District 200 Student Achievement Update

Last month, District 200 shared the results of a community survey we recently conducted. The survey confirmed that our community greatly values the education we provide in the community. Today, I’m writing to share our annual student achievement update. Our students continue to perform at the high levels you expect. In District 200, when we review student achievement, we use several sources of information to evaluate how we are preparing our students. In addition to the state assessment, PARCC, we evaluate scores on the ACT assessment as well as our own District Assessments. We also value skills not easily assessed on a standardized test such as social emotional skills, creativity and problem solving. Here are some updates for you:

Overall Student Performance

• Our ACT composite is 23.5 for the Class of 2016 – a score that is significantly higher than the State average of 20.8.
• Of last year’s high school freshmen, 95% are on track to graduate in 2019.
• Of our English Learner (EL) students, 17% or 204 attained English proficiency and exited the program, which is well above the State’s expectation of 12%.

PARCC

The State of Illinois recently released results from the Partnership of Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). This is the second year that students in grades 3 through 8 took the test in English and Math. High school students enrolled in Freshman English and Algebra I also took the test, which was administered on paper for all students.

• Elementary students scored approximately 26 percentage points higher than the state averages in English Language Arts. The same students scored approximately 20 percentage points higher in math.
• At the middle school level, students exceeded state averages in English Language Arts by 34 percentage points and 17 percentage points in math.
• High school students scored 25 percentage points higher in English Language Arts and 20 percentage points higher in math.

The PARCC assessment and the ACT at the high school level will be replaced in 2017 with the SAT assessment.At the September 28 Board of Education Meeting, Faith Dahlquist, Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services, delivered a student learning #presentation on our student performance data. She will provide a follow-up presentation regarding the PARCC assessment at a future Board of Education Meeting. Our 2016 School Report Cards are available on our website if you would like to view them. Our students continue to demonstrate high levels of learning. As educators, we strive daily to inspire our students to continue meeting your expectations.