The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) released its 2022 Illinois Report Card last week. ISBE prepares the Report Cards annually to provide a detailed look at each school’s progress on academics, student success, school culture and climate, and financial investments, but have not released one since 2019, due to the pandemic.
Elmhurst District 205 demonstrated a return to, or even an increase — over pre-pandemic results — in the percentage of students taking early college coursework, percent of freshmen on track, and an increase in the percentage of students that exceed performance levels on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) in both math and English Language Arts.
The last two years have certainly had an impact on students and staff all over the world, school administrators agree. While navigating the pandemic, District 205 implemented a balanced assessment system to monitor student progress and respond to student needs, intentionally seeking opportunities to create additional learning experiences, such as the expansion of summer school offerings.
The District also provided on-going targeted support, including in-school interventions by dedicated staff – a tool that is still being implemented today. Additionally, heading into this school year, K-5 teachers are implementing new literacy curricular resources.
“Across all levels, District 205 is committed to ensuring all students master essential skills and content to achieve academic excellence,” said Elmhurst District 205 Superintendent Dr. Keisha Campbell. “It is because of this level of professionalism, foresight and constant devotion to student achievement and success from our staff, that every school in the district has something to celebrate.”
Summative designation: How well do we meet students’ needs?
One component of the School Report Card is the annual summative designation – a descriptor of how well each school in Illinois is meeting the needs of all students. This designation is federally required and is based on eight indicators of academic performance, including English Language Arts and math growth and proficiency, climate surveys, graduation rate and 9th graders on track to graduate – among others.
In 2019, District 205 had two schools receive the Exemplary Summative Designation. Based on current summative designations, they now have six schools designated Exemplary and six deemed Commendable.
The 2022 Illinois Report Card also includes a new element this year called the Equity Journey Continuum. This informational tool helps each school district in Illinois visualize the size of the equity gaps in each school district in Illinois in the areas of student learning, learning conditions, and elevating educators. Equity, as defined by the State Board of Education, means having high expectations for every learner and providing supports and resources so each learner can meet those expectations. This metric will support the District in ongoing areas of focus related to gap reduction in students’ equitable access and achievement in high-quality and rigorous curricula throughout their journey of excellence.
“It is important to take a moment and celebrate these results, but even with all of this success, we know that our journey continues…we are not done educating, engaging and empowering all students,” said Campbell. “We still have more work to do. This information provides us with an opportunity to drill down and identify the areas that show the greatest room for growth while continuing to further strengthen our instruction and support for the entire school community. Our school teams and administration have already begun to dig into the information as we are formulating and adjusting our school improvement plans and begin to implement and monitor our Strategic Plan priorities and objectives.”
[Ed. note: This release was received from Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205.]
