Elmhurst D205 Won't 'Completely Celebrate' Scores

ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst School District 205 officials said Wednesday they should provide context on the district's standardized test scores.

At a school board meeting, the officials compared the district to all Illinois school districts. Often, it limits such comparisons to similarly wealthy schools.

When it does statewide comparisons, the district moves to favorable ground. Students from wealthier backgrounds tend to do better on tests.

In District 205, 14 percent of students come from low-income families, compared with 47 percent statewide. Elmhurst's median household income is $128,355, higher than the state's $72,563.

In a presentation, Superintendent Keisha Campbell said the district needed to further analyze its data against the state – both before and after the pandemic.

"Context matters," she said.

According to the district's numbers, 53 percent of all local students met standards on tests in English language arts in both 2019 and 2022. Statewide, the percentage dropped to 29 percent in 2022, from 38 percent three years before.

In 2019, District 205 scored better than 82 percent of Illinois districts in English language arts. That rate jumped to 91 percent in 2022, the district reported.

The district said 53 percent of local students met math standards in 2019. That dropped to 49 percent three years later. Statewide, that number fell to 23 percent, from 29 percent.

In 2019, District 205 exceeded the math scores of 90 percent of the state's school districts. That increased to 92 percent in 2022.

"We collectively agree that we want these numbers to increase," Campbell said.

Associate Superintendent Scott Grens noted Illinois districts as a whole fell back in their math scores between 2019 and 2022.

"We were not exempt from that," he said. "We also have room for growth in math as it relates to our proficiency."

In English language arts, he said, the district stayed where it was.

"We saw that our students outperformed the state in 2022 by a wider margin than our comparable schools prior to the pandemic," Grens said. "We all want to take a moment and notice that those are definitely positives but again not necessarily something we're ready to completely celebrate because we have a lot of work ahead of us."

Later in the meeting, board member Athena Arvanitis said, "There's something to be said about being in the top 10 or 13 percent in the state when it comes to our students and their educational experience.

"Does the state of Illinois have a lot of work to do?" she said. "Yeah, I would say that pretty confidently that those scores are not where I would want them to be."

When the latest scores were released last fall, district officials appeared to avoid the bad news, particularly with the high school's SAT results.