As school districts across the state await the Illinois State Board of Education’s release of School Report Cards by the end of September or beginning of October, students in Lemont-Bromberek School District 113A can already show they have met some important goals.
At Tuesday’s board of education meeting, Assistant Superintendent Mary Gricus reported the district’s overall student population met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) targets in tested grade levels. AYP serves as a measure of student performance under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Gricus explained that although AYP focuses primarily on individual schools, the performance measure also reports the status of various subgroups (such as students with disabilities, limited English proficient, economically disadvantaged, Hispanic and Asian), as well as the school district as a whole.
In her report to the board of education Tuesday night, Gricus detailed the following conditions required for meeting AYP:
- At least 95 percent of students must be tested in reading and math (in the total school and district student populations, as well as each of the identified subgroups)
- For 2012, at least 85 percent of scores must fall in the “meets” and “exceeds” levels for both reading and math
- Elementary schools must have at least a 91 percent attendance rate
Gricus reported that this year, a higher percentage of the district’s students met or exceeded state standards for reading compared to the previous three years, although the overall percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards for math this year remained the same as in 2011.
Old Quarry Middle School met AYP in both reading and math for all students and all subgroups in 2012, which removes the school from the state’s Academic Warning status.
But the performance levels of several several subgroups at River Valley and the school district as a whole did not meet AYP, Gricus said.
“We have continued to address the challenge of decreasing the gap between the No Child Left Behind target and the performance levels of several subgroups,” Gricus wrote in her report.
Although challenges may still lie ahead, Gricus praised the hard work of students in the classroom -- as well as of those who support them.
“The success with our general population and some of our subgroups is the direct result of the perseverance of the principals, teachers, support staff and parents who worked diligently to address the individual needs of students, despite challenging class sizes,” Gricus said.
Editor’s note -- Still to come in tomorrow’s Patch: Board of Education approves amended budget after contentious debate and numerous votes.
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So River Valley and the school district as a WHOLE DID NOT meet AYP.