District 210 Officials Say Student Achievement Up, Despite Failure to Make AYP

Lincoln-Way Community High School District 210 failed to make adequate yearly progress in reading and math last year despite a graduation rate of 97 percent and high scores overall on state and ACT exams.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, AYP is a benchmark that increases by 7.5 percent each year to represent the annual academic performance targets schools must reach to be considered "on track."

The 2009-10 benchmark dictated that 77.5 percent of students had to meet or exceed standards. According to the district's annual report card, 72.3 percent of students met the requirements. None of the ethnic subgroups — including white, black and Hispanic — reached the target in reading, and the Hispanic subgroup was the only one to make AYP in math. Students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students met AYP in both fields. 

The only subgroup that did not meet AYP in 2008-09 was economically disadvantaged students in math, according to last year's report card.

Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Sharon Michalak said the annually increasing benchmark makes it difficult for schools to accurately assess whether certain programs help student achievement.

"Increasing student achievement is done long-term, not year-by-year," she said.

Michalak did not specify plans to get the district's students to meet AYP next year when the benchmark will reach 84 percent, but said the administration was planning on "doing a better job" of analyzing data regarding subgroups and targeting programs.

Although the district did not meet AYP, Michalak said it has made significant gains in scores on the ACT and Prairie State Achievement Examination over the past 10 years. The number of students meeting or exceeding standards has increased 11 percent in reading, 9 percent in science and 6 percent in math since 2001, according to a release. The district also beat state averages in graduation rates and ACT and PSAE scores.

Recently, all four Lincoln-Way schools were ranked among the Chicago Sun-Times' top 100 schools in Illinois. The highest-ranked of the four schools was Lincoln-Way East in the 34th slot. Lincoln-Way North was ranked lowest of the four schools at 73.