Some administrators at school districts within Niles Township say they are still assessing the latest scores from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exam, even as results released Tuesday indicate that area schools performed higher than the state averages on the standardized test.
Statewide, students in third to eighth grade were tested in spring of the 2016-2017 school year in math and English language arts, as part of the annual PARCC testing. The results were publicly released Tuesday by the Illinois State Board of Education.
The spring testing marked the third year the PARCC assessment was administered in Illinois, after it replaced the Illinois Standards Achievement Test.
“After the first year, they did a lot of major revisions,” said Skokie School District 68 Supt. Jim Garwood. “Between the second year, they made some changes as well although not as dramatic as the first year changes.”
But some administrators say that the changes made to the test — especially from year one to year two — still make it difficult to establish a reliable baseline.
The PARCC scores are provided as part of the Illinois Report Card for the state’s public schools and the information is provided for school districts and the individual schools that comprise them. School district and single school data is compared to overall state scores.
There are 10 elementary school districts – which include 21 elementary and junior high schools – serving the township towns of Skokie, Niles, Morton Grove and Lincolnwood.
For the most part, smaller elementary school districts in the area — some with only one school — performed better than the larger districts, which some school administrators say doesn’t surprise them. The larger districts have more newly-arrived students from other countries, which presents some unique challenges, administrators say.
Of the area schools, School District 68 and Skokie Morton Grove School District 69 had the fewest percentage of students who met or exceeded state standards while students from smaller districts exceeded state standards at a higher percentage, the data shows.
School District 68 includes Old Orchard Junior High School, and Devonshire, Jane Stenson and Highland elementary schools and serves over 1,851 students, according to the the school district’s report card.
In general, the statewide scores for public school districts remained consistent with the previous school year’s results, according to the data ISBE provided.
Statewide, 34 percent of students tested across all grade levels met or exceeded the state standard in math and ELA combined, according to the report card data.
According to Illinois State Board of Education officials, the score included an increase — from 36.5 percent to 37 percent — in ELA, but a decrease in math of 31.6 percent in 2015-2016 versus 31.2 for 2016-2017 school years.
School District 68 dropped a few percentage points from 2015-2016 when 39.7 percent of students overall met or exceed state standards in combined math and ELA compared to 36.2 percent in the 2016-2017 results. That still bested the state average, according to the school district’s report card data.
Garwood said the district wants to focus on making sure all of its students succeed. He said the district hired reading consultants for the first time this year and has an English language learning team focusing on children who have come from other countries.
“I think we are being very, very proactive in looking at our achievement and trying to address ways in which we can improve,” he said.
Ten years ago, Garwood said, 7 percent of District 68’s student population spoke English as a second language while this year it’s almost 20 percent — and nearly double the state average in public schools.
“We love our kids. We love all of our kids regardless of race, ethnicity, whatever backgrounds they come from,” he said. “But I do think it sets up an unfortunate dynamic when these kids are expected to take the test and pass it at the same rate as kids who speak the language fluently already.”
Students in Skokie Morton Grove School District 69 met or exceeded state standards at a rate of 36.3 percent, the same as last year, and slightly above the state average, according to report card the data.
Among the highest performing districts in the township was Fairview South School District 72 — a one school district — where 61.8 percent of students met or exceeded state standards, a jump from 58.3 percent last year.
The school district’s Fairview South Elementary School serves over 700 students, according to the report card.
Golf School District 67 in Morton Grove saw a drop this time of more than 5 percent in students who met or exceeded state standards over the previous year. Still, the 62.7 of its students who met or exceed state standards, as reported Tuesday, topped any other district in the township, the data shows.
Skokie School District 73.5 may have recorded the most consistent scores in the township as 52.5 percent of students met or exceeded state standards, according to the latest PARCC results, compared to 52.3 percent the 2015-2016 school year.
The 2017 PARCC results indicate: Lincolnwood School District 74 saw one of the biggest gains in scores in the township with 53.4 percent of students meeting; Morton Grove School District 70 saw one of the biggest declines in township scores going from 54.7 percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards to 46.4 percent.
“We’re very pleased to see that positive growth,” said David Russo, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for Lincolnwood School Dist. 74, which includes Rutledge Hall Elementary and Lincoln Hall Middle schools.
Additionally, East Prairie School District 73 improved from 51.9 percent of students who met or exceeded state standards in 2015-2106 to 57 percent in the latest results reported Tuesday.
Niles Elementary School District 71 dipped from 48.6 percent of students who met or exceeded state standards in 2015-2016 to 47.3 percent, according to the school’s report card.
Area administrators have said that blips occur from year to year so comparisons are made carefully. The assessment of this most recent PARCC results is just beginning, Garwood said.
He said the state recently sent out a statement that the PARCC test scores are now stable enough that they can be regarded as a reliable baseline, but educators are not so sure yet.
“We still have a lot of questions as to whether PARCC will even continue to be the assessment we use,” he said.
Pioneer Press reporter Genevieve Bookwalter contributed to this report.
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