The Illinois State Board of Education recently released district report cards, indicating whether adequate yearly progress is being made at schools across the state.

This year, the minimum standard for testing was 62.5 percent. If any group within the district’s student body fell below that, the school or district did not achieve adequate yearly progress.

The benchmark is gradually increasing. Last year, 55 percent of students had to score proficient, and, in 2006, it was 47.5 percent. The bar is gradually being raised until 2014 when 100 percent of students must be academically proficient, said Matt Vanover, spokesman for the State Board of Education.

District 92 1/2: fail
For the first time since 2005, Westchester School District 92 1/2 failed to meet federal standards for student performance, according to a new annual report card.

Poor test results among students with disabilities were the district’s only failing grade. The report card shows 41.4 percent of students with disabilities met or exceeded state reading standards, compared to 47.8 last year. The group did meet state math standards.

Director of curriculum Lynn Novak said the overall results of the report card showed improvement.

“We’re very pleased that our three schools made AYP and our district did make it in 32 of 33 areas,” Novak said. “We’ve been maintaining our good scores so we’re pleased we’ve been able to do that. We are concerned about the disparities of our subgroups.”

The results showed disparities along racial lines, with white students out-performing their black and Latino counterparts by about 15 percentage points in reading scores. In math, 91.1 percent of white students met or exceed standards, compared to 72 percent of black students and 81.3 percent of Latino students.

The district also saw a steep decline in the performance of English language learners. Nearly 85 percent of these students met or exceeded reading standards last year compared to just under 58 percent this year. Novak said the decline is largely because these students, for the first time, took the tests in English. The students previously took the tests in Spanish but federal authorities abolished the Spanish tests over concerns they were not comparable to the English tests.

District 96: pass
Riverside School District 96 includes A. F. Ames, Blythe Park, Central and Hollywood elementary schools along with L. J. Hauser Junior High School. In overall performance, the district is above state average by 17.4 percent and has increased performance from last year by 0.9 percent.

District 96 scored a 92.2 percent on overall performance and the state average is 74.6 percent. The district did make adequate yearly progress.

District 102: pass
All five schools in La Grange Elementary School District 102 made adequate progress, with Cossit Avenue School leading with a test score of 94.5.

Ogden Avenue School came in next with a score of 94.2, followed by Park Junior High School, 90.5; Forest Road School, 87.8; and Congress Elementary School, 78.5.

District 105: pass
La Grange Elementary School District 105 also showed adequate improvement overall.
Spring Avenue led with a score of 95.8, followed by Seventh Avenue School, 87.2; William F. Gurrie Middle School, 80.5; Ideal School, 80.4; and Hodgkins Elementary School, 77.7.

District 106: pass
 Adequate improvement was found in La Grange Highlands School District 106, with Highlands Middle School scoring  93.6 and Highlands Elementary School scoring 92.8.

District 204: fail
Lyons Township High School District 204 exceeded overall performance compared to last year but failed to meet adequate yearly progress.

In overall performance on all state tests, District 204 ranked 2,177 out of 3,698 Illinois schools.
In the Prairie State Achievement Exam, 75.2 percent of students last year met or exceeded state standards, while 74.3 percent of students met or exceeded state standards during 2007-08 in the district, according to the report card.

ACT scores remain high among District 204 students with a composite score of 24 percent that includes reading, English mathematics and science.

Scott Eggerding, director of curriculum and instruction, said it can be a little deceptive to look at a year-by-year chart measuring whether scores went up and down.

“This year’s challenge was that English-as-a-second-language students took the test in English where as in the past they had a different test to take,” Eggerding said. “You’re talking about that small of an incremental drop — that could explain it.”

Eggerding said the district went up in overall math scores but dropped in reading scores. He added the district has seen an increase in both AP and ACT scores.

“That suggests we are targeting the right areas in that students are in general are improving every year,” he said.

District 208: fail
Riverside Brookfield High School, District 208, did not meet adequate yearly progress and was ranked 2,192 out of 3,698 schools in the state. The school’s performance is 0.7 percent below the state average. However, compared to last year, student scores are up by 1.3 percent overall.

Superintendent and Principal Jack Baldermann said Hispanic students’ reading scores need to improve for the district to meet AYP. The school is focusing on raising those scores and has many programs available to target problem areas.

RBHS still maintains one of the best graduation rates in the state and has achieved the highest math scores in school history.

“I am very proud of what the kids and faculty has done,” Baldermann said. “There are a lot of positives.”

Reporters Janice Hoppe, Joe Sinopoli, Danya Hooker and Brian Hudson contributed to this report.