U-46 schools show progress, but not enough

All five high schools in Elgin Area School District U-46 showed progress on spring state assessments, but it was not nearly enough to keep up with rising No Child Left Behind standards.

Under those standards, at least 77.5 percent of students overall, as well as 77.5 percent of every demographic group at a school (such as Hispanic students, low-income students, etc.) had to meet or exceed state benchmarks for a school to get a passing grade.

That threshold proved too much for the five U-46 high schools: Elgin, Larkin, South Elgin, Bartlett and Streamwood.

High school math scores are a case in point. Every high school increased its math score by at least 1.6 percentage points (the biggest gain was 8.9 points) from 2009 to 2010, but all were still below the 77.5 percent cutoff.

“Did they grow? Absolutely,” said Ed DeYoung, assessment and accountability director for U-46. “Did they grow enough to make (adequate yearly progress, the minimum growth needed to be considered a successful school)? Absolutely not.”

Still, there were some things to celebrate in Monday's report:

Ÿ Data show the percentage of vulnerable students (generally in the 25th or lower percentile) decreased in grades 8, 10 and 12 from 2007 to 2010.

Ÿ Six middle schools stayed the same or saw growth in reading and math; only two experienced a decline in either of those subjects.

Ÿ Eighth-graders in U-46 are doing better on standardized tests than they did four years ago perhaps indicating that high school results may improve over the next several years.

“The base that we are building is a stronger base than we had several years ago,” DeYoung said.