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  Friday, Oct. 30.

Out of DuPage County’s 231 elementary, middle and high schools, 55 did not make the grade this year, up from 36 last year.

While many of the substandard schools performed well overall — in almost half, the entire student body performed better than the state average — the schools often fell short because of low grades among certain demographics. In 35 of the schools, for example, students with disabilities did not meet the standard in math or reading.

Administrators at both of Westmont’s main school districts were satisfied with the results, but both Community Unit School District 201 and Maercker School District 60 acknowledge more work needs to be done.

District 201 Superintendent Steven Baule said the district has made considerable strides in the reading scores.

“The overall district performance continues to improve in reading,” he said. “Math scores are down slightly from last year, but that is due mostly to a drop at fifth grade and at Westmont Junior High School.”

Both Westmont High School and Westmont Junior High School failed to meet adequate yearly progress. Miller and Manning Elementary schools exceeded the standards.

Since 2006, Baule said the district has made a number of changes to its mathematics program, but he said it often takes several years for the impact to show up on the PSAE exams.

“Our Westmont Junior High School math scores are up over the past three years, which is a promising sign as well,” Baule said.

District 60 Superintendent Catherine Berning said she was pleased with the results; 90 percent of the students meet or exceed state standards. Berning credits this with new reading programs established at Maercker School and Westview Hills Middle School.

Bering was pleased all three schools did make AYP, but said the state expectations are growing faster than progress at the schools.

“It obviously is going to be more difficult for (English as a Second Language) students to understand the same tests that non-ESL students are taking,” Berning said. “The state doesn’t take that into consideration with its scores.”

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 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.

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.”

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.