In an advanced algebra class for seventh- and eighth-graders, teacher Breann Cooper reviews a dizzying array of linear equations while students jot down a jumble of x and y formulas.
The subject matter at Lincoln Prairie School in Hoffman Estates can be daunting, but beginning next year the performance of junior high students in algebra will be one of several areas that take on new significance in how Illinois judges its public schools.
For the first time in 25 years, the state is making wholesale — and in some cases controversial — changes to its annual portrait of K-12 schools, with a goal of giving a holistic view that isn’t dominated by scores from one or two days of state exams.
The Illinois School Report Card being released this week will be the last of its kind as the state overhauls academic standards, student testing and key measures used to determine whether schools are doing a good job.
At this time next year, parents and the public will be getting a report card filled with information that has not been available before in such detailed fashion. The data will include the percentage of eighth-graders who pass a crucial algebra class, of freshmen who pass enough ninth-grade courses to stay on track to graduate and of high school graduates who are considered prepared for key college classes.
Also highlighted will be the number and type of college-level Advanced Placement classes offered by high schools — a sign of the curriculum’s rigor — as well as the availability of foreign language courses, which help prepare students to live in a global society.
Even the array of extracurricular activities offered will be reported, and parents will get a broader picture of a school’s learning atmosphere from data on how often teachers are absent, whether teachers get good or excellent performance evaluations and other factors.
New student, parent and teacher surveys will be filled out early next year to help shape the portrait, through questions that will attempt to gauge everything from school safety to how welcome and involved families are at school.
“This is truly a transformational change,” said former State School Superintendent Glenn “Max” McGee, who co-chaired the state’s effort to revamp the annual report cards that critics say have become cumbersome, cluttered and useless to many people.
The current report cards date back to 1987-88, he said, and over the years they have grown into dozens of pages of black-and-white data in small type.
“The report card obfuscates rather than clarifies,” said McGee, who is now president of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. “If we’re going to be data-driven, let’s give them (parents and the public) data in a good format that they can use to make decisions.”
Paramount in the revision is a move away from judging schools largely on the results of state achievement exams, which dominated school report cards during the decade of No Child Left Behind federal education reforms.
Enacted in 2002, the federal law requires students of all backgrounds to pass state exams, with 100 percent of students passing by 2013-14 — a timeline many educators considered unrealistic and unattainable. Schools have faced sanctions for not meeting the annual passing requirements, called Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, and even top Illinois schools with stellar reputations were labeled as failing in past years, one of the things that has been included in the annual school report cards.
With the advent of new report cards next fall, “We believe this is the last year we’ll be reporting AYP results under (No Child Left Behind),” said State School Superintendent Christopher Koch.
“The bottom line is that we are in a transition period in education and specifically in terms of how we view a student and a school’s performance,” he said.
In the past few years, Illinois and most other states have put in place the new “common core” standards for what students should know and be able to do. In 2014-15, new state exams will be given to grade school and high school students in Illinois. Because the No Child Left Behind law is still on the books, Illinois is seeking permission from the federal government to get around key provisions so it won’t have to judge schools by AYP status anymore, among other changes.
New school ratings are expected to replace AYP, though the details have yet to be finalized, said Illinois State Board of Education spokeswoman Mary Fergus. An earlier proposal to implement “star” ratings for schools, similar to restaurants and hotels, had met with some criticism from educators.
“Whatever we do, our goal is to make a rating system that is transparent and informative,” Fergus said.
Test scores still will be listed on the new report cards, but the data will emphasize the percentage of students who score on the high end — called “exceeding” standards — not just the percentage of kids who pass, or meet standards, on the tests. “We’re not going to be satisfied just looking at the number of students meeting (standards),” McGee said. “It is too low a level.”
In fact, the state board of education has acknowledged a disconnect between how students perform on grade school tests compared with high school tests and is preparing to raise the scores required to pass grade school exams. As a result, parents can expect to see lower passing rates on those tests in next year’s report cards.
The new school report cards stem from the work of a state education reform group created in 2009, called the Illinois P-20 Council, as well as a state law enacted early this year. Consultants and statewide focus groups helped decide what should be included in the new report cards — a process that generated some heated debate, according to those involved.
Robin Steans, executive director of the Advance Illinois policy and reform group who co-chaired the report card revamp with McGee, said that among the concerns was reporting how often teachers are absent.
She said students who participated in the revamp wanted to include that data. They said, “When I have a substitute it is generally a lost day of instruction,” Steans said. But teachers wanted to be sure that absences would be counted fairly, she said. What if they missed school because they were involved in teacher training, some asked.
Showing the percentage of eighth-graders passing Algebra 1 also was controversial, according to Steans, with some educators worried that not all kids are ready for that class in the eighth-grade.
At Lincoln Prairie School in Schaumburg-based School District 54, all eighth-graders take Algebra 1 — and for good reason, said Stephanie Krizmis, who oversees the school’s math curriculum.
“Algebra is the basis of everything. It is the key that opens every single door,” expanding to subjects outside of math, such as science, physics and chemistry, she said.
But she said she agrees that Algebra 1 is difficult for some junior high students, and that it’s a bit “scary” for a school to be judged by the percentage of eighth-graders who pass.
Some of the data points on the new report card might surprise parents who are savvy about college admissions.
For example, the new report card will track the percentage of high school students considered ready for college and career, based on a composite score of at least a 20 on the ACT college-entrance exam. That’s below the national average of about 21 and is lower than three of the four ACT target scores that determine whether a student is prepared for key college freshman classes. Those targets are set at 21 for reading, 22 for math, 24 for science and 18 for English.
McGee said research was done on the issue and there was consensus on using 20, though he conceded it might not be the best measure. He noted that students can get admitted to college with a composite score of 20 — though probably not to highly selective schools.
The new reports will be presented in three tiers designed to inform different audiences, said Peter Godard, the state board of education’s chief performance officer.
The first tier will be a one-page, double-sided report that will include condensed data but still present a robust overall picture. “We are trying to have a succinct view that the average parent could take time to look through,” he said.
The second-tier report will provide more details that will be available to the public online, and the third tier will be even more comprehensive, to help educators and researchers who need more in-depth information.
Overall, McGee said, the new report cards will broaden a view of schools that has been focused on exam results.
“It is about time,” McGee said. “We should have the opportunity to talk about things besides test scores.”
