Illinois schools, which for years have been judged on whether most of their students passed state achievement tests, will soon be evaluated on whether each of 18 subgroups of students clears the bar.
Under the federal “No Child Left Behind” act, every public school must ensure that each subgroup–including Latino, African-American, white, low-income, bilingual and special education students–passes state math and reading exams or is making sufficient progress toward passing.
Previously, schools had to ensure only that the average of all students’ scores met standards.
The new federal rules, and their effect on Illinois, were discussed for the first time publicly at a meeting Wednesday of the Illinois State Board of Education in Springfield.
State officials said that if the regulations were to go into effect now, 52 percent of Illinois’ 3,700 public schools would not make the grade for at least one subgroup and would be subject to sanctions.
Under the federal law, those schools would have to offer students the option of moving to a better-performing school in the district and pay for their transportation.
The subgroup regulations, which will take effect in the 2003-04 school year, will be difficult for the state’s education system, which has a dramatic achievement gap among minority, poor and special-education students. Even the highest-performing schools could struggle to get every group up to par.
Last year, for instance, only about 20 percent of the state’s students with limited English passed state tests.
“This is a tough standard; there are no two ways about it,” said Gail Lieberman, federal liaison to the state board. “It will mean a great need to concentrate efforts and resources to help students most in need.”
More Top Picks Patio Sets
Under state law, a school is labeled as failing if more than 50 percent of students do not pass the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, given to elementary school students, or the Prairie State Achievement Exam, given to high school students.
But the new law mandates that 100 percent of students pass state exams and insists that schools make “adequate yearly progress” toward that accomplishment. Each state is allowed to define adequate yearly progress.
The state board will consider a proposal Thursday that would set the initial pass-fail bar for each subgroup at 40 percent. Then every year for the next 12, the bar would be raised 5 percentage points until it reaches 100 percent.