With Illinois school report card results in, youth in the Berwyn and Cicero regions made some gains, but also experienced some striking dips, in test performance.

Overall performance was down during the 2007-08 school year in J.S. Morton High School District 201, which covers Berwyn, Cicero, Stickney, Lyons, McCook and Forest View, compared with overall test results in the 2006-07 school year.

According to District 201’s report card, overall performance on all state tests last year dropped to 25.6 percent of all students meeting or exceeding Illinois Learning Standards. The 2006-07 school year’s results marked 29.7 percent of students meeting or exceeding these standards on all state tests.

State results show 74.8 percent of students were meeting or exceeding state standards last year, compared with 73.8 percent during 2006-07.

District 201 Interim Superintendent Clyde Senters said he plans “to make sure we work at having more of our students meet adequate yearly progress in general. We are trying to raise those numbers. It’s a matter of our staff staying flexible and willing to implement any (programs) we may want to bring forward.”

In District 201, 24.6 percent of students last year met or exceeded state standards on the Prairie State Achievement Exam. During 2006-07 in the district, 28.2 percent of students met or exceeded state standards, according to the district’s report card.

On the Illinois Alternative Assessment test, 90.7 percent of the students who took it last year met or exceeded the standards set for them, compared with 94.2 percent who did so during the 2006-07 school year, according to the report card.

The Illinois State Board of Education said that the 2007-08 school year was the first time that students dubbed “limited English proficient,” or what used to be known as English as a second language, took either the PSAE or Illinois State Assessment Test.

In North Berwyn School District 98, overall performance rose last year on all state tests, the district’s report card shows.

Results show that 70.2 percent of pupils met or exceeded state standards during the 2007-08 school year. That was an increase from the 68.3 percent of pupils who met or exceeded standards during the 2006-07 school year.

Statewide, 74.8 percent of pupils met or exceeded these state standards last year on all tests, a slight increase from the 73.8 percent during the 2006-07 school year.

District 98 pupils gained less than 1 percentage point on ISAT tests year over year, with 70.2 percent of the children meeting or exceeding state standards last year compared with 69.4 percent in 2006-07, the district’s report card shows.

On the Illinois Alternate Assessment test, 69 percent of pupils met or exceeded those standards last year. This was a significant jump from the 42.9 percent who did so in 2006-07, the report card shows.

In South Berwyn School District 100, overall test results were down slightly last year.
According to the district’s report card, 75.8 percent of pupils met or exceeded state standards during the 2007-08 school year. During the 2006-07 school year, 77.3 percent met or exceeded the standards.

Last year on the ISAT, 76 percent of pupils met or exceeded state standards compared with the 78 percent who did so in 2006-07, the report card shows.

Overall IAA test results dipped dramatically between 2006-07 and 2007-08. Last year, only 57.1 percent of pupils met or exceeded those state standards, while 72.9 percent did so the prior year.