Local Districts No Exception

By PETE SHERMAN

State test score results in Sangamon County’s 13 public high schools unanimously corroborate an Associated Press analysis showing a drop-off in performance between eighth graders and high school juniors.

All of the 13 schools reported that juniors who took the state’s standardized tests last spring met grade-level standards at lower rates than eighth graders in the same districts.

Over the past few years, students in elementary and middle schools generally have been improving their scores, which measure proficiency in reading, math, and, in some grades, science.

But at the high school level, advances have been more elusive, although they also tend to be in line with each district’s relative performance.

For instance, in districts such as Rochester, Ball Chatham and Pleasant Plains, roughly 89 to 97 percent of eighth-graders are meeting grade-level expectations in reading and math.

But only 67 to 70 percent of high school juniors in those districts met their academic benchmarks.

In the Springfield School District, 68.5 percent of eighth- graders demonstrated proficiency in math and 67.1 percent were proficient in reading. However, only 44.4 percent of District 186 juniors were able to test at grade-level performance (Springfield High School, however, reported much higher scores than Lanphier and Southeast).

Many consider the state’s high school exam, called the Prairie State Achievement Exam, to be more rigorous than the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, taken by third- through eighth-graders. For one, the PSAE score is partially based on the college-entrance ACT that all juniors also are required to take.

Still, some education officials, after having spent years focusing on ways to improve student performance in the early grades, are now focusing on high school reforms.

That was Springfield School Superintendent Walter Milton’s reaction several weeks ago, when he called for an “across-the- board” restructuring of the district’s high schools after receiving his first look at their PSAE results.

“We’re going to have to do something to really make a bold statement,” Milton said.

Originally published by PETE SHERMAN STAFF WRITER.

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