ISAT scores inching up

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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.

Across the state, the number of students meeting or exceeding state standards across the state continued to inch up, climbing from last year’s 78.7 percent to this year’s 79.1 percent.

Of the 12 districts with elementary schools in Bureau County, six school districts saw their scores decline, with the biggest drop seen by Dalzell, which dropped more than eight points. Three school districts were below the state average, and the DePue School District failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), due to the scores in the category of reading.

On Saturday, we saw how the six top-scoring school districts in the country performed. Here’s how the other six districts did.

Dalzell

Although Dalzell saw the largest drop, it still was able to achieve the seventh highest score in the county, with 83 percent of its students meeting or exceeding the state standards. Because individual class scores are not released for privacy reasons when fewer than 10 students take the test in each class, the only scores that were released were for the district’s eighth-graders, which saw almost 82 percent of the students meet or exceed standards in reading, but less than 73 made that goal in math.

Princeton

The Princeton School District was the only district in the county in which the percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards remained the same, holding steady at 81.8 percent.

Math scores were higher than reading scores in all but the sixth and eighth grades, and were led once again by the third-graders, where almost 88 percent of the students met or exceeded the standards. However, it was those very same third-graders who scored the lowest score in the district, with less than 70 percent of the students reaching their goal in reading.

One piece of good news for the district is that it made Adequate Yearly Progress this year. In 2007, the district failed to make AYP because the subgroup of students with disabilities failed to score high enough in reading.

Spring Valley

Scores in Spring Valley reversed its recent upward climb, dropping almost four percentage points. There were 79.2 percent of the students meeting or exceeding standards. Fourth-grade reading scores were the lowest, with only 63.9 percent of the students meeting or exceeding standards, almost 10 points below the state average. The big highlight came in the third-grade math scores, which hit 95.4 percent.

Leepertown

According to the state, the number of students meeting or exceeding state standards at Leepertown dropped from 81 percent in 2007, to 74 percent this year, but Superintendent Amber Harper said the number is incorrect.

“The Illinois State Board of Education only counted 16 of our 17 countable students,” she said.

Harper said she notified the state and asked for a correction.

“We were told that since it was only one student and since it did not affect our AYP, we would have to write a petition,” she said. “But when I received the paperwork, I was told that the petition would probably not make ISBE change the report card because our AYP remained the same.

Harper said that when only 17 students are tested, each student counts for about six percentage points, and each student’s progress makes a significant percentage difference.

LaMoille

LaMoille’s scores continued a three-year downward trend, dropping from 77.5 percent meeting or exceeding standards in 2006, to 72.8 percent in 2007, to this year’s 69.6 percent.

Reading scores trailed math scores in every grade but sixth grade. Only 50 percent of the seventh-graders and 58 percent of the third-graders met or exceeded the state standards in reading.

DePue

DePue’s students erased a couple of years of improving scores, dropping to 62.3 percent of the students able to meet or exceed scores.

Reading scores trailed math scores in every grade but seventh and eighth. Fewer than 52 percent of the fourth-graders and 53 percent of the fifth-graders were able to meet or exceed standards in reading, and the district failed to make AYP in reading.

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