ISAT scores inching up for most of the county
Editor’s note: This is the third in a multi-part series on Bureau County schools and the students they serve.
Last spring, students in third, fifth, sixth and eighth grades took the Illinois Standards Achievement Test in reading and mathematics, while students in fourth and seventh grades were tested in reading, mathematics and science.
Of the 12 districts with elementary schools in Bureau County, four school districts saw their scores decline, with the biggest drop seen by Malden, which dropped more than seven percentage points. Three school districts were below the state average, and four districts failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
On Thursday, we saw how the six top-scoring school districts in the country performed. Here’s how the other six districts did.
Ohio
The percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards in Ohio continued a three-year downward trend, dropping slightly from 85.5 percent to 84 percent.
Individual class scores are not released for privacy reasons when fewer than 10 students take the test in each class, so individual class scores were released only for the third-, fourth- and sixth-graders. One hundred percent of the fourth-graders met or exceeded standards in math, as did 100 percent of the sixth-graders in reading. Reading scores were lower than the state average in the lower grades, with only 60 percent meeting or exceeding in the third grade, and 73.3 percent in the fourth grade.
Princeton
The Princeton School District continued its upward climb, with the percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards inching up almost a point, from 81.8 percent to 82.7.
Individual scores were released for all classes, and math scores were higher than reading scores in every grade. Third-graders led the pack in 2008 and repeated that feat as fourth-graders, as more than 88 percent of the students met or exceeded the standards. However, it was those very same students who scored the lowest score in the district in 2008, with less than 70 percent of the students reaching their goal in reading. As fourth-graders, they and the fifth-graders tied for the district’s lowest score, which was in reading with only 77.2 percent meeting or exceeding.
Spring Valley
Scores in Spring Valley returned to their upward climb, nudging up almost three percentage points from 79.2 to 81.9 percent of the students meeting or exceeding standards. Third-grade reading scores were the lowest, with only 60.9 percent of the students meeting or exceeding standards, more than 10 points below the state average. The big highlight came in the fourth-grade math scores, which hit 95.6 percent.
Malden
Malden’s scores hit a five-year low, dropping from 86.2 percent of the students meeting or exceeding state standards to 78.6 percent, more than a point below the state average.
Individual scores were released for third, fifth and eighth grade, with the high coming in eighth-grade reading scores, with almost 93 percent of the students meeting or exceeding in reading. Fifth-grade reading scores were a concern, with less than 59 percent of the students achieving that goal.
LaMoille
LaMoille’s scores rebounded slightly from a three-year downward trend, edging from 72.2 percent meeting or exceeding standards in 2008, to this year’s 74.0 percent.
Scores were released for every grade, with the fourth-graders providing the highlight with 93.8 of the students meeting or exceeding standards. Several categories saw scores lower than the state average, including fifth-grade math with less than 60 percent — more than 23 percentage points below the average — and seventh-grade reading with only 60 percent meeting or exceeding the state standards, more than 17 percentage points behind the state.
DePue
DePue’s scores also rebounded in 2009, climbing to 66.7 percent of the students able to meet or exceed scores.
Reading scores trailed math scores in every grade but eighth. Fewer than 42 percent of the fifth-graders, 47 percent of the third-graders and 49 percent of the sixth-graders were able to meet or exceed standards in reading. The highest percentage of students meeting or exceeding came in third-grade math scores, with more than 88 percent of the students met the goal.
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