Reading scores for Hispanic students at Riverside-Brookfield High School soared last year after the school made a concerted effort to improve the academic performance of those students.
In 2008, only 40 percent of Hispanic students at RB met or exceeded state standards in reading on the state mandated Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE) which is given to all high school juniors in Illinois.
But in 2009, 74.5 percent of RB’s Hispanic students met or exceeded the state standard, an increase of 34.5 percent. The 74.5 percent pass rate was the highest for RB in reading by Hispanic students since 2003.
This surge in reading scores did not happen by accident. Rather, it was the end product of an effort led by former RB Superintendent/Principal Jack Baldermann.
“We got serious about it,” said RB Principal Tim Scanlon at August’s meeting of the District 208 school board.
In a subsequent interview, Scanlon said that RB used a variety of initiatives that led to the big improvement in reading scores among Hispanic students.
Scanlon said that Baldermann made an effort to reach out to Hispanic parents. He met with many parents and made them aware of the relevance of the PSAE exam. He also informed them of the opportunities for extra support and help that existed for Hispanic students at RB.
Spanish-speaking teachers at RB were recruited to help coordinate and lead test preparation and review sessions for the school’s Hispanic students.
“We concentrated on reading and math in these small group prep sessions before and after school,” Scanlon said.
The prep and review sessions lasted about nine or 10 weeks and groups met a couple times a week. Reading was a focus across the curriculum last year at RB and not just for Hispanic students.
“There was just a real school-wide awareness to address literacy in general,” Scanlon said.
RB used a program called Reading Fusion that incorporates the teaching and practice of reading skills in many different classes. In some subject areas, especially in social studies, teachers were given additional training in how to teach reading skills in their disciplines.
School officials also made a focused effort to encourage Hispanic students to take on more leadership roles at RB. The school’s Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS) was very active and tried to make Hispanic students comfortable at RB and proud of their heritage.
The improvement in reading scores came just one year after RB had failed to make adequate year progress as defined by the federal No Child Left Behind law in 2007-08 because of low reading scores by Hispanic students. Helped by the surge in reading scores by Hispanic students in 2009, RB has made in 2009.
A change in the rules about the PSAE in 2008 may have contributed to the uncharacteristically poor performance of RB’s Hispanic students that year. Before 2008, students with limited English language abilities did not have to take the same test as other students. That changed in the 2008 exam, when all students, regardless of language ability, took the same test.
In 2008 the percentage of RB’s Hispanic students who met or exceeded state standards in reading on the PSAE dropped 17 points going from 57 percent in 2007 to 40 percent in 2008. The plunge in reading scores stunned RB officials and they took steps to reverse the decline.
Math and science scores also jumped in 2009 for RB’s Hispanic students. In math the percentage of Hispanic students meeting or exceeding state standards increased by a bit more than 10 points, from 57 percent in 2008 to 67.3 percent in 2009. In science the pass rate of Hispanic students jumped to 58.4 percent in 2009 from 46 percent in 2008.
18.3 percent of students at RB were Hispanic in 2008 according to RB’s 2008 school report card.