How did your child’s school fare on last year’s state tests?

The report cards are in, as school leaders try to adapt to new standards, new tests and a new batch of laws pending to help more students succeed.

School leaders across the metro-east have been evaluating new standardized test scores released by the Illinois State Board of Education. The data included in the school report cards were made public at www.illinoisreportcard.com and on district websites Monday, as required by state statute.

In addition to the results of the PARCC test, each school’s online report card also includes detailed data on finances and demographics of students and teachers. Information is also available on the test performance of specific groups of children, like those living in poverty and those with special needs. It includes information on ACT scores, the high school dropout rates and how many of the students graduating from a particular school are prepared for higher education.

The test — called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers — set new standards for K-12 students, replacing the ISAT and PSAE tests last year. PARCC differs from previous tests because it asks students to apply what they learn and provide evidence. It puts a new emphasis on critical thinking and writing.

While it was common for as many as 90 percent or more of elementary students to meet or exceed standards on the old ISATs, the current highest percentage in the four-county area of St. Clair, Madison, Monroe and Clinton was in Damiansville with 71 percent — up from 69 percent last year.

The PARCC test reviewed English language arts and math and provided five levels of success compared to state standards and expectations: exceeds standards, meets, approaching, partially meets and did not meet standards. Composite scores measured the percentage of students who met or exceeded standards on the test, and those benchmarks did not change after last year, according to ISBE.

Across the state, an average of 33.4 percent of students met or exceeded the Illinois State Learning Standards that PARCC tests. Approximately 83 schools in St. Clair, Madison, Monroe and Clinton counties scored at or above that average, while about 93 scored below the average.

State leaders said this year’s test comes at a time of change, as high schoolers will no longer take the state exam and new plans are being drawn up to abide by the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced No Child Left Behind.

“While some students are achieving at remarkable levels, the majority of the generation of students entrusted to us are unprepared for the world of work and for meaningful participation in our communities,” said State Superintendent Tony Smith. “If we hope to make Illinois a state where whole, healthy children are nested in whole, healthy systems, and where all citizens are socially and economically secure, we must make major changes to the way we fund our public schools and fundamentally shift our approach to education.”

Statewide, student attendance increased slightly to 94.4 percent; math scores increased from 28.2 percent to 30.5 percent meeting or exceeding standards; and the high school dropout rate dropped to 2 percent.

Elementary education

O’Fallon District 90’s PARCC scores in all seven of its schools ranked above the state average again this year. Superintendent Carrie Hruby said that’s due in part to the district’s teachers “working very hard to collaborate.”

“What’s important is that they work together to dig into the standards and determine what students need,” she said.

St. Clair County’s highest-scoring school this year is Hinchcliffe Elementary School in District 90. A majority, or 59.6 percent, of students met or exceeded standards there. But Hruby knows teachers can’t take credit for the scores alone. She also compliments the parents who are working with students outside the classroom to help them improve.

“It’s not only important that we study (the assessment results) but that we share that information with parents,” Hruby said.

In Brooklyn District 188, Superintendent Henrietta Young said she expected to see some growth over last year in the lowest-scoring school in the metro-east: Lovejoy Elementary. The school had the lowest scores again, but the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards did increase from zero to 1.3 percent.

The difference this time is that students have been introduced to curriculum that is aligned with Common Core standards, Young said. A new math curriculum was rolled out in January 2015, and the district began using its English language arts curriculum in August 2015.

Young describes the curriculum as “rigorous and more challenging for students,” but teachers are still learning how best to implement it. “We’re expecting more growth, but it takes about five years when you make any change to see the growth that you’d like to see,” she said.

Belleville District 118 also faced challenges with curriculum, Superintendent Matt Klosterman said. Ahead of testing, teachers were using an 11-year-old English language arts curriculum.

“There were lots of gaps from that curriculum to the new standards that are in place,” Klosterman said. “... We were really trying to fill those gaps with a variety of resources.”

Some supplemental materials were purchased, but Klosterman said tools for teachers were also available for free online. The district has since purchased a new English language arts curriculum that teachers have been using for more than two months now.

