Post by WeNeed3 on Nov 9, 2010 15:40:16 GMT -5
OK, am I being overly sensitive but do the headlines of these two articles show a slight Naperville Sun bias toward District 203?
District 203 schools exceed state averages
By Kathy Millen kmillen@stmedianetwork.com Nov 5, 2010 09:15:35PM
District 203 unveiled its state test results during its board of education meeting Monday night.
Overall achievement on all state tests during 2009-10 showed 91.1 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards compared with a state average of 76.4 percent.
At the same time, the district’s per pupil operating expenditure was $11,219, compared with the state average of $11,197.
Pupil-to-staff and pupil-to-adminstrator ratios are also in line with state averages. Teachers with master’s degrees are above average at 69.5 percent compared with the state’s average of 57.4 percent.
Each year the state prepares district-wide and school-specific report cards that contain student achievement scores and other information. A majority of the data in these documents comes from the standardized testing administered during the spring of the previous school year. Following final verification of the data, the reports are released to school districts across the state.
Illinois Standard Achievement Test performance for grades 3 to 8 came in at 94.2 percent of students meeting and exceeding standards. The state average is 80.9 percent.
The ISAT tests reading and mathematics in grades 3, 5 and 8. In grades 4, 6 and 7, the ISAT tests reading, mathematics and science.
Overall, the Prairie State Achievement Examination performance in District 203 was 79.3 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards, compared with a 53 percent state average. The PSAE tests 11th graders in reading, mathematics and science.
The ACT is an inherent part of that test. The overall ACT composite score for the graduating class was 25, compared to the state’s composite of 20.7 and a national composite of 21.
ACT composites for Naperville Central High School came in at 24.8 and Naperville North High School at 25.2.
The adequate yearly progress measurement benchmarks for 2010 are 95 percent for participation, 77.5 percent for achievement, 80 percent for graduation rate and 91 percent attendance rate.
District 203 had 100 percent participation in the testing. Its attendance and graduation rate also came in at 100 percent.
The achievement levels came in at 94 percent, meeting 148 out of 158 categories.
Overall, the district achieved 337 of the 347 AYP indications in 2010, or 97 percent.
Two schools, Jefferson Junior High School and Naperville North High School, did not meet the AYP indicators.
Measurement benchmarks for achievement will be at 85 percent in 2011, 92.5 percent for 2012-13 and 100 percent by 2014.
AYP is based out of the Secondary Education Act originally authorized in the 1960s. Dave Chiszar, director of assessment and quality for the district, said the last reauthorization was No Child Left Behind. That legislation was supposed to be renewed in 2007 but hasn’t been yet.
“It does some good things for accountability but it’s a system that’s essentially going to fall apart when you get to 2014,” he said. “The way they are measuring this really isn’t going to work. In the next couple of years, you’re going to see a lot of changes in state testing to try and come up with a new system to better deal with this concept of accountability and make a better system, a more responsive system. No matter what they do, it’s going to be more difficult but it should be getting better.”
In a release, the district said it continues to operate in a cost-efficient manner providing excellent educational opportunities for all students while maximizing the potential of each student.
In grades 3 through 8, 93.5 percent meet and exceed standards in reading, about the same as last year. Some 95.2 percent meet and exceed standards in math. Last year’s number was 94.8 percent, and 95 percent meet and exceed standards in science. Last year’s score was 95.1 percent.
In the district overall, the percentage that meets and exceeds standards in math and reading is 92.
Grade 11 state testing shows 78 percent exceed and meet standards in reading, 81 percent meet and exceed standards in math and 83 percent meet and exceed standards in science.
Chiszar stressed that although these tests provide valuable information, they don’t show the whole picture.
“This is one state test,” he said. “It is one piece of information. It is information gathered on what we call a macro level. This test, when we aggregate it across students, across buildings, we get a large number that can tell us something about what’s going on. But when you look at it at a student level, it’s going to be less accurate. ... That one piece of information does not tell the story of a student.”
He added that he isn’t saying it’s a bad test, but that accountability is at the school and district level and not focused on the student.”
At Monday’s board meeting, Superintendent Mark Mitrovich said he and Chiszar are going to come back to the board with a presentation because the issue of deciding what student growth is could change as a result of Tuesday’s vote.
“This is a picture of a period in time, and a very small one at that,” Mitrovich said. “We ascribe things to these tests that they were never intended to do. But for lack of anything else, they take on a disproportionate amount of importance.
“That is not to say that schools are abdicating their responsibility in terms of student growth. What we are really doing is defining what that means and actively getting a better handle on what a child knows and what they are able to do.”
