Student Evaluations: An Elementary Problem

Ask any Highland Park resident with children why we choose to live here, and one of the top three reasons will be "the schools." 

Understandably, the schools are the centerpiece of our children's upbringing. Until recently, I had simply assumed that a consolidated, single elementary school district in Highland Park and Highwood meant all of our children received essentially the same level and quality of education. Then I met the acronym ISAT and my perspective changed dramatically.

For those of us old enough to remember purple dittos and Apple ][ computers, ISATs are the Illinois Standards Achievement Test. Each elementary and secondary student takes the ISATs each spring in grades three through eight. There is no question that the test is a high-stakes endeavor for each school. The ISAT scores are used to as an input to school rankings, "No Child Left Behind" status, and student placement. My fourth grader, presumably like her peers, was obsessed with the ISAT results. School teachers are clearly focused on the ISAT, and student preparedness is part of the run up to the ISAT. The test was administered in the spring, but scores didn't show up until a few weeks ago, leading to an anxiety-filled summer -- this about a test that means relatively little to the individual student.

The Chicago Tribune and other news sources then published the aggregate results of the 2011 ISATs. In Highland Park, District 112 placed favorably in aggregate. 90 percent of the 3,022 District 112 students tested met or exceed the state target for reading, and 94 percent met or exceeded the state target for math. However, District 112 was flagged as not having made "adequate yearly progress," with three distinct subgroups missing the target for reading --  296 in the category of "limited English proficiency," 450 in the category of students with disabilities and 654 in the category of economically disadvantaged. In math, the disabilities group also missed the target.

I know what you're thinking, and it was an eye-opener for me. I wasn't necessarily surprised by the non-native speakers pool -- who struggle with the testing, as it is only conducted in English -- or by the disabilities pool, since many children are in disability categories across a spectrum of physical and mental challenges. But 20 percent of the students in District 112 qualify as "economically disadvantaged"? I dug into this number further.

District 112's population includes a number of different constituent groups, including children of military families living in Fort Sheridan and a 21 percent Hispanic ethnic background. Students who are eligible for a free lunch, or whose families receive public aid, fall into the low income bucket. Those students are mostly spread by bussing throughout the district, and, unfortunately, there appears to be a correlation to school performance. For example, , one of the top-ranked in the state with 98 percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards, has only 2.2 percent of the student body from low income households and a fairly homogenous racial profile. Oak Terrace, where 79 percent met or exceeded state guidelines, is 70 percent Hispanic, with 73 percent of students in low-income households. Somewhere in the middle is , where 92 percent meet or exceed state guidelines out of a 78 percent white population; Sherwood has 16.5 percent low-income students.

Though the test results demonstrate something amiss in District 112, there are some questions I haven't been able to get underneath yet. Even though, for example, Oak Terrace students are allowed through "No Child Left Behind" to request placement at another school, none chose to do so in 2005 when that option was last available. Thus, the concentration of students who appear to have challenges with the state ISATs remains there, but many other schools have a similar correlation as well. Another question that needs answering is how the influx of children from military families, those defending our nation, has changed school performance at some District schools and not others. 

In short, there is an elephant in the room -- some issue or set of issues in the district that will take time for me to get my head around.

I do not envy the job of the District 112 administrators and Board of Education. The challenges of this district remain, to the average resident, fairly well-hidden. Sure, there is the occasional flareup about administrator salaries -- District 112 pays, in my opinion justifiably, some of the highest salaries in the state -- or budget and physical plant challenges, but these are not rally cries on the streets. There are, however, issues at hand, and the more I get involved in the schools through my children, the more I learn the picture doesn't at all match my original expectations of a harmonious district experience. 

Further exploration of this topic will be the subject of future columns. You can help me in this exploration by offering comments or emails to guide the conversation.