U-46 gets to the 'middle' of No Child Left Behind

Dozens of Elgin Area School District U-46 parents gathered at Elgin High School Thursday to hear about the plight of the average student.

District data consultant Ed DeYoung gave a Citizens Advisory Committee presentation on No Child Left Behind and the reality of the "middle kids."

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, administered locally by the Illinois Board of Education, school funding is largely determined by students' scores on the Prairie State Achievement Exam and the Illinois State Achievement Test.

The law requires that subgroups within a school meet adequate yearly progress, or AYP, standards which rise each year.

"For a school that has not made adequate yearly progress, the 'average' students are the students essential to success," DeYoung said.

The vast majority of students who have met state standards demonstrate continued learning and continue to meet state standards.

Using district data, DeYoung showed the percentage of students who met or exceeded state standards on the reading portion of the Illinois State Achievement Test in 2006 and continued on that level in 2007.

For example, he said 92 percent of students continued to meet state standards from grade 3 to grade 4, and 90 percent of those students also met standards from grades 5 to 6.

"Kids move from proficient to proficient," DeYoung said. "If we get those kids reading at grade level by third grade, we're doing a good job of keeping them there all the way to eighth grade."

Definitions of average are different, DeYoung said, explaining various perspectives of looking at the average performing child.

Tests like the Illinois State Achievement Test, the Prairie State Achievement Exam, and the district's own Measure of Academic Progress test each offer a limited perspective, he said.

What is measured as "proficient" on the Prairie State Achievement Exam is dramatically different than the measure of proficiency for a seventh- or eighth-grader taking the Illinois State Achievement Test.

"The level of rigor on the PSAE is much higher than it is on the ISAT," he said.

Like discrepancies in testing, achievement strategies cannot solely focus on core program modifications or accelerated learning for students at risk, or tactical interventions for NCLB subgroups, he said.

Instead, comprehensive U-46 strategies are being implemented in an attempt to provide a balanced approach. All three must work together, he said.