As Illinois student performance standards get tougher each year, more schools are falling short of the mark, according to statewide report cards released this week.

While most western suburb schools’ overall tests scores were well above the state requirements, the results show that in many cases low-income students and students with disabilities are below the standard.

The annual report cards track performance for the federal No Child Left Behind Act. This year’s reports for the roughly 4,000 schools and 869 districts in Illinois were released Friday, Oct. 30.

Of the roughly 600 schools in suburban Cook County, 216 did not make adequate yearly progress, according to the state’s standards.

The high schools in western Cook fell across the spectrum. Riverside Brookfield made the grade this year, but Lyons Township fell short for the third year in math and reading. J. Sterling Morton High School District 201 fell far short, with about one-fourth of students passing either subject.

The district failed to meet state standards for the sixth straight year.

With no Berwyn school district meeting Illinois’ adequate yearly progress standards, officials in South Berwyn School District 100 are hoping changes to the reading program and the addition of an online testing assessment site will improve test scores.

The district met or exceeded the state’s standards in all categories except for special education.
District 100 Director of Instruction and Assessment Anthony Cundari said the state’s AYP standards are frustrating, but the district is working on ways to meet standards next year.

“Komenski School was on the watch list a few years ago, and now their scores are above average,” Cundari said. “We’re very excited with the progress we’re making, but there’s always room to improve.”

Cundari said the district is placing special education students into regular classrooms to better learning and test scores. The district has also begun to use ThinkLink, a Web-based program run by Discovery Education. The program allows teachers to create tests in English and math and receive answers right away on how each student performed.

“It gives us a percentage of those that are below, meet or exceed state standards so we can see what the biggest problem area is to work on,” Cundari said.

District Assistant Superintendent Michael Kuzniewski said the district is in the second year of a three-year plan to increase student achievement. The district increased the amount of students meeting or exceeding state standards by 1 percentage point from last year, from 25 percent to 26 percent in 2009.

“It’s very difficult for me to fathom that we’re going to hold all kids accountable for knowing the same things even though all kids are different,” Kuzniewski said. “If the state standard you’re measuring 100 percent of the kids isn’t designed for everyone, you set them up for failure.”

Each school’s report card shows how the entire student body did on the tests, and it breaks down the scores into smaller student demographics. These subgroups — based on race, socioeconomic status or other factors — are measured if a school has 45 or more students in the group.

According to state law, after the first two years of not meeting adequate progress, a school is in “academic early watch status” and has to take steps to improve its scores. After the third year, the district steps in and helps create a “corrective action plan,” which could include lengthening the school day or year and bringing in an outside adviser.

If after four years the school still has not made adequate progress, the district has to draft a more intensive restructuring plan for the school, and that plan is put into place after five years of not making progress.

The state gives school districts several options for the fifth-year restructuring plan, such as reopening as a public charter school, replacing much of the teaching staff or overhauling the curriculum, said Melina Wright, the No Child Left Behind liaison for the Illinois State Board of Education.

Seven years after the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted, some schools still are not making progress. And the law does not require additional steps.

“The law is silent,” Wright said. “For whatever reason the law does not address what happens beyond the restructuring phase.”