School district report cards are out in the state of Illinois and they show many local schools are not making adequate yearly progress as defined by the government.
- School district report cards are out in the state of Illinois and they show many local schools are not making adequate yearly progress as defined by the government.
Despite lower test scores, many students are still showing improvement.
The goal was to have 85 percent of students meet or exceed Adequate Yearly Progress this year under the 'No Child LeftBehind Act.' AYP is a federal benchmark based on annual standardized test scores and this year many districts failed.
District 100 Superintendent Dr. Michael Houselog said, "Students continue to have lower scores, in fact this year statewide was the lowest that they've ever been."
| Adequate yearly progress Stateline | ||
| Meet/Exceed | Made AYP | |
| Rockford: | 62.7% | No |
| Hononegah: | 67.1% | No |
| Harlem: | 75.4% | No |
| Belvidere: | 77.5% | No |
Out of the above listed four local school districts District 205 did the worst with about 63 percent meeting or exceeding in all subjects. Belvidere did the best with more than 77 percent meeting or exceeding.
Houselog said, "When you look at it as a whole, we come out extremely average and that's troubling because we think we should be better than average. Many educators say students shouldn't be judged on test scores alone and that instead their growth should be measured.”
Accountability Director for District 205 Dan Woestman said, "Every student needs to learn, grow, the current AYP model does not allow us to recognize how students are learning and what type of value the school district adds to every student."
School Progress in Math District 205
2004
| 2011 | Change | ||
| Flinn Middle School: | 31.1% | 81.5% | 50.4% |
| Lincoln Middle School: | 29.6% | 73.1% | 43.5% |
If we look at progress in District 205 many schools have made it. Even though Flinn middle school didn't make AYP it has seen a more than 50 percent increase in math scores since 2004. Lincoln Middle School also saw a jump of nearly 44 percent.
Houselog said, “I see a lot of good that's come from No Child Left Behind; the one thing that I've seen is that we have to be more accountable, we have to have higher standards, we have to have higher expectations for students."
High school students seem to be doing worse on AYP. For example in District 205 on average all four high schools saw decreases in test scores. School leaders say that's because students going into high school may not be prepared. Leaders say that's because it's an entirely different test than what elementary schools are tested.
However on the positive side, low-income graduation rates increased.
The study also shows that Hispanic student enrollment is now greater than black student enrollment and soon, more than 50 percent of students enrolled in Illinois schools will be minority students
Even though most schools aren't meeting federal standards many are showing growth. That’s why Illinois is actually applying for a waiver from 'No Child Left Behind' to develop its own system that measures progress. These tests are a snapshot on how students are doing at the moment.
Link to test scores: http://iirc.niu.edu/Default.aspx
Meanwhile, Freeport schools aren't happy with their results. School leaders have found that the district curriculum isn't being taught in a consistent manner and teachers aren't meeting the needs of students who are struggling. To curb those problems the district plans to make sure there's more accountability and use more of the tried and true teaching techniques.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks For Visiting www.resultshub.net