Indian Prairie shows gains in test scores
By Jenette Sturges jsturges@stmedianetwork.com
Nov 5, 2010 09:15:43PM
If test scores are indications of achievement, things are looking up for most of Indian Prairie School District 204’s students and educators.
ACT scores among the district’s high school juniors are up 0.1 points in a year when the Illinois average dropped by that much. District-wide, 93.3 percent of students are meeting or exceeding state standards on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, up from 92.4 percent last year.
But black, Hispanic, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities continue to experience difficulties in making adequate yearly progress.
Members of the school board acknowledged that fact at the board’s meeting Monday night, but also pointed to a shrinking gap in those disparities.
In particular, the racial gap shrunk on mathematics scores. The proportion of students meeting or exceeding standards in math rose for all racial groups across the district, but rose more dramatically, by a percentage point or more, for black and Hispanic students.
The biggest disparity in scores affected students with disabilities.
Of the four middle schools in the district that failed to make adequate yearly progress, every one — Crone, Fischer, Granger and Gregory — fell short when it came to students with disabilities.
Adequate yearly progress is a measurement established by No Child Left Behind that establishes benchmarks for year over year improvement, with a goal of 100 percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards by the 2013-14 school year.
“Obviously, we acknowledge that’s an area of need,” said Patrick Nolten, the district’s director of assessment, research and evaluation. “We look at this data with regard to meeting all students’ needs regardless of their background.”
At the Dec. 6 meeting, the school board will be looking at a district-wide improvement plan for special education needs and administrators from Waubonsie Valley High School will present its improvement plan for approval.
“We’re not just sitting back and saying students with disabilities have a hard time with reading and math,” said board member Dawn DeSart. “We’re actually being proactive in seeking out advice from the experts on how we can do better.”
Also returning to the board in December will be a discussion on the elimination of class rank for high school students, with board members appearing to lean in favor of Latin designations over rankings Monday night.
“We’ve concluded (ranking) is a bad thing for our kids,” said board member Mark Metzger, arguing that top students were being punished because the district is so competitive. “It would be wrong or immoral to leave this in place just because a couple kids are losing their shots at being valedictorian or salutatorian.”
The school board also approved its tentative tax levy for the next fiscal year, which will be finalized at the Dec. 6 board meeting. The district plans to levy approximately $222.4 million.
District 203 schools exceed state averages
By Kathy Millen kmillen@stmedianetwork.com Nov 5, 2010 09:15:35PM
District 203 unveiled its state test results during its board of education meeting Monday night.
Overall achievement on all state tests during 2009-10 showed 91.1 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards compared with a state average of 76.4 percent.
At the same time, the district’s per pupil operating expenditure was $11,219, compared with the state average of $11,197.
Pupil-to-staff and pupil-to-adminstrator ratios are also in line with state averages. Teachers with master’s degrees are above average at 69.5 percent compared with the state’s average of 57.4 percent.
Each year the state prepares district-wide and school-specific report cards that contain student achievement scores and other information. A majority of the data in these documents comes from the standardized testing administered during the spring of the previous school year. Following final verification of the data, the reports are released to school districts across the state.
Illinois Standard Achievement Test performance for grades 3 to 8 came in at 94.2 percent of students meeting and exceeding standards. The state average is 80.9 percent.
The ISAT tests reading and mathematics in grades 3, 5 and 8. In grades 4, 6 and 7, the ISAT tests reading, mathematics and science.
Overall, the Prairie State Achievement Examination performance in District 203 was 79.3 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards, compared with a 53 percent state average. The PSAE tests 11th graders in reading, mathematics and science.
The ACT is an inherent part of that test. The overall ACT composite score for the graduating class was 25, compared to the state’s composite of 20.7 and a national composite of 21.
ACT composites for Naperville Central High School came in at 24.8 and Naperville North High School at 25.2.
The adequate yearly progress measurement benchmarks for 2010 are 95 percent for participation, 77.5 percent for achievement, 80 percent for graduation rate and 91 percent attendance rate.
District 203 had 100 percent participation in the testing. Its attendance and graduation rate also came in at 100 percent.
The achievement levels came in at 94 percent, meeting 148 out of 158 categories.
Overall, the district achieved 337 of the 347 AYP indications in 2010, or 97 percent.
Two schools, Jefferson Junior High School and Naperville North High School, did not meet the AYP indicators.
Measurement benchmarks for achievement will be at 85 percent in 2011, 92.5 percent for 2012-13 and 100 percent by 2014.
