Naperville, Aurora schools measure performance one student at a time

Efforts by schools in Indian Prairie Unit District 204 to raise student achievement involve a lot of number crunching.

At a recent school board meeting, principals from Peterson Elementary School in Naperville and Still Middle School in Aurora gave board members a snapshot of some techniques and programs the two schools are using to eliminate performance gaps between the highest- and lowest-performing students.

By distilling information from standardized test scores, schools are able to pinpoint curriculum areas where subgroups of students and even individual students need extra instruction.

“I know I can walk into any elementary right now and sit down with the principal and he or she would open up a folder and tell me each young person who is in interventions right now, what has been working, what hasn't been working and what they currently are working on and when the next update is for when they will make some decisions,” said Mike Popp, director of school improvement and planning. “That is the norm. That is really exciting. I've seen that in the middle schools now.”

Overall, more than 89 percent of District 204 students in reading and more than 92 percent in math meet or exceed state standards, according to state report cards. Despite those good numbers, the district has goals to raise all students' performance and wants to see more students exceed state standards. Also of special concern are subgroups of students — special education, limited English proficiency, black, Hispanic and those who receive free/reduced lunch. While those students improved in some areas in the 2010 state report card, they did not make adequate yearly progress in reading under No Child Left Behind. Federal achievement benchmarks are increased every year with the goal of all students meeting goals.

“We target in our school improvement plans our specific subgroups where we're currently experiencing gaps,” Popp said.

Peterson Elementary School Principal Terri Russell said her school has used the charts to tailor curriculum to students' needs. For instance, teachers instruct the whole class in a math lesson and then break out small groups. Teachers then have a list of skills struggling students need to learn before moving on. Peterson also places students who need extra help into special reading and math programs. Beside those academic components, Peterson also has added two ways to reach students on a personal level. The school has a mentoring program and also uses school employees and volunteers to connect with students first thing in the morning, to check in with them during the day and then to give them a goodbye. “It's looking at supporting kids academically, but even more importantly than that, supporting their self-esteem as well by letting them know we believe they can accomplish anything,” Russell said.

Still Middle School also uses test data taken from feeder schools for sixth graders and then each grade's achievement is tracked as it moves through the school. Teachers even share techniques that have worked and haven't worked with individual students.

Data also is broken out to target struggling subgroups, Principal Kimmer Cornish said. “What do we need to do differently with those students?” he said. “What are you doing to make sure they are engaged in that lesson and if they're not engaged in that lesson if they are struggling somehow, what are you doing differently?”

It could mean putting a struggling student in a strategic reading class or adding a support teacher to that student's classroom. Also, a grant has allowed the school to offer an after school program that began last month.