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 fell far short, with about one-fourth of students passing either subject.

Even though all the schools in the Riverside-Brookfield area met state standards for academics this year, school leaders say they are still looking for ways to do better.

Todd Fitzgerald, the principal at S.E. Gross Middle School in La Grange Park-Brookfield School District 95, said he was happy with the results.

“We’re looking at ways to improve more — whether that means assessing our curriculum or looking at the way we instruct our programs,” he said.

At Hollywood School in Riverside Public Schools District 96, interim Principal Mindy Keller said next year’s focus will be on writing.

The school is in the process of implementing a new writing program.

“The teachers can create online Wikis, sites where students can post their writing, and other students can comment on what they liked,” Keller said. “They’re not just writing for the assignment, they’re getting real feedback.”

At the secondary level, Riverside Brookfield High School met the state’s standards this year after failing last year.

Troy Gobble, assistant principal for curriculum instruction, said new programs may have improved the school’s scores.

“Last year, we instituted a new program aimed at our Latino students,” Gobble said. “We created small teams of teachers and students that worked together to make sure that each student had achieved all the necessary standards in reading and math.”

Gobble said this year’s program will reach out to other groups of students who are not meeting academic standards.

“A small group is the best way to have an impact on students,” he said. “That way, we know them personally and we know their issues.”

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.

For a school to achieve adequate yearly progress, a certain percent of the entire student body and each subgroup has to pass the bar in both math and reading. In 2009 the minimum is 70 percent.
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,” said Melina Wright, liaison for the Illinois State Board of Education. “For whatever reason the law does not address what happens beyond the restructuring phase.”