The Examiner U-46 News Feed

U-46 academic data lags behind state per ISBE

By Seth Hancock
  School District U-46’s academic numbers lag behind the state in every category, according to the annual report card from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE).
  The report card was released last month, and the data presented to the U-46 Board of Education on Nov. 6.
  The district’s number of commendable schools, the second highest rating, dropped from 40 to 29 while targeted increased from 12 to 15 and comprehensive from one to seven. U-46 had no exemplary schools, the highest rating.
  “A school that has no underperforming student groups, a graduation rate greater than 67 percent, and whose performance is not in the top 10 percent of schools statewide,” the ISBE states of commendable.
  Targets are schools with “one or more student groups performing at or below the level of the ‘all students’ group in the lowest performing 5 percent of schools,” and comprehensive schools are “in the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools in Illinois and any high school with a graduation rate of 67 percent or less,” according to the ISBE.
  On the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR), the district saw 23.3 percent meeting or exceeding expectations in English language arts (ELA) and 19.8 percent in math, up from 19.6 and 19.3 percent respectively last year. State numbers: ELA (35.4 percent) and math (27.1 percent).
  The district’s growth percentile was 45.9 in ELA, down from 47.9, and 44.6 in math, down from 49.5.
  On the Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) assessment, the district had 12.8 percent at-target or advanced in ELA (down from 13.1), 9.5 in math (down from 13.6) and 6.2 in science (up from 5.4). The state was 15.3 in ELA, 15.4 in math and 10.2 in science.
  On the science assessment, the district had 47.1 percent proficient or exemplary, up from 45.8 last year. The state was 52.2.
  The district saw gains in proficiency for ELA (19.4 to 22.9 percent), math (18.9 to 19.2 percent) and science (45 to 46.6 percent). State numbers: ELA (34.6), math (26.9) and science (51.8).
  The district had 28.9 percent of eighth graders passing algebra, up from 25.5 last year and behind the state’s 31.
  U-46’s graduation rate was 85.5 percent compared to 87.3 percent for the state.