District 118’s math curriculum was purchased shortly before the new Illinois standards were adopted in 2010. Klosterman said it’s “pretty well aligned” with Common Core, but that the district might start the process of updating it as early as this year.

“I’m not saying it will happen this year,” he said. It could be difficult for teachers, who are still adjusting to the new English curriculum, to implement a new math curriculum at the same time, Klosterman said. Some elementary-level educators in the district teach both reading and math.

Belleville students are also adapting to PARCC’s online format. Last year, districts had options: to continue using paper, using both paper and electronic means to test students or switching to all-electronic. District 118 decided to use only online testing from the start, and Klosterman said that could be affecting students’ scores.

He said the district offered Chromebook laptops for all students before the switch, but not all children have grown up with devices at home.

“We have students whose (only) access is what they get at school,” Klosterman said.

PARCC is “still a work in progress” for District 118, according to Klosterman. “We saw growth for the most part across the district,” he said. “Are they where we’d like to see them in all locations, across all grade levels? No.”

Last year, 26.9 percent of students in the district met or exceeded standards. That number increased to 30.3 this year. There’s always going to be room for improvement, Klosterman said, but “we feel good about the fact that we’re moving in the right direction.”

In Brooklyn, Young has reminded students and parents each year that other assessments, like AIMSweb for example, show students are improving. AIMSweb also tests students’ understanding of Common Core standards, Young said.

“I do want them to know the PARCC test is just one measure of student success,” Young said. “It’s given once a year.”

Brooklyn District 188 administers the AIMSweb Reading and Math assessment more regularly — in the fall, winter and spring — to monitor students’ progress.

“Our students showed growth on AIMSweb — more growth, in fact, in every area, at every grade,” Young said.

Young said that’s because PARCC excludes some students who meet or exceed standards in small class sizes. The rationale is that those children could be identified in data that is meant to keep them anonymous, according to Young. AIMSweb, on the other hand, includes all students’ scores in its data, she said.

While PARCC shows that 3.7 percent of students in the district met or exceeded standards — in fact, no students are shown to have exceeded — AIMSweb shows 28.3 percent, with 160 children exceeding the standards. The AIMSweb data was provided to the News-Democrat by District 188.

However, ISBE spokesman Jaclyn Matthews said that while data for groups of 10 or fewer students are suppressed on the report card to avoid identifying them, they appear as blanks, not zeroes. “If you see a zero or any data reported, that data is true and is for a group of students larger than 10,” Matthews said.

Hruby said O’Fallon District 90 also uses more assessments than just PARCC to test performance. “It’s just one piece of the entire picture of achievement,” Hruby said.

The top-scoring school in either Madison or St. Clair county this year was Cassens Elementary in Edwardsville District 7. Principal Martha Richey said it is “very exciting” to have such high achievement scores, and gave credit to the district-wide staff development and curriculum alignment that has been going on since well before PARCC was introduced.

“Our teachers are well-trained and very consistent in how they teach across the district,” Richey said. Like the PARCC test itself, teachers work with students to help them find and show evidence from the texts, and they work with each other in collaboration.

“They understand that for learning to be engaging, it has to be exciting and fun for the students,” Richey said. “They meet on a regular basis and are always working together to find innovative, exciting, original ways to engage the students.”

Edwardsville schools also try to make the testing environment low-pressure and as stress-free as possible, integrating it into their regular routine, according to district administrators. The heavy lifting comes behind the scenes, with a 40-teacher commission that began six years ago to reevaluate the district’s curriculum and align it with the new Illinois Learning Standards. They took each standard that would be tested, broke it into subsections and have been training teachers in groups on the new alignments for the past five years, according to curriculum director Kathy Rice.

“We are fortunate here to have the support of a board and administration committed to a common goal,” said Superintendent Lynda Andre. From the administration and board to the principals to the teachers, Andre said, they all have the shared goal of excellent education for the students and they “know how to get there” consistently across the largest school district in the metro-east.

“I will never say it’s easy, it’s a lot of hard work,” Andre said. “But the entire team works together at every level to make it consistent across schools and grade levels.”

