Larkin juniors no longer must skip class for test prep

Larkin High School students are no longer required to leave a history class to get tutoring for a state test after Elgin Area School District U-46 this week found a teachers union grievance valid.

The grievance, filed in late January by Larkin social studies teachers, accused the district of inadequately training them to conduct a computer training session designed to increase scores on the Prairie State Achievement Exam.

Additionally, teachers complained that their U.S. history classes were undermined because juniors were taken out of the class once a week for the training.

The history class was chosen because of the high percentage of juniors who take that class.

Teachers said targeting their class diminished the value of their subject.

Both components are considered violations of the recently negotiated teachers contract.

The KeyTrain sessions now will be considered a voluntary option at Larkin.

And further changes may be in store, said Tim Davis, president of the Elgin Teachers Association.

The district still must deal with KeyTrain implementation at the district's four other high schools, Davis said.

Along with tutoring sessions for students who received low scores on practice ACT tests, all U-46 high school juniors learn to use KeyTrain software, said Tom Donausky, the district's executive director for secondary education.

KeyTrain sessions are administered in different fashions and frequencies at each of the district's five high schools.

"We haven't given schools directives as to how to teach this," Donausky said. "It varies by each school's need."

The software costs about $500 per school per year, said John Prince, the district's chief financial officer.

The district plans to streamline KeyTrain curriculum in the future, Donausky said, but "we aren't quite there yet."

Bob Ray, a spokesman for the Illinois Educational Association, the umbrella organization for teachers unions throughout the state, said to his knowledge, the Larkin teachers grievance is the first KeyTrain grievance to be filed in Illinois.

Maine Township High School District 207, a Des Plaines/Park Ridge area district that uses the training program, has not experienced any problems so far, Assistant Superintendent Ken Wallace said.

Unlike U-46, high schools in District 207 have not "pegged a specific class and said everybody's going to go do KeyTrain at a certain time," Wallace said.

"We haven't felt we had enough information to be convinced KeyTrain would be a prescription that every kid needed," he said.

John Braglia, union president in Palatine-Schaumburg District 211, said no KeyTrain grievances have been filed in District 211, but "that doesn't mean that problems don't exist."

KeyTrain problems, Braglia suggested, are driven by the No Child Left Behind sanctions schools face if they do not make adequate yearly progress on state tests.

Only 45.2 percent of Elgin Area School District U-46 juniors met or exceeded state standards on the state test last year, compared to 52.6 percent of juniors across the state.

Schools face No Child Left Behind sanctions if scores do not improve.

"I have about had it with No Child Left Behind and testing kids until their eyes bleed," Braglia said. "I know here in 211 our central administration, our school principals, we're just trying to … avoid restructuring."

Gearing up to avoid sanctions, Davis said, "is not the best way to motivate schools."