School report cards are out

Scores increase in elementary schools; high schools still show massive gaps

11/04/2009 10:00 PM

By MICAH MAIDENBERG
Editor

No Comments - Add Your Comment




Last week, the Illinois State Board of Education released annual results of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, or ISAT, and the Prairie State Achievement Examination, or PSAE.

The ISAT is taken by elementary and middle-grade students from 3rd through 8th grade each March. Eleventh graders take the PSAE each April.

A number of elementary schools across the Near South and Near West Sides saw improvements between their schools’ aggregate 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 scores.

Students enrolled in the best of the pre-kindergarten though 8th grade schools — Skinner, Jackson, South Loop, Galileo — all increased their scores, numbers that already bested state and district-wide performance. Suder Montessori saw 81.3 percent of its third-graders meet or exceed standards.

All five of these institutions fall under the purview of the CPS Office of Academic Enhancement. Skinner is a classical school; Galileo, Jackson and Suder are magnet schools; and South Loop has a test-in component through a regional gifted center.

Neighborhood elementary schools also saw improvements as well. Dett and Herbert saw the percentage of their students meeting or exceeding standards increase by 10.6 and 11 percent, respectively.

Near West and Near South Side high schools’ performance on the PSAE continues to be bifurcated.

Whitney Young and Jones College Prep saw slight increases in students meeting or exceeding PSAE standards. Both schools draw students from across Chicago who compete for admission in the annual selective-enrollment process.

While the number of Crane Technical Prep 11th graders who met or exceeded PSAE standards nearly doubled between the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years, just 8 percent of students there achieved proficiency. Best Practice High School, which is being phased out, saw 7.2 percent of 11th graders meet or exceed standards, a decline from the ’07-’08 test. No 11th graders at the Crane Achievement Academy, records show, met or exceed standards on the PSAE.


No Comments - Add Your Comment