Indian Prairie test scores improve

[wvhsparent]

Indian Prairie test scores improve
(http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/224319,6_1_NA23_204BOARD_S1.article)

January 23, 2007

By Tim Waldorf staff writer

Indian Prairie School District 204's 2006 ISAT scores show substantial gains in reading and math achievement across all grades and demographic groups.

Nevertheless, one school still failed to make "adequate yearly progress" toward the goals of federal No Child Left Behind legislation.

Kathy Duncan, assistant superintendent of instructional services, attributed the overall increase in test scores to the ways in which individual schools have examined their instructional days looking for ways to make the most of the time students spend with their teachers.

"How can we best make sure we're supporting all of the kids in our building and meeting these needs? How can we use our staff differently? How can we make sure we are using every minute that we have the students in our buildings to address their individual and collective needs?" she said. "And what we're seeing, as you can see from the test scores, is we're seeing significant success across the board."

At the elementary level, schools' reading scores improved between 1 and 14 percentage points, and their math scores improved between 1 and 15 percentage points. And at the middle school level, schools' reading scores improved between 1 and 4 percentage points, while their math scores improved between 12 and 25 percentage points. High school scores have yet to be finalized by the state, but preliminary data indicates slight increases in both reading and math achievement.

An ethnic breakdown of three years of scores shows that Asian, black, Hispanic, white and multiracial students have improved in reading and math, with the greatest stride made in math by black and Hispanic students. In 2004, 54 percent of District 204's black students and 66 percent of its Hispanic students were meeting or exceeding the state's math standards. Now, 69 percent and 81 percent, respectively, are doing so.

"We're attributing that to an increased awareness and sensitivity to kids' needs of different backgrounds and ethnicities," said Patrick Nolten, director of assessment, research and evaluation.


Working to meet AYP

The goal of NCLB legislation is for every student to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. Until then, schools must make "adequate yearly progress (AYP)" toward that goal.
To make AYP in 2006 - the fourth year in which it has been measured - schools had to see that at least 47.5 percent of their student bodies, as well as 47.5 percent each of their qualifying subgroups, met or exceeded state reading and math standards as measured by the Illinois Standards Achievement Test. The subgroups are "white," "black," "Hispanic," "Asian/Pacific Islander" and "Native American"; as well as students with limited English proficiency; students with disabilities who qualify for individual education plans; and students who are economically disadvantaged.

Students' scores can count toward more than one subgroup, but each subgroup must include 45 students in order to count toward a school's AYP efforts.

If one subgroup at a school fails to make AYP, the entire school fails to make AYP.

This year, Georgetown Elementary School's students with disabilities failed to make AYP in math by two-tenths of a percent, which amounts to one student missing one or two questions, Nolten said.

Still Middle School's students with disabilities failed to make AYP last year, as did those at Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley high schools. Results aren't final for the high schools, but all of Still's students made AYP this year, including those with disabilities.

Contact Tim Waldorf at [e-mail] or 630-416-5270.

[wvhsparent]

Dist. 204 schools increasingly make the grade
Only one elementary school fails to meet No Child Left Behind standards
By Sara Hooker
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Tuesday, January 23, 2007

All but one of Indian Prairie’s 21 elementary schools and six middle schools received passing grades based on the 2006 No Child Left Behind requirements, district officials announced Monday.

District 204 officials presented board members with scores from the standardized tests taken last spring and said they’re pleased with improvements made district-wide.

The scores reflect achievement of about 15,000 of the district’s nearly 30,000 children from portions of Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield.

Only Georgetown Elementary in Aurora did not meet standards. One subgroup of students with disabilities within the area of reading missed passing by two-tenths of a point, said Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Services Kathy Duncan.

“That’s a heartbreaker. Georgetown, as well as other schools, have been diligently looking at what their day looks like,” Duncan said. “What we’re seeing is significant success across the board.”

