U-46 schools fail to pass state standards

One is a very lonely number.

Following word that 23 of 40 Elgin Area School District U-46 elementary schools failed to meet state standards in reading and math this year, the school board learned Monday that only one of its eight middle schools and none of its five high schools managed to keep up.

For a school to be considered passing under federal No Child Left Behind law, 70 percent of students must either meet or exceed standards this year. The bar was set at 62.5 percent in 2008 and 55 percent in 2007. In 2014, it will be at 100 percent.

According to the law, a school's scores are broken down into various subgroups - including general education students, English Language learners, special education and low-income students. If one subgroup fails to meet or exceed standards, the entire school fails.

Abbott Middle School in Elgin was the only school to see all subgroups pass the test.

Assessment Consultant Ed DeYoung's presentation did not get into detail on individual schools, but included the average scores for seventh-, eighth- and 11th- graders in reading and math. The state will release data for individual schools and their subgroups Oct. 30.

"We can be making progress at the student level, but not enough to meet the rising bar," assessment consultant DeYoung said.

On the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, the average percentage of U-46's seventh-grade students who met or exceeded state standards remained steady at 77 percent compared to last year's 78 percent. In math, scores increased by one point, to 88 percent. Eighth-grade scores rose one point in reading to 84 percent and two points in math to 85 percent.

For the past three years, the district middle schools' scores have been in near lock step with the state average.

At the high school level, however, 11th-grade scores remained seven to eight points below the state average in both reading and math on the Prairie State Achievement Exam, which is composed of the ACT and the practical WorkKeys test.

This is the seventh year that Elgin, Larkin, Streamwood and Bartlett high schools have failed to meet bench marks. South Elgin, which opened in 2004, has failed for the past three years.

The ISAT and the PSAE are very different tests, DeYoung reminded the board.

A Consortium of Chicago School Research study released last fall pointed out that the high school test is far more rigorous than the elementary and middle school test. This makes it difficult to measure students' growth from eighth- to 11th-grade.

Illinois students' PSAE average of 57 percent in reading and 52 percent in math is also far below the 70 percent bar.

"We're not where we want to be, but we're at a higher performing level than we were two years ago," DeYoung said.

Composite scores on the ACT increased from 18.7 in 2007 to 19.1 this year.

In a lengthy memo issued Friday, Superintendent Jose Torres reminded teachers that he believes that U-46 "can, and will close the achievement gap that exists between student groups."

Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education Greg Walker, outlined several steps to improve student performance.

There needs to be a better aligned curriculum from the elementary, middle and high schools, Walker said.

Some courses need to be redeveloped to better stress college readiness. Students' writing progression will also be analyzed.

"We need to inspect what we expect at every level," he said.

Test: Efforts to close 'gap'