West Chicago High School’s 2006-07 junior class failed to meet federal standards for student achievement on state tests, according to a state report card released last week.

The report, conducted by the Illinois State Board of Education, shows roughly half the juniors tested last year met or exceeded federal standards on the math and reading portions of the Prairie State Achievement Examination. But federal guidelines this year required a 55 percent achievement rate in both tests to meet the Annual Yearly Progress goal. The report also indicated that white students were almost twice as likely to meet standards as Latino students.

Superintendent Lee Reick said a combination of factors led to the district’s failure to meet AYP, including student burnout and apathy.

Reick said students were asked to take the PSAEs the day after sitting for the ACTs.
“We had a number of students who scored high on the first day and who kind of blew off the second day,” he said. “That distorted our scores.”

Data show last year’s junior class scored slightly higher on their ACTs than the previous year’s but slightly lower on their PSAEs.

“Their brains get fried,” Reick said. “If you sit there for five solid hours day one and then try to refocus and do the same thing day two, it’s (hard). Particularly for kids who are used to getting up and moving around every (class period).

He said the district is taking steps to familiarize students with tests by encouraging teachers to use the same question formats as the PSAE. The school also plans to use a new advisory period, introduced this year, to help students understand the importance of the tests.

School Board president Tony Reyes said the district also needs to close the achievement gap between white and Latino students. The best way to do that, he said, is to help those struggling with English learn the language as fast as possible. Reyes has been a strong advocate of having students immersed in English classes within three years of their arrival to the district.

“It makes no sense at all for us to be teaching them in Spanish if they’re going to be tested in English,” he said. “That seems to be the area we’re lagging in and in the last three years we’ve made a lot of improvement.”

Reyes also wants the district to focus more on core curriculum classes to help students prepare for the tests. The high school has steadily increased the electives it offers and students, in return, are taking fewer core classes, the report card shows.

The Illinois State Board of Education grades school and district achievement once a year. Yearly goals increase by 7.5 percent each year. The state’s results were released to the districts in mid-September and districts have until Oct. 31 to make them public.
District 94 has met federal AYP goals for the last two years.

“Eventually it’s going to be hard for any school to meet the standards,” Reyes said. “We hope that the federal and the state (governments) look at it closely to make sure what they’re asking students to do is feasible.”