Those successes include a 1 percentage point to 14-point increase in elementary reading and a 1- to 15-point increase in elementary math scores.

At the middle school level, reading achievement improved 1 percentage point to 4 points and math achievement improved 12 to 25 percentage points.

Scores are typically released in the fall, but the state had problems with scoring, printing and delivery. Districts are still waiting to hear the final results for its two high schools.

To fulfill federal guidelines set by No Child Left Behind, at least 47.5 percent of students must meet or exceed standards. That threshold goes up to 55 percent for the 2007 tests.

Officials attribute drastic improvements to early interventions in the elementary schools, including the district’s pilot program, the dashboard concept.

“Some of the scores we see here are from the practice of us being keenly aware of how each student is doing,” Duncan said.

The dashboard concept tests students several times a year in short probes of reading, math and writing comprehension to assess in a timelier basis whether they are succeeding, struggling or failing.

Patrick Nolten, the district’s director of research, assessment and evaluation, said they’re particularly proud of the gains blacks and Hispanics made in the past year. Hispanic math test scores jumped more than 20 percentage points, to 80.7 percent of students meeting or exceeding. Math scores for blacks increased from 51.4 percent to 68.7 percent.

“You can see that we do have a gap that exists between several of our minority groups and the white majority,” Superintendent Howard Crouse said. “While we are focused on increasing achievement for every student, we’re also focused on narrowing that gap between our minority achievement and our majority.”

There’s always room for improvement, officials say.

“We’re very happy with where we are. We’re not under the impression that we can just sit back,” Duncan said. “We want to continue growth for all our subgroups in all our buildings.”

[bob]

Good job, kids ,parents, teachers and even the admins. There is always room for improvement.

[proschool]

I am happy to see the tests scores improve


I think it took the stae of Illinois way too long to publish the results of the tests.

The studenst that wil show deficiencies have lost valuable time in addressing the problems. I stii wants to know how my daughter did in her third grade test and she is in the second half of the fourth grade.

My fear is that next year parents will just keep their kids home from school when the tests are taken.

As I understand it, if kids don't show up for the tests the school will fail to make adequate yearly progress.

[kae]

Does anyone know what the criteria is for the "No Child Left Behind" standard or requirement? I guess I'm pretty ignorant of this new federal requirement, but I thought that No Child meant at least Near-Zero children were left behind.

From the article, I understand that for this year NCLB requires 47.5% of the students to meet or exceed "standards". What does that mean? It implies that 52.5% of the students don't meet this "standard". That's pretty high for a "failure rate".

The numbers reported show that our district is improving, but do they ever say where they stand in this 47.5% meet or exceed vs. the 52.5% doesn't meet/fails requirement?

[gatordog]

kae, the short answer is the goal is for "no child to be left behind" by 2013-14 school year. See below explaination (from 303 website).

I am interested in the second paragraph. What if for instance, WVHS fails to meet AYP two years in a row. Can a parent ask for their child to be transferred to a school that does make AYP, for instance NV?

Even if one subgroup fails to meet AYP...the whole school is classed as "failure to met AYP". In 2005, the WVHS report card show blacks, students with disabilities, and economically disadvanged subgroups failing AYP. Thus giving the whole school a failing mark. In 2005 Georgetown did indeed meet AYP.

For the district overall, the wide success in nearly all schools making AYP is HUGE. Seems to me this NCLB "failure to meet AYP" could be a big problem...Heaven forbid any of our HS's or MS's get fail mark two-in-a-row.


No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB Act)

The federal government passed the NCLB Act in 2001 and President Bush signed it into law in January 2002. NCLB requires local school districts that receive federal Title I funds to measure and communicate about their students’ progress in meeting state-defined learning objectives. NCLB requires that 100 percent of students be “proficient” in reading and mathematics by the 2013-14 school year, but lets individual states set the actual timetable for that improvement.

