York High Compares Well To Similar Schools With Latest ACT Scores

ELMHURST, IL – These days, Elmhurst School District 205 likes to compare its test results with state and national averages.

Newsflash: The district will always far exceed those benchmarks, given it's among the wealthier schools.

On Friday, the state released test results from Illinois' 850 districts.

Patch compared York High's ACT results from last school year with a half dozen demographically similar districts. These are the school systems to which District 205 used to compare.

They are Barrington District 220, Batavia District 101, Geneva District 304, Indian Prairie District 204, Naperville District 203, St. Charles District 303 and Wheaton District 200.

In English language arts, 80 percent of York's juniors met standards. That put it second only to Naperville, which was at 81 percent.

In math, 68 percent of York juniors made the mark, tying for second among the comparison schools. Naperville was first with 70 percent.

For science, York came in fourth at 72 percent, with Naperville at 78 percent, Geneva at 75 percent and Barrington at 74 percent.

All the schools have relatively low percentages of students who come from low-income families. Statewide, about half of students fall in that category.

Elmhurst's low-income rate is 16 percent, more than three times higher than Geneva's 5 percent. Yet York exceeded Geneva's proficiency rates in English language arts and math.

This is the second year that the state has required districts to use the ACT, rather than the SAT.

York's latest ACT results resembled those from a year earlier.