Fox Valley grade schools join failing high schools

Schools in the northern Fox Valley treaded water last year, making little progress in getting more students to meet state standards.

Because the state requires an increasing number of students to meet those bench marks each year, the lack of progress led the state to give more Fox Valley schools a failing grade on this year's school report cards.

Probably the most striking example of this was the area's high schools. Not one high school among Elgin Area School District U-46, Community Unit District 300 or Huntley Unit District 158 managed to pass this year.

Of U-46's eight middle schools, only one - Abbott in Elgin - earned a passing grade this year.

And of 40 elementary schools in U-46 - the state's second-largest school district - only 17 passed this year.

Fox Valley schools were certainly not unique in their increased failure rate this year. Statewide, an additional 350 schools failed this year - among them 100 high schools and 250 elementary and middle schools.

U-46 officials chalked up the higher failure rate of the district's schools to No Child Left Behind rules that effectively require large, diverse schools to get each ethnic group, plus students with disabilities, low-income students and students with limited English skills to meet state standards.

That can be a challenging task for many schools, especially considering 70 percent of students had to meet standards to earn their school a passing grade this year - up from 62.5 percent last year.

"As the bar goes up higher and higher, more and more schools, and more and more subgroups are close to (failing)," said Ed DeYoung, District U-46's assessment chief. "So if they don't make that 7.5 (percent) change from year to year, they cease to make the standards."

Overall, District U-46 improved reading scores in three grade levels tested last year but also did worse in three grade levels. Math scores similarly went up in three grade levels and down in three others.

District U-46's mixed bag of test scores was mirrored in other Fox Valley districts. In neighboring District 300, four grade levels gained in reading, while three did worse. On the math portion of the state assessment, three grades did better; four saw decreases.

Besides all three high schools, two middle schools and five elementary schools in District 300 failed this year, compared to one middle school and four elementary schools last year.

This year's school report cards show the two additional schools did that did not earn a passing grade this year - Hampshire Middle School and Gilberts Elementary School - did so because their students with disabilities did not meet state bench marks.

Gilberts Elementary School did not get a pass this year because, according to the state, the school had exactly 45 students with disabilities last year. The state does not measure the progress of special-needs students at a school unless they number at least 45.

Gilberts Elementary School says it only had 44 disabled students last year, but state education officials rejected the school's appeal.

In other words, No Child Left Behind labels Gilberts - a school that is otherwise performing at a high level - as a "failing" school because of a dispute over a single student.

"Even though they may only have 44 kids, it still has them officially for this year not making because the state has them with 45 kids," said Carole Cooper, District 300's director of accountability and assessment.

Adjacent District 158 saw reading gains in four grade levels and drops in three; three grades did better in math, while four did worse.

Both middle schools in District 158 got a passing grade, and only one of District 158's five elementary schools did not pass - a grade district officials dispute.

"We do believe that this is an error," said Mary Olson, director of curriculum and instruction for Huntley Unit District 158. "Chesak (school) does not even take the test."

But the most notable change in District 158 was the failure of Huntley High School, the only high school in Districts U-46, 300 and 158 that earned a pass last year.

Huntley High School's inability to meet state bench marks was all the more frustrating because the school actually raised the percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards.

Last year, about 64 percent of students at Huntley met standards in both reading and math. This year, the percentage of students meeting standards in reading and math climbed to 68.5 and 65.9, respectively.

While those percentages would have been enough to net a passing grade last year, they were not enough to meet this year's target of 70 percent.

"The high school did increase their percent of kids (meeting state standards) from the previous year," Olson said. "They just didn't increase enough to achieve the target."