NCLB also gives parents more flexibility in responding to the performance of their children’s schools. For example, parents can ask that their children be transferred to other schools meeting performance standards if their own school hasn’t made adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years.

The Major Goals of NCLB are:

* All students are assessed and all schools are accountable for improved student learning and reduction of achievement gaps in student subgroups.
* By 2013-14, all students will be proficient or better in reading and math.
* By 2013-14, all Limited English Proficient (LEP) students will be proficient in English and in reading and math.
* By 2005-06, all students will be instructed by highly qualified teachers and instructional aides.
* All students are educated in safe and drug-free learning environments.
* All students will graduate from high school.

Q. What is “adequate yearly progress” (AYP)?
A. Adequate yearly progress is each state’s measure of yearly progress made toward achieving state academic standards.

Q. Who must make AYP?
A. AYP is the minimum level of improvement that states, school districts, and students all must achieve annually. Individual states set annual requirements for the percentage of their students who must meet and exceed state learning standards.

Q. How are schools and students measured for AYP?
A. In Illinois, elementary students take the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades to determine their progress toward meeting state learning standards. High school juniors take the Prairie State Achievement Exam. Other examinations may be used under certain circumstances. But all students in those grades must be assessed to measure their academic performance and progress.

A certain percentage of all students must make AYP annually. But NCLB also requires that students in each of eight subgroups with 45 or more students must also make AYP each year. If even one of those subgroups does not make AYP, then the entire school is considered to have not made AYP. If any subgroup has less than 45 students, then its scores are not reported.

The subgroups are: White, Black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American students; limited English proficient students; students with disabilities; and economically disadvantaged students.

Q. What conditions must be met for a school to make AYP?
A. There are three:

1) At least 95 percent of all students AND all students in each subgroup must be tested for reading and mathematics;

2) The state-designated percentage of all students must meet/exceed state standards for reading and mathematics, and the state-designated percentage of students among all subgroups with 45 or more students must meet/exceed state standards for reading and mathematics (the percentages increase annually);

3) Non-high schools must have an attendance rate of at least 88 percent, and high schools must have a graduation rate of at least 68 percent.

Q. Are the results of those tests public? Does the school district have to identify the groups that do not make AYP?
A. Yes. By law every school district with a website must post its state report cards on its website. The state report card includes AYP information. All local school districts also must publicly present their state report cards at a school board meeting by October 31 of each year, and send state report cards home to parents.

Q. What happens if a school does not make AYP for two or more consecutive years?
A. Depending on the circumstances, parents may have several options for their children, including asking that their child be transferred to another school that is making AYP either within the home district or from a neighboring district, if the neighboring district is willing to take those students. Every effort will be made to accommodate parents’ requests. But the home district has the final authority to decide who may be transferred.

Q. Do parents have to move their children to another school?
A. No. School choice is only an option. Local school districts must offer the option of school choice, but parents do not have to move their children if they feel their child’s school is meeting their child’s needs.

Q. Does any of this affect or reflect upon my child?
A. Not necessarily. Under NCLB, local school districts must offer all children the option of transferring to another school if their school has not made AYP for two consecutive years – even if only a small group of students from that school actually did not make AYP.

[proschool]

Anyone can request that their child attend NV. If there is room and you live in the district you can go there if you provide your own transportation.

As I understand it, If you are in school that is not making progress then you can go to a private school or a public school in another district and have the federal dolllars follow you to that school.

The catch is that the other school district does not have to take you. For example if east aurora High School fails to make AYP and the average high school students gets $1,500 in Fereral support, then IPSD204 can choose to take kids from East Aurora and the $1,500 per kid in federal money.

Am I right about this?

[jenrik2714]

proschool said:

Anyone can request that their child attend NV. If there is room and you live in the district you can go there if you provide your own transportation.

As I understand it, If you are in school that is not making progress then you can go to a private school or a public school in another district and have the federal dolllars follow you to that school.

