Community Consolidated School District 89’s 2007 School Report Card shows high achievement but also a need to diversify teaching methods in the schools.

Assistant Superintendent Jamie Reilly presented the Illinois District Report Card to the School Board at its Nov. 19 meeting.

The School Report Card is the result of the district’s Illinois Standards Achievement Test, Illinois Measure of Annual Growth in English and Illinois Alternate Assessment.
The report card shows the percentages of students meeting or exceeding standards for grades three through eight for reading and mathematics, grades four and seven for science and grades five and eight for writing.

The overall District 89 ISAT score saw 92.7 percent of its students meeting or exceeding expectations. The average meeting or exceeding standards for Illinois students is 78.7 percent.

The scores show District 89 performing in the top 10 percent of 700 Illinois school districts posting 2007 ISAT scores.

In the subject matter areas, district grades five and eight are in the top quartile of DuPage County schools for reading, grade eight for mathematics, and grade four for science.

Students taking the IMAGE exam showed 77.6 percent meeting or exceeding standards, an increase of 16 percentage points over 2006.

However, Reilly said there is concern with the third-grade reading score of 85.5 percent, a drop from the 93.7 percent posted on the 2006 report card.

Reilly also said in studying the data for groups of students she sees the possibility for low-income students to achieve.

But the district needs to look at how they are matching their resources with a changing population, Reilly said.

The district is seeing more low-income families. Park View School in Glen Ellyn, in particular, has seen a 10 percent income shift since 2004.

Reilly said there is a need for professional development; the same teaching methods may not work for the different population.

The schools also need the right assessment tools to target specific skills, Reilly said.
The district needs to differentiate instruction; it needs to look at altering instruction for all students, Superintendent John Perdue said.

Perdue said he is concerned with the focus on the ISAT test.

The tests do not show how well students listen, speak or interact, he said.
“We need to keep the whole child in mind,” Perdue said.