More Local Schools Earn Passing Grades

By Erin Holmes Daily Herald Staff Writer

Seventeen local schools have inched their way off the federal failing list this year, just 12 months after some educators questioned whether a passing grade ever would be possible given the No Child Left Behind Act’s stringent standards.

The successes in many cases are being chalked up to new teaching tactics, but some of the schools also squeaked by on technicalities: a host of mostly new rules that made it easier to pass if a school didn’t hit the mark.

It’s a phenomenon seen statewide, according to data released today by the Illinois State Board of Education.

Technically, at least 47.5 percent of students overall and in subgroups – such as Hispanic or low-income students – had to meet or exceed math and reading standards this year to get the school a passing grade.

But there are exceptions.

Among other things, schools this year needed more students – 45, compared with 40 last year – to be held accountable for scores in those subgroups. Schools also could add 14 points to their disabled students’ scores if that was their only failing category; and buildings also could miss the 47.5 percent benchmark and still pass based on how many kids were in a given category and how much improvement a group showed.

Some educators say the rules simply made No Child Left Behind fairer and more plausible.

But “There’s so many rules and things that, unfortunately, it’s gotten into playing a game,” said Don Marzolf, director of assessments in Maine Township High School District 207. “People are staying within the rules, but, you know, it’s crazy.”

Maine East High School got off the failing list this year even though limited English students’ math scores failed to hit the target level, actually falling from 2004. In addition, the high school, which missed the mark with disabled-student math scores last year, didn’t have enough special education teens this year to be held accountable.

Disabled students at Maine West, meanwhile, posted better scores than East, but still didn’t hit the 47.5 percent target passing grade. And because that school had enough disabled kids to be held accountable, it failed.

Marzolf calls that “the great irony,” adding he feels “a little slimy” acknowledging East did worse than last year in one area but still technically passed.

At the same time, Maine East significantly boosted its scores in other areas based on sheer academic gains – something that’s easily lost among the labels and rules of the No Child Left Behind Act, educators say.

Disabled students at Carl Sandburg Junior High in Rolling Meadows, for instance, posted good enough marks in math and reading to earn a passing grade, but you wouldn’t know it from the test scores. Since there aren’t 45 there to qualify as a measurable separate category, the score isn’t even reported as a factor in the passing grade.

At Wheeling High School, meanwhile, students showed gains across the board in both math and reading, but the school still would have failed were it not for “safe harbor,” a rule that allows categories of students to pass so long as at least 10 percent more of them hit set standards this year than last.

At Wheeling, only 45.6 percent of Hispanic students, 26.4 percent of disabled students and 39.6 percent of low-income students met math standards – still shy of the 47.5 percent goal, but significantly better than last year.

Principal Dorothy C. “Dottie” Sievert acknowledges “safe harbor” was the school’s ticket to a passing grade – a feat that seemed all but impossible for the diverse school last year – but still thinks the school deserves to celebrate.

“You still have to be making very, very marked improvement to be able to qualify” for safe harbor, Sievert said. “But it gives groups a chance to celebrate their improvement.”

Overall locally, there were no new schools on the failing list this year. Only 10 schools got failing grades at all; all also failed last year. Only two of them – East and West Leyden highs – accept federal Title I dollars and consequently are subject to federal sanctions.

Schools that passed touted numerous curriculum updates as reasons for success. In Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59, for instance, officials are crediting new “literacy coaches,” who worked with teachers on quality reading instruction, with jumps in eighth- grade reading scores.

At Wheeling, teachers also used a little old-fashioned encouragement: They offered teens a chance at prizes if they met or exceeded standards. Teens who hit the target got their names put in a drawing for prom tickets, pizzas, parking passes and more.

In the end, though, educators question – as they always have – how much weight any label holds.

“It’s just one test; we’ve said that for a long time,” said Ralph Cook, principal of Whitman Elementary School in Wheeling. That school also made it out with a passing grade this year, despite missing the 47.5 percent target in several math categories. “It’s one way we assess kids. We have a lot of other assessments to show us we’re successful.”

That doesn’t stop schools, of course, from using the data to steer curriculum. Whitman, in an effort to boost math scores, will target math fluency by focusing on it for a little bit of every day in every classroom.

District 59 next year will adopt a new math curriculum.

Because “Any way you look at this,” District 59 Assistant Superintendent Nancy Wagner says, “we have work to do.”