State lauds achievement at Grayslake’s Frederick School

Frederick Elementary School in Grayslake is one of nine schools lauded by state education officials for meeting a challenge to increase academic achievement over two consecutive years as federal performance benchmarks increased.

Grayslake Elementary District 46’s Frederick has nearly 800 fifth- and sixth-graders. Results of Frederick’s academic gains were released Monday by the Illinois State Board of Education as part of the annual school report card.

“It’s thanks to a lot of hard work by the staff,” Principal Eric Detweiler said upon hearing the news of Frederick making adequate yearly progress in 2010 and 2011 to escape the state’s “improvement status” list.

In 2009, state report card results showed Frederick School didn’t have the required 70 percent in each category of pupils meeting or exceeding standards in areas such as mathematics and reading. Frederick had to meet or exceed standards for two consecutive years to no longer be considered needing improvement.

But Frederick had to make the progress while the federal No Child Left Behind performance measures pushed the required percentage of pupils meeting or exceeding standards to 77.5 in 2010 and 85 in 2011.

State Superintendent of Education Christopher Koch praised Frederick and the eight other Illinois schools for making the steady, incremental academic strides over two consecutive years as the benchmarks became increasingly strict.

“It is especially remarkable to see schools flagged for improvement make the dramatic changes necessary to get off status,” Koch said.

Although Frederick’s Illinois Standards Achievement Test composite was 81.2 percent meeting or exceeding standards in 2009, low-income, special education and limited-English-speaking children didn’t hit the mandated 70 percent. Those subgroups led to Frederick’s failure.

Detweiler said the report card result led to creation of a Frederick booster program for the fifth- and sixth-graders. Under the program, children identified as struggling in math and reading were given after-school help.

“I think that’s a big one,” Detweiler said.

Moreover, children were reminded about the importance of getting proper rest and having a nutritious breakfast to be at peak performance at school, he added. He said work went into helping all students, not just those in the low-scoring subgroups.

Frederick’s Illinois Standards Achievement Test composite was 90 percent of children meeting or exceeding standards in 2011 — an 8.8 percentage-point boost since 2009. It also was up from 86.6 in 2010.

Showing the biggest percentage-point increase, at 11.5, was the number of Frederick fifth-graders meeting or exceeding standards in math since 2009. It was at 76.8 percent in 2009, moving to 87.3 in 2010 and 88.3 in 2011.