entire school fails to make Adequate Yearly Progress.
"The type of population we serve, that's nothing new to anyone," said Richmond Principal Guillermo Heredia of his school's test scores. At Richmond, many of the same students are in two subgroups that failed: Hispanic and low-income.
And it's not as if Richmond's staff isn't trying, and hard. It offers English Language Learners instruction to children whose first language is not English, individual daily in-class one-on-one reading tutoring to those whose scores fall below the 35th percentile and literacy teachers who work with small groups. "There might be four teachers in a classroom" at one time, Heredia said. The school has a goal of translating all of its take-home materials, such as parent newsletters, into Spanish, and has just started a 15-member advisory council that includes 11 parents from throughout its attendance area. The group will study schools with similar demographics, hoping to pick up ideas for school improvement.
Key factors in failing scores:
1. If the school has a large enough subgroup of disabled students in the grade being tested, it must report their results. (A subgroup is 45 or more students that fit certain criteria, including race or ethnicity, economic status, lack of proficiency in English, mental/physical disabilities).
St. Charles East, Jewel, Herget, Hall and Hill were all marked failing because of this.
At Jewel, only 32 percent of the disabled children who took the reading test passed, and 36 percent of the math test.
At St. Charles East, 40.4 percent of disabled students passed reading, and 29.8 percent the mathematics test. It failed last year for the same reason.
Last year, Geneva High School was on the "fail" list because not enough of its disabled students passed the tests. This year, there wasn't a large enough subgroup to require reporting the results.
2. Low income. Freeman, Lincoln and Smith in District 129, and Richmond, failed because not enough low-income children scored adequately on the reading portion of the tests. "The level of education of the parents is one of the primary factors that influence student achievement," according to research, Heredia said. Their education affects how much money they earn and the kinds of jobs they have, and their ability to understand their children's school work. Which in turn affects after-school supervision and ability to help with homework. People with more education "place more value on education and can provide more opportunities (such as family field trips) because they can provide more resources," he said.
3. Limited English proficiency. Richmond failed the reading test on this account, too, as did Greenman, Hill and Smith in District 129, and the Batavia school district overall. In previous years, these students would have taken a different test, called the IMAGE, which focused mostly on language proficiency. But a change in the law required school districts to give everyone the same test, which Heredia described as more of an academic test, this time.
Nearly one in four students at Richmond are described as having limited English proficiency, almost 12 times the average for its district.
4. Ethnic or racial background. Richmond's Hispanic and Latino students only scored 42.4 percent on the reading; Lincoln and Smith in District 129 also fell short in reading for this subgroup. At Richmond, more than 36 percent of the students are Hispanic or Latino, six times the district average. The school also has the highest mobility rate in the district, 14.2 percent. That measures the rate at which students move in and out of the school.