High schools rising

The top-scoring high school in the metro-east was Highland High School, higher than O’Fallon, Belleville or Edwardsville. Principal Karen Gauen said Highland is “blessed with a supportive community,” with involved parents and motivated students as well as “some of the best educators I have ever seen.”

Gauen said that like Edwardsville, Highland has initiated a teacher-led process to encourage teachers to collaborate on lessons engaging students in “higher-order thinking.” The process has been in place since 2010, and the teachers share results with the rest of the faculty and collaborate on new ways to improve learning.

“For the last five years our school-wide goals have incorporated (Instructional Practices Inventory), reading across the content areas and writing across the content areas,” Gauen said. “The entire school community has worked together to help HHS achieve at a high level.”

Other high schools have seen successes in their initiatives as well. This year, Belleville District 201 saw traditionally low-scoring groups of students surpass the state averages, according to Director of Student Services Melissa Taylor.

While an average of 14.7 percent of black students in the state met or exceeded standards, Taylor said 55.7 percent of black students in District 201 scored at that level. That’s also above the state average for all students tested in Illinois. Taylor said this means the achievement gap — the disparity between what students of different races score on tests — seems to be narrowing in Belleville.

“It’s not that there isn’t a gap, but there’s some really good indicators there that our students are doing really well,” she said.

Scores for students in special education programs were also higher than the averages, which is “pretty phenomenal,” according to Taylor.

“Our students with disabilities, of course just by nature of that subgroup, (are) going to have some struggles with a standardized test, but we perform quite a bit higher than the state average there, too,” Taylor said.

Throughout the district, 73.2 percent of students with disabilities met or exceeded the standards in English language arts compared to 36.2 percent of all students statewide.

“We’re really proud,” Taylor said.

District 201 Superintendent Jeff Dosier said the district started gearing up for PARCC shortly after the state adopted the new standards. He said teachers “stuck to the course” after seeing encouraging results following the first round of testing last year.

“It’s a culmination of preparation...and the results are just starting to pay off,” he said.

Nearly 50 percent of Belleville East High School students met or exceeded standards — 49.4 percent. Belleville East is the second-highest scoring high school in St. Clair County; O’Fallon High School has the top score with 50.5.

Belleville West High School saw 46.9 percent of students meet or exceed standards.

But this is the last year high school students are required to go through PARCC testing. Given the favorable scores the last two years, “it’s a little bittersweet,” Dosier said.

High schools will switch this spring from PARCC to the SAT college entrance exam.

“We may be the only high school district in the state who’s kind of sad to see PARCC go because we do feel like our curriculum is well aligned with the standards and then the test has been aligned with the standards, so it’s been able to show the good work that we’re doing,” Taylor said.

Madison County Regional Superintendent Robert Daiber said he felt this was a good move, as PARCC was controversial at the high school level. “Parents often didn’t feel the curriculum had been in place long enough to measure what was taught,” Daiber said.

Daiber said others looked on PARCC as a test derived from federal administration instead of more local focus. He doesn’t agree with that assessment, but said he doesn’t believe they did justice on implementing a new test prior to implementing a new curriculum.

“We were making an effort to assess students on concepts they hadn’t had enough classroom practice on,” Daiber said.

Daiber said it would be interesting to see how PARCC scores progress as the students in early elementary grades now grow through the higher grades learning the new material.

Taylor said The College Board informed school officials that the SAT will be similarly aligned with what District 201 is already teaching. Students in District 201 will have resources to prepare for the transition, including Khan Academy accounts that give them access to free online practice tests.

Daiber recommended parents read the entire school report card, which includes demographics, finances and social factors that may give them a broader view of their child’s school and their community. There is a definite correlation between social factors such as a high poverty rate or mobility rate — the percentage of students who move in and out of the district — and the scores. The data helps them determine the best way to target resources for helping schools improve, he said.

“The better the environment for learning, the better your scores will be,” he said.

Likewise, ISBE data analyst John Barker said PARCC is a “diagnostic tool that gives us clarity” to determine where the challenges should be met. “One test score is not going to tell you the whole story,” he said, but the data will help them determine where to focus their efforts.

This story was originally published October 31, 2016 at 12:01 AM with the headline "How did your child’s school fare on last year’s state tests?."