Under the new state standardized testing standards, only two elementary and middle schools in the Landmark’s coverage area made adequate yearly progress (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind Law.
Those schools were Blythe Park in Riverside and Hollywood School in Brookfield. And the only reason Blythe Park School and Hollywood School made AYP is because of an obscure provision in the law known as a safe harbor.
Blythe Park and Hollywood schools actually scored the lowest of the four District 96 elementary schools on the 2013 Illinois State Achievement Test (ISAT) with 75.2 percent and 76.3 percent of their students respectively meeting or exceeding state standards.
Generally, at least 92.5 percent of students have to have met or exceeded state standards on the 2013 ISATs for a school to meet state standards. Only a handful of schools in the state can make adequate yearly progress under that tough standard.
Illinois has applied for a waiver from the federal government to be exempt from the provisions of No Child Left Behind. The waiver is expected to be granted, but if it is not, 100 percent of students in 2014 will have to meet or exceed standards for a school to make adequate yearly progress.
Ames School, which did not make AYP, led Riverside schools with 86.4 percent of its students meeting or exceeding state standards even under the tougher new grading standards used on the 2013 ISATs. Central School was next with 80.3 percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards.
At L.J. Hauser Junior High School, 73.4 percent of students met or exceeded state standards.
In Brookfield-LaGrange District 95, 75.2 percent of students at Brook Park Elementary School met or exceeded state standards, while at S.E. Gross Middle School 63.8 percent of students did so.
At Congress Park School (District 102) in southwestern Brookfield, 64 percent of students met or exceeded state standards and at Lincoln School (District 103) in southeastern Brookfield 49 percent of students made the grade.
At District 102’s Park Junior High School, 76 percent of students met or exceeded state standards, while at District 103’s George Washington Middle School, 48 percent of students made the grade.
At Komarek School in North Riverside, 64 percent of students met or exceeded state standards.
