Elmhurst D205 Surges Faster Than State Among Younger Students

ELMHURST, IL – It is not news that Elmhurst School District 205's latest test scores beat state averages.

That's expected because the local district is among the wealthiest in Illinois.

But it is news that the district's elementary and middle school students have made up all the lost ground from the pandemic, while the state has not. That is not the case with York High School students.

The local district released its scores last week, while the state revealed its statistics Monday on the Illinois Report Card website.

On the Illinois Assessment of Readiness' reading and writing section, 61 percent of local third through eighth graders met standards in the 2022-23 year. That's up from 54 percent from a year earlier. During the year before the pandemic, 51 percent met the benchmark.

By contrast, 35 percent of students statewide met standards on the test's reading and writing section, compared with 38 percent pre-pandemic.

For math, 52 percent of Elmhurst's third through eighth graders met the state benchmark last school year. That's the same percentage as 2019, the year before the pandemic.

Across the state, 27 percent of students met standards in math last year, down from 32 percent in 2019.

At York High School, performance is lagging on the SAT, compared to before the pandemic.

In English language arts, 55 percent of York juniors met state standards in 2022-23, up from 52 percent a year ago but down from 65 percent in 2019.

Across Illinois, 32 percent of students met the English language arts standards last year, compared with 36 percent before the pandemic.

In math, 53 percent of York juniors met standards on the SAT last school year, down from 63 percent in 2019.

Statewide, 27 percent met the benchmark, down from 34 percent pre-pandemic.

In a news release Monday, Superintendent Keisha Campbell said the district's success doesn't happen on its own, crediting teachers and administrators.

"Seeing results like this tell me that, although there is still work to be done, our efforts to align curricular resources, programs, and instructional practices to research, standards, and data are working," Campbell said. “We know that we need to continue to support individual student academic and social-emotional needs through varied programs and supports, based on progress monitoring and assessment data as well, and we will continue to see student growth.”