Warren HS superintendent defends test-taking standards

Warren Township High School Dist. 121 Superintendent Phil Sobocinski on Tuesday defended having juniors meet stronger academic standards before taking an annual achievement exam, which the state's top education office claims treats students differently and violates state and federal requirements.

Sobocinski spoke at a meeting of the Gurnee-based Warren Township Dist. 121 board on Tuesday night.

Several teachers also spoke at the meeting and backed the high academic standards enacted for the juniors.

At dispute is how approximately 150 underperforming juniors were not allowed to take the Prairie State Achievement Exam over two days in April. Dist. 121 officials say the poor students were not prohibited from testing as a way to increase the scores.

Board members last year approved an administration recommendation to boost the academic program's rigor.

Warren officials contend the action was cleared in advance by the Illinois State Board of Education - the agency now leveling the accusations against the district.

"We believe we have done the right thing by our children with our testing," Sobocinski said Tuesday. "I stand by that."

As part of the effort now under scrutiny, it was agreed students must have earned 11 credit hours by the fifth semester and completed other requirements to take the Prairie State tests as juniors in Spring 2009. Pupils are supposed to benefit by being more prepared to meet the testing standards.

About 150 of 1,000 juniors didn't earn the required 11 credit hours in time or meet the higher standards for English, math and science, so they couldn't join classmates in the Prairie State process in April, Warren officials said.

But state board of education officials sent a stern letter to Warren last month saying an investigation showed the district was treating the juniors differently for testing purposes.

Melina Wright, the agency's No Child Left Behind liaison, said Warren is violating state and federal requirements.

Wright warned Dist. 121 may lose federal funding if the new testing procedure for the juniors is not halted.

Warren denies the accusations and is disputing Wright's position with the State Board of Education.

Teacher Lisa Metcalf, who chairs the English Department, was among the instructors who defended having the students meet high educations standards before going through the Prairie State process, which includes the ACT college entrance exam.

"The increase in credit is a benefit to the English department," Metcalf said.

Meanwhile, Sobocinski said he'll consult with his attorney on possibly defamatory comments made about him at Tuesday's meeting by retired Warren instructor Rick Bryan, comments which alluded to cheating.

Bryan last month filed a complaint about the new achievement testing rules for juniors with accusations similar to those of the State Education Board. The State Board of Education says its accusations are unrelated to Bryan's complaint.