Post by WeNeed3 on Oct 29, 2010 8:30:36 GMT -5
Fewer Fox Valley Schools Meet the Mark
beaconnews.suntimes.com/news/schools/2145626-418/2010-2009-2008-aurora-test.htm
Five local school districts had high school test scores below the state average this year, and more than half of Illinois schools failed to meet rising test standards.
The Illinois State Board of Education made its yearly school report cards public today, showing which schools were failing and which were making progress on test scores based on state standards.
The report cards use scores from the Illinois Standards Achievement Test taken by elementary school students and the Prairie State Achievement Exam taken by 11th-graders to determine if schools are meeting goals set by the federal No Child Left Behind program.
Nine local high schools — Batavia, West Aurora, Geneva, Kaneland, St. Charles North, St. Charles East, Yorkville, Oswego and Oswego East — all saw scores drop from last year.
West Aurora, East Aurora, Plano, Yorkville and Oswego East had Prairie State Exam scores below the state average, which remained unchanged since last year at 53 percent of students meeting grade level.
East Aurora scored the lowest on the PSAE in the region, at 25.9 percent meeting grade level. The highest scoring high school was St. Charles North at 78.9 percent of students meeting grade level standards.
In 2009 it was the same — East Aurora scored lowest at 24.4, St. Charles North scored highest at 81.5.
This is the third year since the state stopped letting students still learning English take the simple-English IMAGE test instead of the PSAE or ISAT.
Of 12 local school districts, only one district — Somonauk — made the Adequate Yearly Progress standard as defined by No Child Left Behind. This standard means that students’ scores hit the improvement targets set by the federal legislation.
Only two school districts made AYP last year when the standard was 70 percent — Kaneland and Geneva.
Watch list
The East Aurora School District has landed on the state’s academic watch list for the seventh year, and while a few individual East Aurora schools made Average Yearly Progress, no grade composite (or average) score hit the 77.5 percent AYP target.
“Academic improvement is a priority for the East Aurora district,” spokesman Clayton Muhammad said of scores Thursday. “It’s undoubtedly a concern.”
Muhammad said the district will place an additional emphasis on improving reading skills this year, with the help of support interventionists, alternative reading programs and additional professional development.
Like districts around the country, Muhammad said that East Aurora is focused on closing the achievement gap.
“Reading is our continuous focus — whether it’s the science, math, reading portion of the test, reading is the foundation that a student needs to do well on the test,” he said.
The West Aurora School District landed on the state’s academic watch list for the first year today, but district spokesman Mike Chapin said that the district has been working on a plan to improve student learning.
“We’ve had some successes and we have some hurdles, and we’re identifying that right now,” Chapin said.
On Monday, the West Aurora School Board will be considering possible actions, including extending the school day and extending kindergarten to a full day next year. West Aurora lengthened its school day two years ago.
“Principals are saying ‘we could use even more time’ to teach core subjects,” Chapin said.
Chapin said that one of those hurdles is that about half of the students that start in the district are below grade standard when they enroll in kindergarten.
“Unfortunately, all kids don’t have the opportunity for preschool,” Chapin said. “These children are showing up not ready, and it means we have a lot of work to do with them.”
There are about 1,200 in-district students who need preschool, but the state provides for only about 250 seats. Preschool funding has continued to be reduced over the last two years.
All of the district’s plans to increase student learning are contingent on available funding, Chapin said, and thus contingent on the state’s ability to pay its bills to local school districts.
Language a barrier
Muhammad said the East Aurora district has faced an added challenge since Illinois switched from a limited-English IMAGE test to an all-English test three years ago.
The switch meant that all students, regardless of their ability to understand English, were required to test in English.
About 35 percent of East Aurora’s students tested were limited English proficient students and about 83 percent of its students are Hispanic.
“The test is not testing those students’ intelligence,” Muhammad said.
East Aurora hasn’t figured out yet how to handle the challenge of helping non-native English speakers understand a test in English, Muhammad said.
It’s a problem that other school districts will have to consider as demographics change, Muhammad said.
Areas of improvement
East Aurora High School, the high schools in the Indian Prairie School District, Newark High, Plano High and Somonauk High all showed improved composite PSAE scores.
Two schools made big jumps — Somonauk High School scored 53.9 on the composite PSAE, up from its 2008-2009 score of 40.8, and Newark High School posted a composite PSAE score of 63.8 for 2009-2010, up from 40.2 in 2008-2009.
Officials from both school districts were unavailable to comment on Thursday.
Yorkville, West Aurora, Sandwich, Somonauk, Oswego, Kaneland and Indian Prairie schools all improved their third-grade composite reading scores.
