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 posted online at iirc.niu.edu Oct. 30.

Sandy Doebert, superintendent of Lemont Township High School District 210, is pleased with the district’s results.

She is confident the improving scores are evidence that the use of data to inform the district’s curricular, instruction, assessment and intervention strategies has been successful.

“Our faculty and students have put in a lot of hard work, and the effort put into implementing various school-wide initiatives is beginning to be reflected in our PSAE and ACT scores,” she said.

Lemont High School Principal Thomas Trengove said the biggest difference between last year and this year is the performance of the students in the two bottom quartiles. This year, the district had the smallest number of students it has ever had scoring in the bottom quartile. It also had more students scoring in the third quartile, which meets standards in reading, math and science.

“That’s a big deal, and we’re very, very proud of every level of our students,” Trengove said.

He said an important measure taken by the district which has helped improve scores is familiarizing students with the types of questions they will see on the ACT and Prairie State Achievement Exam.

Also, more than half of the district’s juniors enroll in some sort of ACT prep course, which Trengove said has more to do with learning test-taking strategies that will help them during the exam than learning the content itself.

District officials have just begun their work with their literacy initiative, which Doebert said will impact instruction and improve students’ academic achievement.

“We are very pleased with our most recent test scores, but also recognize our responsibility to seek continued improvement in student achievement in all areas, including our PSAE and ACT scores,” she said.

The report cards are based on the results of two statewide tests, one taken from third to eighth grade and the other given during junior year of high school.

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.

Schools that continually fall short in the same subject face repercussions that become more rigorous as time goes on.

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. School districts tend to go with that last option, 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 even after the fifth-year restructuring. 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.”

All schools, even those that passed this year, are trying to get their scores up. In future years, making the grade will become tougher.

Next year, 77.5 percent of students have to pass, and the goal is to have 100 percent of Illinois public school students passing by 2014.