District 204 gets high marks, but misses fed standards

Indian Prairie District 204 received high marks in its state report card, with 93.5 percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards in reading, math and science along with a 24.5 composite ACT score, a record high for the district.

But less than 85 percent of three categories of students — poor, disabled and African American — met standards on state testing, meaning the district does not meet federally mandated goals, despite improvement by each group of students.

Of the ACT scores and overall 93.5 percent success rate, Superintendent Kathy Birkett said, “That’s pretty exciting stuff. I’m now going around to faculty meetings and talking to each faculty and celebrating some of what they’ve done as well as look at areas we can continue to improve.”

In the past five years, the district has gained 1.7 points on the ACT, while the statewide average has increased 0.5 points for an average score of 20.6.

Despite those gains, the district also failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress under federal No Child Left Behind standards that requires 85 percent of all student subgroups to meet state standards measured in the Illinois Standards Achievement Test.

Students in the three subgroups did not meet the benchmarks, but each group did show growth with improved scores in every area.

“For me, no gap is acceptable,” Birkett said. “We’re not happy with any gap for any one of our subgroups. But one of the board goals, district goals, has been to close that achievement gap and we are seeing that happening.”

No Child Left Behind mandates that all students must be performing at grade level by 2014. Because so many schools nationwide have been unable to meet those goals, President Barack Obama has called for reforms.

District 204 schools that did not meet AYP include elementary schools: Georgetown, Longwood, McCarty and Welch; middle schools: Fischer, Granger, Gregory, Hill and Still; and all three high schools: Metea Valley, Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley.

All subgroups have shown a pattern of growth during the past five years. For instance, Hispanic students increased from 76.6 percent meeting or exceeding reading standards in 2006 to 77.9 percent in 2011, while African American students increased from 64.6 percent to 71.5 percent in that period. In math, those two subgroups increased from 80.2 percent to 84.2 percent for Hispanics and from 68.2 percent to 74.9 percent for African Americans. Students with learning disabilities have the largest gap, but still have shown improvement in the past five years with reading scores improving from 51.5 percent to 55.3 percent, and math scores from 62.1 percent to 63.5 percent.

“Why is that happening? I think this district has done a lot to increase educators’ sensitivities to different types of instructional formats or styles to address different learners’ needs,” said Patrick Nolten, director of assessment, research and evaluation. “It’s not just aim for the middle and hope for the best. The message in this district has been: Let’s really make sure we’re meeting the needs of kids. Not just your typical, average, middle-of-the road learner, but let’s make sure we’re meeting the needs of the low-achieving and the high-achieving regardless of their ethnicity and economic background.”

District officials attribute their success to several factors, including late-start Wednesdays that gives teachers more time to collaborate and plan, benchmark assessments of students’ math and reading skills given throughout the year to spot students who need extra help, and focus on reading skills across different subjects.

“We have an assessment system here that really supports finding kids who are at risk as early as possible,” Nolten said.

Birkett and Nolten also praised the academic gains of the district despite recent years of massive budget cuts that led to the layoffs of more than 140 teachers last year, larger class sizes and fewer resources for students.

“I think people thought there would be some dramatic change because of cuts. Relative to the economic changes, we’re not seeing academic change,” Nolten said. Birkett noted the district tried to keep budget cuts away from the classroom as much as possible.

District 204 wants to increase the number of students meeting and exceeding standards, Birkett said. In the next few years, Nolten hopes to use data to better identify students early who need help with academic skills, might be at risk for dropping out of school or could have disciplinary problems. That information, he said, would allow the district to put interventions in place earlier.

the district failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress under federal No Child Left Behind standards that required 85 percent of all student subgroups to meet state standards measured in the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT). In District 204, students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged students and African American students did not meet the benchmarks. However, those groups did show growth with improved scores in every area by every subgroup. “For me, no gap is acceptable,” Birkett said. “We’re not happy with any gap for any one of our subgroups. But one of the board goals, district goals, has been to close that achievement gap and we are seeing that happening.”

Under No Child Left Behind, all students must be performing at grade level by 2014. Because so many schools nationwide have been unable to meet those goals, President Barack Obama has called for reforms.

District 204 schools that did not meet AYP include elementary schools: Georgetown, Longwood, McCarty and Welch; middle schools: Fischer, Granger, Gregory, Hill and Still; and all three high schools: Metea Valley, Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley.

“Why is that happening? I think this district has done a lot to increase educators’ sensitivities to different types of instructional formats or styles to address different learners’ needs,” said Patrick Nolten, director of assessment, research and evaluation. “It’s not just aim for the middle and hope for the best. The message in this district has been: Let’s really make sure we’re meeting the needs of kids. Not just your typical, average, middle-of-the road learner, but let’s make sure we’re meeting the needs of the low-achieving and the high-achieving regardless of their ethnicity and economic background.”