U-46, Dist. 303 lauded by state for academic improvement

In the midst of layoffs, budget cuts and lags in state aid, schools across the Fox Valley finally heard some good news Thursday.

Elgin Area School District U-46 and St. Charles District 303 were among the top 10 districts in Illinois to be recognized on the Illinois Honor Roll for continued academic progress.

Ten U-46 schools, from Elgin, Bartlett and Streamwood, received awards.

Four Elgin schools -- Century Oaks and Lowrie Elementary and Ellis and Abbott Middle School, received "spotlight awards" for overcoming achievement gaps, as did Sunnydale Elementary and Tefft Middle School in Streamwood.

Four Bartlett Schools -- Prairieview, Hawk Hollow and Centennial Elementary and Eastview Middle School -- received "academic excellence" awards for sustaining high performance over the last three years.

Abbott also received an academic improvement award for showing substantial gains over the last three years. The school, where 57 percent of students come from low-income homes, has seen an 16.6 percent increase on test scores since 2008. All subgroups of the school's students met state standards on reading and math in 2007 and 2008.

"Whoa!" Principal Shelly Leonard said upon hearing the news Thursday. Leonard contributed the gains to "teachers really being focused on where the students are and helping them to meet those goals."

Stressing vocabulary and the types of word problems featured on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, Leonard believes, also helped increase scores.

Last year, 32 of the district's 53 schools made the honor roll, but none were recognized for academic excellence.

In St. Charles District 303, eleven of the district's 17 schools received awards.

Winning schools included Bell-Graham, Ferson Creek, Fox Ridge, Lincoln, Wasco and Wild Rose elementary schools and Thompson, Wredling and Haines middle schools in St. Charles; Wasco Elementary; Norton Creek Elementary in West Chicago and Corron Elementary in South Elgin.

Superintendent Donald Schlomann attributes the awards to high support for education by the community and to teachers' and administrators' work identifying areas for improvement.

Several individual schools in Batavia School District 101, West Aurora District 129 and Geneva School District 302 also received awards.