Preliminary results on the high-stakes exam used to measure student performance in Illinois schools indicate that two of Forest Park’s five schools did not do well enough when kids sat for the test in March.
Superintendent Lou Cavallo said during a July 9 board meeting that he did not yet have details from the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, but the state did provide a summary. According to that information, said Cavallo, Field-Stevenson Elementary and the middle school both failed to meet federal benchmarks established by the No Child Left Behind Act. Some 59 percent of students at the elementary school met grade-level requirements in reading, falling well short of the 70 percent required. At the middle school, 69 percent of students are doing grade-level math, according to the test scores, which puts the school 1 percentage point shy of the requirement.
Betsy Ross Elementary and Garfield Elementary were the only schools in the district to see an overall increase in the number students meeting the federal standards in both math and reading. Each of the other schools saw a decrease in both subject areas.
Cavallo said there were a number of institutional and curricular changes that may have contributed to the overall dip in student performance. He said he expects to see the scores improve as teachers and students become more familiar with the new strategies.
