THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2007
Test Scores 'Stable'; Writing Area Of Concern
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Reporter
Park Ridge-Niles elementary students are doing well in reading, math, and science. But in writing, they are not performing so well.
This is the bottom-line assessment of the latest Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) results reported for students in Park Ridge-Niles School District 64.
Students in all grades three through eight take the ISAT math and reading tests. Those in grades four and seven take the science test. Those in grades five and eight took the writing ISAT this year for the first time in several years.
Larry Sorensen, director of assessments and technology, reported on the 2006 and 2007 ISAT results to the board of education Monday night (Oct. 22).
In another significant announcement, he said state education officials have advised him that all District 64 schools met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards set by the No Child Left Behind program.
ISAT scores overall remained "very stable" in math, reading, and science when compared to the past year, Sorensen said. "In the area of math, each grade level is now scoring 90% or above in the categories of meets or exceeds state standards," he said. "In reading, each level is scoring 86% or above in the meets or exceeds areas. In science, the fourth and seventh grade children are scoring 90% or above in the meets or exceeds categories.
"The area that we experienced the greatest growth since last year was in third grade reading, where the scores increased from 82.8% in 2006 to 90% in 2007 in the meets or exceeds category," Sorensen said.
"The area of concern is in writing scores for students in grade five, he said. "Only 65% of the fifth grade students scored in the 'meets or exceeds' category and 31% scored in the 'below standards' category," he said. "At the state level, only 50% of all students met or exceeded state standards this year."
In a special note to the district regarding writing, the assessment department of the state board of education said, "The fact that the last time writing was tested was 2004 could point to the problem of lower scores. Current fifth graders have never taken a state writing test. Common sense tells us that writing instruction was not completely abandoned in our schools beginning in 2004, logic also tells us that writing instruction has not received the same attention as the AYP subjects reading and math. Another factor could be that fifth graders wrote only one composition, so there was one attempt at a score. In the past, they wrote two compositions."
In contrast, eighth grade students who took the writing test previously in the third and fifth grades, provided two compositions in 2007, and 79% of them in District 64 scored in the "meets or exceeds" category. "Writing is a curricular area now being reviewed in the district, and will be a focus for improvement moving forward," Sorensen said.
Here are a few examples of how District 64 students did in each grade level and subject:
* Third grade reading, 38% exceeded state standards, 51% met them, and 10% did not. In third grade math, 57% exceeded standards, 40% met them, and 3% did not.
* In fifth grade reading, 41% exceeded standards, 45% met them, and 14% did not. In fifth grade math, 24% exceeded standards, 70% met them, and 6% did not.
* In seventh grade reading, 25% of local students exceeded standards, 63% met them, and 12% did not. In seventh grade math, 45% exceeded standards, 45% met them, and 10% did not. In seventh grade science, 42% exceeded, 48% met, and 9% did not.
The ISAT is one of 10 measures District 64 uses to assess the performance of its students. Most of the others are local programs or evaluations conducted by teachers and administrators, frequently in consultation with parents.