D207 Freshmen Outperform Older Students

Freshmen in Maine Township High School District 207 did better, on average, than previous classes on the ACT’s Explore test.

The Explore test is generally given as the first is a series of tests culminating with the ACT college entrance exam.

All Illinois public high school juniors take the ACT as part of the Prairie State Achievement Exam.

The scores, which were presented in a report at a recent school board meeting, showed that the composite Explore score for District 207’s class of 2015 was 17. That's 0.4 points above the average of the composite scores of the last three years, according to the report from Barbara Dill-Varga, the assistant superintendent for curriculum.

Earlier:

“In every instance in which the Class of 2015 differed from the previous three classes, it was by outperforming them,” Dill-Varga said “The freshman classes at and scored significantly higher than previous classes in English, math and science. Maine East also scored significantly higher in reading. The Class of 2015 scored similarly to the previous three classes in all areas.”

The biggest gains came at Maine East, where the composite score increased by 0.6 points over the average of the past three years, and at Maine South, where the composite score increased by 0.3 points over the average of the past three years. The composite score at Maine West High School increased by 0.1 point over the average of the last three years, a difference that Dill-Varga said was not statistically significant.

Because the tests were administered in September, shortly after the school year started, the scores do not represent the result of students' education in District 207; rather they are a baseline for further comparisons, she said.

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