The catch is that the other school district does not have to take you. For example if east aurora High School fails to make AYP and the average high school students gets $1,500 in Fereral support, then IPSD204 can choose to take kids from East Aurora and the $1,500 per kid in federal money.

Am I right about this?

I requested my child attend Granger instead of Still. I just had to write a letter to the district explaining why I wanted her to attend Granger over Still. I know another person who did the same thing in the area. However, since I live in WVHS attendance area, I was only allowed to pick a MS that fed into WVHS

[proschool]

I requested my child attend Granger instead of Still. I just had to write a letter to the district explaining why I wanted her to attend Granger over Still. I know another person who did the same thing in the area. However, since I live in WVHS attendance area, I was only allowed to pick a MS that fed into WVHS

I think that if your the parent you have a right to request what you think is best. For all they knew you could have been planning to move into the NV attendance area of out of the district before high school.

[gatordog]

proschool said:

Anyone can request that their child attend NV. If there is room and you live in the district you can go there if you provide your own transportation.

As I understand it, If you are in school that is not making progress then you can go to a private school or a public school in another district and have the federal dolllars follow you to that school.

The catch is that the other school district does not have to take you. For example if east aurora High School fails to make AYP and the average high school students gets $1,500 in Fereral support, then IPSD204 can choose to take kids from East Aurora and the $1,500 per kid in federal money.

Am I right about this?

The summary above says "...if the neighboring district is willing to take those students. Every effort will be made to accommodate parents’ requests."

These are not in agreement, are they? Does the neighboring district have some burden of proof to meet, to explain why they cant be accepted? What if a private school is unavailable or unaffordable? Can the neighboring district "arbitrarily" say no, thereby "leaving a child behind" in a failing school? I bet there is some case law that will be developed over the years, if NCLB is renewed. A place such as 131 E Aurora (very bad district) bordering on 204 (very good) could be a place where some precedents are set.

[gatordog]

jenrik2714 said:

proschool said:

Anyone can request that their child attend NV.....

....However, since I live in WVHS attendance area, I was only allowed to pick a MS that fed into WVHS

jenrik's experience indicates that within 204, moving to a diff HS is not allowed. What if a kid was 6-10 and could handle a basketball....you wouldnt want the various coaches recruiting, nor the student bargaining for the best treatment. Such foolishness cannot be allowed.

A student is playing basketball this year at WV, after playing last year at NV. I assume the parents moved. Is this right?

Also, I speculate that being able to move within MS's may be more difficult in the near future when they are virtually all operating at capacity. There may be disagreements over optimal vs max capacity, on whether moves would be allowed.

[jenrik2714]

I couldn't have my daughter go to Scullen or Gregory like I wanted to, they told me I couldn't because my area feeds into WV. It would of been cool if I have one child go to WV and one go to NV just to really see what both schools are like.

[proschool]

Can the neighboring district "arbitrarily" say no, thereby "leaving a child behind" in a failing school?

I would say yes otherwise any failing neighboring school district could send all of its students into IPSD 204 and we would have to tkae the burden of most of the expense.

On the flipside if one of our schools fail to make AYP wher will they go? There are not many federal dollars attached to our students.

[gatordog]

I think proschool's second case is easier for NCLB to address...it sounds to me that a student can request to move to a passing school within home district, if space is there. The money issue would be more straightforward. Even though 204 current policy forbids transfering to diff HS outside of your boundaries, NCLB would be a very strong argument to hit the district with, I bet.

The first case, from another school district, I wonder how much teeth the NCLB law has to imposed this upon a school district? We all as good Illinois citizens should be concerned with education improvement state-wide. But for our particular case, 204 might have a special interest in getting the state to find ways to get more money to and improve failing school districts.

[wvhsparent]

I may be reading too much in this...but was not the intent of NCLB and moving to a diff school the incentive being placed on the failing school to clean up it's act?

The whole thing seems like a good idea...too bad noone seems willing (FEDS and State) to properly fund it so it can succeed