AYP is based out of the Secondary Education Act originally authorized in the 1960s. Dave Chiszar, director of assessment and quality for the district, said the last reauthorization was No Child Left Behind. That legislation was supposed to be renewed in 2007 but hasn’t been yet.
“It does some good things for accountability but it’s a system that’s essentially going to fall apart when you get to 2014,” he said. “The way they are measuring this really isn’t going to work. In the next couple of years, you’re going to see a lot of changes in state testing to try and come up with a new system to better deal with this concept of accountability and make a better system, a more responsive system. No matter what they do, it’s going to be more difficult but it should be getting better.”
In a release, the district said it continues to operate in a cost-efficient manner providing excellent educational opportunities for all students while maximizing the potential of each student.
In grades 3 through 8, 93.5 percent meet and exceed standards in reading, about the same as last year. Some 95.2 percent meet and exceed standards in math. Last year’s number was 94.8 percent, and 95 percent meet and exceed standards in science. Last year’s score was 95.1 percent.
In the district overall, the percentage that meets and exceeds standards in math and reading is 92.
Grade 11 state testing shows 78 percent exceed and meet standards in reading, 81 percent meet and exceed standards in math and 83 percent meet and exceed standards in science.
Chiszar stressed that although these tests provide valuable information, they don’t show the whole picture.
“This is one state test,” he said. “It is one piece of information. It is information gathered on what we call a macro level. This test, when we aggregate it across students, across buildings, we get a large number that can tell us something about what’s going on. But when you look at it at a student level, it’s going to be less accurate. ... That one piece of information does not tell the story of a student.”
He added that he isn’t saying it’s a bad test, but that accountability is at the school and district level and not focused on the student.”
At Monday’s board meeting, Superintendent Mark Mitrovich said he and Chiszar are going to come back to the board with a presentation because the issue of deciding what student growth is could change as a result of Tuesday’s vote.
“This is a picture of a period in time, and a very small one at that,” Mitrovich said. “We ascribe things to these tests that they were never intended to do. But for lack of anything else, they take on a disproportionate amount of importance.
“That is not to say that schools are abdicating their responsibility in terms of student growth. What we are really doing is defining what that means and actively getting a better handle on what a child knows and what they are able to do.”
Indian Prairie shows gains in test scores
By Jenette Sturges jsturges@stmedianetwork.com
Nov 5, 2010 09:15:43PM
If test scores are indications of achievement, things are looking up for most of Indian Prairie School District 204’s students and educators.
ACT scores among the district’s high school juniors are up 0.1 points in a year when the Illinois average dropped by that much. District-wide, 93.3 percent of students are meeting or exceeding state standards on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, up from 92.4 percent last year.
But black, Hispanic, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities continue to experience difficulties in making adequate yearly progress.
Members of the school board acknowledged that fact at the board’s meeting Monday night, but also pointed to a shrinking gap in those disparities.
In particular, the racial gap shrunk on mathematics scores. The proportion of students meeting or exceeding standards in math rose for all racial groups across the district, but rose more dramatically, by a percentage point or more, for black and Hispanic students.
The biggest disparity in scores affected students with disabilities.
Of the four middle schools in the district that failed to make adequate yearly progress, every one — Crone, Fischer, Granger and Gregory — fell short when it came to students with disabilities.
Adequate yearly progress is a measurement established by No Child Left Behind that establishes benchmarks for year over year improvement, with a goal of 100 percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards by the 2013-14 school year.
“Obviously, we acknowledge that’s an area of need,” said Patrick Nolten, the district’s director of assessment, research and evaluation. “We look at this data with regard to meeting all students’ needs regardless of their background.”
At the Dec. 6 meeting, the school board will be looking at a district-wide improvement plan for special education needs and administrators from Waubonsie Valley High School will present its improvement plan for approval.
“We’re not just sitting back and saying students with disabilities have a hard time with reading and math,” said board member Dawn DeSart. “We’re actually being proactive in seeking out advice from the experts on how we can do better.”
Also returning to the board in December will be a discussion on the elimination of class rank for high school students, with board members appearing to lean in favor of Latin designations over rankings Monday night.
“We’ve concluded (ranking) is a bad thing for our kids,” said board member Mark Metzger, arguing that top students were being punished because the district is so competitive. “It would be wrong or immoral to leave this in place just because a couple kids are losing their shots at being valedictorian or salutatorian.”
The school board also approved its tentative tax levy for the next fiscal year, which will be finalized at the Dec. 6 board meeting. The district plans to levy approximately $222.4 million.