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Schools

District 219 Sees Slight Improvement In Test Scores

But Niles West and Niles North, like 680 out of 688 Illinois high schools, still fail to meet No Child Left Behind.

Students who took the Prairie State Achievement Exam at Niles North and Niles West high schools in April of this year were slightly more likely to meet or exceed state standards than the class of 2011, which took the exams a year earlier.

The proportion of students who met or exceeded standards rose in all four subjects at Niles North High School, and in reading, science and writing at Niles West High School. The percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards in math at Niles West remained the same.

The percentages of students meeting or exceeding state standards at both schools ranged from 60 percent – in reading at both schools – to 72 percent, in writing at Niles West.

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Despite uptick, still the "No Child" failure

As pleased as administrators were to see improvements, they will still have to tell parents and community members that the schools did not meet the goals for “adequate yearly progress” set by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Law.

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Earlier:

Under that law, schools must have 85 percent of their students – and 85 percent of members of certain ethnic or socioeconomic subgroups – meet or exceed state standards. Subgroups include low-income students; students with limited English proficiency; Asian, Hispanic and African-American students; and students with disabilities. Schools are rated on the success of each subgroup for which they have at least 45 students. Each subgroup also can make adequate yearly progress under an alternative method of calculation called “Safe Harbor,” which some – but not all – of the affected groups did.

Because the schools have not made adequate yearly progress for several years, they are required to offer school choice -- but they can't, since both district schools did not make AYP. They do offer low income students the opportunity for extra help paid for with money the school district receives under Title I from the federal government. About 75 students took advantage of the help last year.

'No Child' is punitive, administrator says

That law is punitive and unrealistic, said Anne Roloff, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. She presented the testing report to the Niles Township High School District 219 school board Monday night.

“We are not failing schools,” Roloff said. “We are doing wonderful things with our students. We are achieving our five board goals. The law is much too punitive. It’s not a true reflection of what we are doing.”

This year, only eight out of 688 public high schools in Illinois were considered to have made adequate yearly progress, and most of them were selective enrollment schools in Chicago that take only the cream of the academic crop. The others serve areas with few low-income students, students of color or those who have limited proficiency in English.

Roloff said she is hoping for possible changes to be put forth by the U.S. Department of Education that would allow schools to be evaluated on how much students progress over time rather than whether they meet an arbitrary goal that is impossible for all students to meet. She also is looking forward to planned changes to testing in Illinois, which expects to stop using the PSAE in favor of an assessment keyed to the core curriculum that will be used by more than half the states.

“That may give us a more realistic picture of how we are doing,” Roloff said. “We know best practices. We know what’s best for kids. Reports like this don’t reflect the true picture of what’s happening in schools.”

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