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Most District 64 students meeting testing standards
Linda Bobowski, a first-grade teacher at Field School, works on reading, one on one, with Anthony Capesius earlier this school year. | Brian O'Mahoney~for Sun-Times Media
Updated: December 30, 2012 6:16AM
PARK RIDGE — Most students in Park Ridge-Niles School District 64 continue to meet rising benchmarks set by No Child Left Behind, results from the 2012 Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) show.
Overall, nearly 95 percent of District 64 students met or exceeded standards in reading and 95.9 percent met or exceeded standards in math, according the 2012 Illinois State Report Card.
The minimum target set by No Child Left Behind was 85 percent.
Each District 64 elementary school met annual yearly progress under NCLB, but the middle schools did not. Lincoln Middle School failed to make AYP because students with disabilities did not meet benchmarks in reading and math, while Emerson Middle School failed to make AYP because students with disabilities scored low in reading.
Neither school has been identified for school improvement under NCLB.
During a recent Board of Education meeting Lori Hinton, assistant superintendent for student learning in District 64, reported that student performance in reading and math on the ISAT is at its highest level in six years.
The ISAT will eventually be discontinued as the state shifts to the new Common Core State Standards assessment system by 2014-15.
“The goal is to better prepare Illinois students for success in college and the workforce in a competitive global economy,” the State Board of Education’s website says.
“This is effectively the last year to look at trend data on student performance gathered with the familiar ISAT,” Hinton said.
District 64 students also take a standardized test known as the MAP test which provides data on reading and math performance. Students in grades 3-7 take the test on a computer twice each year and students in second- and eighth-grade are tested once a year.
“The MAP tests actually adapt the questions each student is asked based on how the previous question was answered, so it can identify what each student knows and needs to learn next,” Hinton said.
Over the last five years the percentage of students performing above the 75th percentile in reading increased in all grades and the number of students scoring above the 75th percentile in math increased in grades 4-8, according to District 64.
The tests also show that more than half of students in grades 3-8 are meeting “growth targets” in reading and math.
