Forest Park Middle School

Forest Park Middle School saw its test scores drop slightly last year, with 52.1 percent of students meeting state standards, down from 54.8 in 2003-2004.

The school devoted 43 minutes of instruction time per day to math, science and social science, and 86 minutes per day to English last year. The state average is about 50 minutes per day for math, 43 for science and social science and 100 minutes for English/Language Arts.

The average class size was 18.3 students in 6th grade and 19.2 in 8th grade, well below the state averages of 23.4 and 22.9. The schoolfs total enrollment last year was 326.

 

Grant-White Elementary School

Test scores rose substantially at Grant-White last year, with 60.5 percent of students meeting standards compared to 50.4 percent in 2003-2004.

Grant-White, which has the highest rate of low-income students in Forest Park at 59 percent of its 178 students (the district rate is 38.5 percent), has an average kindergarten class size of 22 students, slightly higher than the state average of 20.9. First and 3rd grades both average 16.5 students.

In 3rd grade last year, 41 minutes per day were devoted to math, 31 to science, 158 to English/Language Arts and 35 to social science. The time devoted to each subject was the same in each of the districtfs four elementary schools.

Garfield Elementary School

Garfield saw a slight increase in its test scores last year, as 77.5 percent of students met state standards, compared to 76.6 percent in 2003-2004.

The school had 189 students last year, and had average class sizes of 20 for kindergarten, 21 for 1st grade and 15.5 for 3rd grade.

Garfieldfs areas of planned improvement for the coming year include increasing parent involvement and expanding the After School Grizzlies program, an extended program for students requiring additional assistance.

 

Betsy Ross Elementary School

Betsy Ross improved its standardized test scores by over four percentage points from 2003-2004, with 72.8 percent of students now meeting state standards.

Still, the news is not all positive. Though 42.1 percent of 3rd graders exceeded state standards in reading and 47.4 percent exceeded standards in math, in 5th grade, only 4.5 percent of students were exceeding standards in reading and 4.3 percent were exceeding standards in math.

Still, 63.6 percent of 5th grade reading students and 52.2 percent of math students were designated as meeting, but not exceeding, the standards.

 

Field Stevenson Elementary School

Field Stevensonfs test scores dipped slightly last year, with 56.8 percent of students meeting state standards as opposed to 58.3 percent a year ago.

Though the schoolfs math scores improved substantially this year, with 89.7 percent of 3rd graders and 54.8 percent of 5th grades meeting or exceeding state standards, its reading scores dropped significantly with 46.2 percent of 3rd graders and 37.5 percent of 5th graders meeting standards.

The schoolfs improvement plan states that “readingcwill become the central focus of our program this year” though it will not cut back on other areas.

Field Stevenson, the largest of the districtfs elementary schools with 270 students, has average class sizes of 20 in kindergarten, 17.5 in 1st grade, and 19.5 in 3rd grade.

 

— Compiled by Seth Stern

¡ Full report cards for each D91 school available at http://www.isbe.state.il.us/

Scores and pay just behind state

An average Dist. 91 teacher was paid $42,689 last year, compared to a state average of $55,558 and had 8.7 years experience compared to 13.6 for the state.

According to the latest available data from 2003-2004, the districtfs operating expenditure per pupil was $9,461, compared to a state average of $8,786.