Elmhurst's Low-Income Students Lose Ground

ELMHURST, IL – Overall, Elmhurst's students showed improvement last school year on standardized test scores.

According to the latest numbers, local students made up much of the ground they lost during the pandemic on the SAT and the Illinois Assessment of Readiness. But that largely wasn't the case for low-income students in Elmhurst School District 205.

At York High School, 18 percent of low-income students taking the SAT met state standards in English language arts in 2022-23, down from 23 percent in 2019, the year before the pandemic.

In math, 13 percent of low-income students made the benchmark last school year, down from 18 percent pre-pandemic.

On the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, 15 percent of Elmhurst's low-income third through eighth graders met the benchmark in math, lower than the 17 percent pre-pandemic.

In English language arts, low-income elementary and middle school students showed improvement, with 24 percent making standards last school year, compared with 21 percent in 2019.

In its news release on test scores Monday, District 205 said nothing about how low-income students did. The information, which was released Monday, is available on the Illinois Report Card website.

Before the district released its overall numbers last week, District 205 critic Tom Chavez predicted scores would fall or barely move the needle. While he was off on the numbers as a whole, Chavez on Monday honed in on the statistics involving low-income students.

"Test scores did fall," Chavez texted a Patch reporter. "A big bleeding heart liberal like you and all the Elmhurst-is-for-everyone crowd couldn't care less about the poor kids. Those scores are horrendous."

He also criticized Patch's story last week comparing his prediction to the overall results, saying the intention was not good journalism.

"I’m ready to defend my advocacy for real improvement against you and the rest of the propagandists," Chavez said. "You are not the only publication in town."