Downers Grove Grade School District 58 was only 8 percent away from having every student in the district making adequate yearly progress.
Marybeth Webeler, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said the district is pleased with the results and will continue to work on weaker areas to keep high scoring on exams.
“I feel incredibly proud of the children in the district and the very strong performance,” Webeler said. “We have 92 percent of our students meeting and exceeding (state requirements).”
To improve education for students in District 58, Webeler said each year staff looks at each area being assessed, whether it counts toward making adequate yearly progress or not, and develops goals for improvement.
“We want our schools to go from very good to great schools,” Webeler said. “We have good scores and we want them to be great scores. We want our children to function extremely well and be successful in a global economy.”
This school year, many of the buildings are focusing on writing because that was an area students are doing well in but the scores were not as good as the reading test. Webeler said it is all about literacy and reading and writing go hand in hand.
Another area being explored is writing within math, according to Webeler. Some of the buildings are focusing on having students write their thinking process on how they solved a math problem.
The third thing all schools in the district are focused on is locating the individual students, especially those having problems in literacy, and provide them with additional support in reading and writing, Webeler said.