Batavia, Geneva, Indian Prairie, Kaneland, St. Charles, Newark, Yorkville, Oswego, Sandwich and Somonauk all scored above the 77.5 percent AYP on the composite ISAT test, which tests third- through eighth-grade students. Geneva had the highest district composite ISAT score at 94.3 percent of students meeting standards.
The big picture
More than half of Illinois schools, including top-performing state schools like New Trier High School, failed to meet the state’s 77.5 percent AYP standard this year.
Nine out of 10 high schools missed reading and math AYP standards, which rose to 77.5 percent from last year’s standard of 70 percent, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
About 2,000 schools fell short of the state’s standard.
“Overall, our statewide averages continue to increase incrementally or hold steady,” said Illinois School Superintendent Christopher Koch.
By 2012, 100 percent of students are expected to achieve grade standards, according to No Child Left Behind. Next year, 85 percent of students must test at grade level.
The fairness factor
Deborah Stevens, an associate professor in education at Aurora University, said that while the intent of No Child Left Behind is positive, the expectations — especially 100 percent of students proficient by 2012, aren’t practical.
“I do believe that all children can learn, but all children don’t learn the same way. We can’t adopt a one-size-fits-all test, and that’s what NCLB is,” she said.
Specifically, the PSAE and ISAT tests hold students who have a learning disability, behavior disability, economic disadvantage, developmental disability and a limited English proficient student at the same standard as a mainstream student, Stevens said.
“You’ve certainly got to have standards, but I also have concerns that teachers are teaching to a test, not for students to learn,” Stevens said. “School districts are trying so hard to meet the needs of the community while meeting the standards.”
Muhammad said that the East Aurora School District takes Average Yearly Progress into consideration because it is the basis of No Child Left Behind.
“We have to consider AYP — we can’t just rid ourself of the norm,” Muhammad said. “But whatever we personally think about it, it’s still a benchmark.”
Chapin said that Illinois’ standardizes testing procedure and NCLB are imperfect.
“Every educator in the state will tell you the test is imperfect — so how are parents supposed to judge scores when the test isn’t perfect?” Chapin said. “There’s a number of problems with AYP, but what residents, taxpayers and schools should demand is that all of our students grow year to year.”
Stevens said that standardized tests are not the only indicator of a school or student’s improvement.
“Standardized tests are only a snapshot,” she said.
beaconnews.suntimes.com/news/schools/2145626-418/2010-2009-2008-aurora-test.htm
Five local school districts had high school test scores below the state average this year, and more than half of Illinois schools failed to meet rising test standards.
The Illinois State Board of Education made its yearly school report cards public today, showing which schools were failing and which were making progress on test scores based on state standards.
The report cards use scores from the Illinois Standards Achievement Test taken by elementary school students and the Prairie State Achievement Exam taken by 11th-graders to determine if schools are meeting goals set by the federal No Child Left Behind program.
Nine local high schools — Batavia, West Aurora, Geneva, Kaneland, St. Charles North, St. Charles East, Yorkville, Oswego and Oswego East — all saw scores drop from last year.
West Aurora, East Aurora, Plano, Yorkville and Oswego East had Prairie State Exam scores below the state average, which remained unchanged since last year at 53 percent of students meeting grade level.
East Aurora scored the lowest on the PSAE in the region, at 25.9 percent meeting grade level. The highest scoring high school was St. Charles North at 78.9 percent of students meeting grade level standards.
In 2009 it was the same — East Aurora scored lowest at 24.4, St. Charles North scored highest at 81.5.
This is the third year since the state stopped letting students still learning English take the simple-English IMAGE test instead of the PSAE or ISAT.
Of 12 local school districts, only one district — Somonauk — made the Adequate Yearly Progress standard as defined by No Child Left Behind. This standard means that students’ scores hit the improvement targets set by the federal legislation.
Only two school districts made AYP last year when the standard was 70 percent — Kaneland and Geneva.
Watch list
The East Aurora School District has landed on the state’s academic watch list for the seventh year, and while a few individual East Aurora schools made Average Yearly Progress, no grade composite (or average) score hit the 77.5 percent AYP target.
“Academic improvement is a priority for the East Aurora district,” spokesman Clayton Muhammad said of scores Thursday. “It’s undoubtedly a concern.”
Muhammad said the district will place an additional emphasis on improving reading skills this year, with the help of support interventionists, alternative reading programs and additional professional development.
Like districts around the country, Muhammad said that East Aurora is focused on closing the achievement gap.
“Reading is our continuous focus — whether it’s the science, math, reading portion of the test, reading is the foundation that a student needs to do well on the test,” he said.
