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.

Scott Eggerding, director of curriculum and instruction at Lyons Township High School District 204, said while the district’s Hispanic students have improved, school officials were disappointed to see scores for students with disabilities drop lower than in previous years.

“I think with students with disabilities, because you’re not comparing the same students every year, it’s difficult to compare growth from one year to another because of the nature of the disabilities,” Eggerding said. “We don’t have the same proportion of disabilities with different students.”

To improve those scores, the district is in the midst of developing a new program that combines biology with English for sophomores.

“We hope to help students improve their science and reading skills and group problem-solving skills so that students can better understand the material in both disciplines,” he said.

Overall, Eggerding said the district stacks up fairly well to other schools.

“We would like to see that move a little higher,” he said. “But with so many of these tests we’re pretty consistent. More kids are taking (Advanced Placement) courses now and do well on AP testing. The more we can build on this, the Prairie State Tests should follow as well.”

This year, the bar was out of reach as ever for Proviso High School District 209.

Both schools, which have never made adequate yearly progress in six years, had about a quarter of their students passing the math and reading test.

In a statement released Monday, , Oct. 31 Superintendent Nettie Collins-Hart called the results “mixed.”

“The test results were not the best, and all of our schools show a need to improve,” she said.

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.”