Schools

Lemont High School Falls Short of AYP

District 210 board members were informed Tuesday night that the school again failed to meet the increasingly high standards set by No Child Left Behind.

For the second year in a row, has failed to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward national No Child Left Behind goals.

During its monthly business meeting Tuesday night, the Lemont High School District 210 Board of Education was presented data from its 2011 Illinois State School Report Card, which includes information on standardized test scores and the percentage of students who have met or exceeded state standards in reading and mathematics.

For the , Lemont High School students have come up short of AYP, said District 210 Superintendent Sandra Doebert.

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Under a federal mandate from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, all students must meet or exceed state standards in the subjects of reading and mathematics by 2014. Since 2003, the state of Illinois has used AYP to determine whether students are improving their scores based on annual benchmarks.

This year, the state's target for students meeting or exceeding math and reading standards was 85 percent — a 7.5-point increase from 2010. Lemont High School fell short this year with 73.6 percent making AYP reading and 72.3 percent in math.

Find out what's happening in Lemontwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

No Child Left Behind measures progress between different classes, rather than students' personal growth over time. Current data reflects the performance of students on track to graduate in 2012.

The following table shows the percentage of Lemont High School students who met or exceeded AYP standards in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The data includes only students enrolled as of May 1 of the previous school year (i.e. May 1, 2010 for 2011 scores).


2009 2010 2011 Reading 75.6 70.1 73.6 Mathematics 72.8
73.2 72.3

The state of Illinois uses scores from the Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE), the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) and the Illinois Alternate Assessment (IAA) to measure student improvement. The ISAT is administered to students in third through eighth grade, while the PSAE is taken by all high school juniors. Students with disabilities are administered the IAA.

In the PSAE section of the school report card, scores are reported for all students. Unlike AYP, the reported percentage of students who met or exceeded standards include those enrolled after May 1 of the previous school year.

The following table shows overall percentage of students who met or exceeded state standards on the PSAE in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The table includes the science subtest, which is not counted toward AYP.


2009 2010 2011 Reading 75.7 69.9 73.4 Mathematics 72.7
72.6 71.8 Science 73.0 65.2 70.3

Lemont High School met standards in all other AYP factors, including:

  • Graduation rate (LHS: 91.2 percent, AYP: 82 percent)
  • Attendance rate (LHS: 95 percent, AYP: 91 percent)
  • Percentage of students administered PSAE (LHS: 100 percent, AYP: 95 percent)

The standards for schools to make AYP have increased significantly since 2003, when only 40 percent of students were required to meet or exceed in math and reading. The target has increased 7.5 points each year, meaning the standard will be 92.5 percent in 2012 and 2013, and 100 percent in 2014.

Doebert pointed out that the increasingly high benchmarks have caused more and more schools to fall short of AYP. In 2010, 2,104 of the state's 3,912 schools failed to have at least 77.5 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards, according to the Illinois State School Report Card.

Even more are expected to fall short in 2011, Doebert said.

"That is exactly why you see our state and many other states clamor to federal government to have waivers for NCLB requirements," she said. "We've reached the point ... that any goal of reaching 100 percent is not realistic."

Despite not making AYP, Lemont High School has shown progress in several areas. The Class of 2011 posted an average composite ACT score of 23.0 — . The mark was a full 2.4 points higher than the state average.

Lemont also celebrated the success of current senior Marjorie Dallman, who posted the .

The school's overall PSAE performance was also much higher than the state average. This year, 71.8 percent of the Class of 2012 met or exceeded standards in math, reading and science, while the state's average was only 50.5 percent. The percentage of Lemont students meeting reading standards was 22.4 points higher than the state's 51 percent, and the percentage meeting math standards was 20.5 points higher than the state's 51.3 percent.

This year, 12 Lemont High School students , an honor bestowed upon students who exceed standards in all subtests of the exam. Fifteen students earned the same recognition in 2010.

To view the entire state report card, visit www.lhs210.net or click on the PDF to the right of this article.


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