The West Aurora School District landed on the state’s academic watch list for the first year today, but district spokesman Mike Chapin said that the district has been working on a plan to improve student learning.
“We’ve had some successes and we have some hurdles, and we’re identifying that right now,” Chapin said.
On Monday, the West Aurora School Board will be considering possible actions, including extending the school day and extending kindergarten to a full day next year. West Aurora lengthened its school day two years ago.
“Principals are saying ‘we could use even more time’ to teach core subjects,” Chapin said.
Chapin said that one of those hurdles is that about half of the students that start in the district are below grade standard when they enroll in kindergarten.
“Unfortunately, all kids don’t have the opportunity for preschool,” Chapin said. “These children are showing up not ready, and it means we have a lot of work to do with them.”
There are about 1,200 in-district students who need preschool, but the state provides for only about 250 seats. Preschool funding has continued to be reduced over the last two years.
All of the district’s plans to increase student learning are contingent on available funding, Chapin said, and thus contingent on the state’s ability to pay its bills to local school districts.
Language a barrier
Muhammad said the East Aurora district has faced an added challenge since Illinois switched from a limited-English IMAGE test to an all-English test three years ago.
The switch meant that all students, regardless of their ability to understand English, were required to test in English.
About 35 percent of East Aurora’s students tested were limited English proficient students and about 83 percent of its students are Hispanic.
“The test is not testing those students’ intelligence,” Muhammad said.
East Aurora hasn’t figured out yet how to handle the challenge of helping non-native English speakers understand a test in English, Muhammad said.
It’s a problem that other school districts will have to consider as demographics change, Muhammad said.
Areas of improvement
East Aurora High School, the high schools in the Indian Prairie School District, Newark High, Plano High and Somonauk High all showed improved composite PSAE scores.
Two schools made big jumps — Somonauk High School scored 53.9 on the composite PSAE, up from its 2008-2009 score of 40.8, and Newark High School posted a composite PSAE score of 63.8 for 2009-2010, up from 40.2 in 2008-2009.
Officials from both school districts were unavailable to comment on Thursday.
Yorkville, West Aurora, Sandwich, Somonauk, Oswego, Kaneland and Indian Prairie schools all improved their third-grade composite reading scores.
Batavia, Geneva, Indian Prairie, Kaneland, St. Charles, Newark, Yorkville, Oswego, Sandwich and Somonauk all scored above the 77.5 percent AYP on the composite ISAT test, which tests third- through eighth-grade students. Geneva had the highest district composite ISAT score at 94.3 percent of students meeting standards.
The big picture
More than half of Illinois schools, including top-performing state schools like New Trier High School, failed to meet the state’s 77.5 percent AYP standard this year.
Nine out of 10 high schools missed reading and math AYP standards, which rose to 77.5 percent from last year’s standard of 70 percent, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
About 2,000 schools fell short of the state’s standard.
“Overall, our statewide averages continue to increase incrementally or hold steady,” said Illinois School Superintendent Christopher Koch.
By 2012, 100 percent of students are expected to achieve grade standards, according to No Child Left Behind. Next year, 85 percent of students must test at grade level.
The fairness factor
Deborah Stevens, an associate professor in education at Aurora University, said that while the intent of No Child Left Behind is positive, the expectations — especially 100 percent of students proficient by 2012, aren’t practical.
“I do believe that all children can learn, but all children don’t learn the same way. We can’t adopt a one-size-fits-all test, and that’s what NCLB is,” she said.
Specifically, the PSAE and ISAT tests hold students who have a learning disability, behavior disability, economic disadvantage, developmental disability and a limited English proficient student at the same standard as a mainstream student, Stevens said.
“You’ve certainly got to have standards, but I also have concerns that teachers are teaching to a test, not for students to learn,” Stevens said. “School districts are trying so hard to meet the needs of the community while meeting the standards.”
Muhammad said that the East Aurora School District takes Average Yearly Progress into consideration because it is the basis of No Child Left Behind.
“We have to consider AYP — we can’t just rid ourself of the norm,” Muhammad said. “But whatever we personally think about it, it’s still a benchmark.”
Chapin said that Illinois’ standardizes testing procedure and NCLB are imperfect.
“Every educator in the state will tell you the test is imperfect — so how are parents supposed to judge scores when the test isn’t perfect?” Chapin said. “There’s a number of problems with AYP, but what residents, taxpayers and schools should demand is that all of our students grow year to year.”
Stevens said that standardized tests are not the only indicator of a school or student’s improvement.
“Standardized tests are only a snapshot,” she said.