On Friday, Chicago Public Schools will release further details about preliminary results for standardized tests and while the district’s students appear to have done better on Illinois Standards Achievement Test scores this year, they have not done as well on college readiness exams.
On Friday, Chicago Public Schools will release further details about preliminary results for standardized tests and while the district’s students appear to have done better on Illinois Standards Achievement Test scores this year, they have not done as well on college readiness exams.
Initial results show more CPS students in 2011 met or exceeded state standards on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test. The scores improved by 3.8 percentage points. This year, 73.3 percent of students—including students who are learning English—met or exceeded state scores, up from 69.5 percent last year.
But then, initial scores also show too few students are academically on track for college when they enter high school.
At a board meeting Wednesday Chief Education Officer Noemi Donoso said seven of every 10 eighth-graders were not academically on track for college in reading, according to results on the EXPLORE test, a precursor to the ACT college entrance exam, taken last fall. In math, that figure was 80 percent across the city school system.
What’s more, the gaps in student achievement along racial lines increase at the top levels of achievement. Research shows reaching the highest academic bar matters because simply passing the state tests can leave students ill-prepared for college.
Across the city’s public schools, 40.4 percent of white students exceeded test targets in reading on the ISAT taken by third- through eighth-grade students. Just 10.6 percent of black students and 13.5 percent of Hispanic students tested in the most advanced level, prelimary results show.
“We know we have a lot more work to do in closing these gaps and making sure all students are post-secondary ready,” said new schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard at the board meeting.
