LT High School scores lower, still on state watch list

Standardized test scores at Lyons Township High School fell slightly in 2007 and the school remains on the state’s Academic Watch List after its students with disabilities failed to make adequate yearly progress in reading and math according to minimum standards set by the Illinois State Board of Education.

Each year, high school juniors in Illinois are given the Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE), which measures achievement in reading, math and science. Scores are tallied for the junior class as a whole and also broken down into subgroups, including categories for race, socioeconomics and special education. The exam is the measuring stick the state board of education uses to track whether schools are complying with standards mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

In 2007, the percentage of students meeting state standards on the PSAE was 75.2 percent, a 1 percent dip from 76.2 percent in 2006. Despite the drop, LT students far outperformed their peers statewide (52.6 percent of Illinois high school juniors in 2007 met standards). And the 75.2 percent passing rate is higher than those the school posted in every year since 2002, with the exception of 2006.

LT saw students score slightly lower in both reading and science in 2007 but slightly higher in math. Broken down by subgroups, however, white students are far outperforming both black and Hispanic students at LTHS.

While 78.6 percent and 80.5 percent of white students, respectively, met state standards in reading and math, just 25 percent of black students met state standards in both subjects, while just over 50 percent of Hispanic students met state standards in math and 53.4 percent in reading.

The scores for black students represent a significant plunge from 2006, when 64.2 percent of black students met state standards in reading and 42.9 percent met them in math. In the several years prior to 2006, however, black student achievement hovered between 15 and 30 percent in reading and math.

As a way to reach out to black and Hispanic students, LTHS has implemented a faculty liaison program.

“We’re committed to doing a better job educating our minority kids,” said Superintendent Dennis Kelly.

Part of that effort is also working with grade school districts throughout Lyons Township to use data better to track individual student performance as they move through elementary school to high school.

It should lead to having pretty good data in the hands of teachers,” Kelly said. “It will allow us to do things for the kids that we should be doing, not what we think we should be doing.”

Kelly said the district will also roll out a new program in January in order to help the district reach out to parents who are non-English speakers.

“The program is for any parent in Lyons Township who doesn’t speak English,” said Kelly, who added that the purpose of the program is to help parents “work more effectively with both their kids and the school district.”

Kelly said that the English classes will be held in “convenient locations” for parents throughout the district, from local schools to churches and community centers.

With respect to the performance of special education students on the PSAE at LTHS, the high school didn’t meet state standards in a couple of areas. First, the district fell short of the minimum percentage of students required to take the exam. According to state guidelines, at least 95 percent of all students and 95 percent of each subgroup of students must be tested. At LTHS 92.3 percent of students with disabilities were tested.

Of that number, just 31.1 percent met state standards in reading and 30 percent in math. The minimum target set by the state for achieving adequate yearly progress was 55 percent.

Kelly said that the district, which was previously on the state’s watch list for the same reason, is tracking students and offering support services for those students.

He also expressed some frustration with the guidelines, saying that the district is doing its job and identifying students with learning disabilities and that their scores reflect those disabilities.

“NCLB doesn’t address that,” Kelly said.