Schools fear budget cuts will hamper improvement

With fewer suburban schools meeting rising benchmarks on standardized tests, fewer schools, in turn, are netting academic improvement awards.

The State Board of Education and Northern Illinois University announced that 975 schools this year made the Illinois Honor Roll, down from 989 in 2008 and 1,177 in 2007.

Across the suburbs, however, a number of districts bucked that trend, showing steady gains.

This year, 17 of Naperville Unit District 203's 21 schools were given one of three Illinois Honor Roll awards, up from 15 in 2008. Lake Zurich Unit District 95 saw five of eight schools get either an academic improvement, spotlight school, or excellence award, up from three last year.

Indian Prairie District 204 held steady, with 18 schools netting awards in 2008 and 2009.

So did St. Charles District 303 and Wheaton District 200, with 11 schools in each district getting awards each year. Mount Prospect District 57 and Carpentersville-based Community Unit District 300 saw three schools earn awards both years.

Kathy Birkett, Superintendent of District 204, said her district is focused on individual student progress.

"We are not heavy at all on administrators. We have a lot of the highest average of number of students per administrator. We have really focused our effort on the teacher level and the support level. "

Not every suburban district saw such success. Elgin Area School District U-46 saw its number for Honor Roll Schools cut in half this year, to five. In 2007, nearly two-thirds of the district's 53 schools made the honor roll.

Spotlight School Awards recognize high-poverty, high-performing schools that are beating the odds to overcome the achievement gap. Academic Improvement Awards are given to schools that see the number of students meeting or exceeding standards increase by at least 7.5 points over one year or 15 points over two years. Excellence awards are given to schools that have sustained high performance over the last three years.

"We did have some significant growth," U-46 spokesman Tony Sanders said of this year's standardized test scores. "But once you've grown, it's hard to keep going at that same rate."

Data released Oct. 31 by the State Board of Education reported that 41 percent of the state's 3,806 schools failed to meet No Child Left Behind benchmarks in 2009. In 2008, only 31 percent missed the mark.

No Child Left Behind sets an annual threshold for the number of students in all subgroups expected to meet state standards, with the goal of having every student perform at grade level by 2014. This year's target was 70 percent, up from 62.5 percent last year.

Schools have even more cause for worry next year.

Along with benchmarks rising to 77.5 percent, district budgets are being slashed across the board.

"This is tough. We're seeing the dividends of what we're doing right now. ... These are huge cuts. What you really look at is we try to protect the classroom as much as possible, try to make sure we maintain the academic support. Then beyond that we go program by program. That's what we're in the throes of right now. Given the state of the state of Illinois, we are very nervous," District 204's Birkett said.