Three years ago, 18 percent of South Loop Elementary 3rd graders passed the state reading exam. Last school year, 58 percent did so.
About 13 percent of 5th graders passed the math exam in 2002, compared with three times that many during the 2004-05 school year.
South Loop students’ impressive progress is exactly what federal officials envisioned when they passed the landmark No Child Left Behind Act in 2001.
Still, the Chicago school is not improving fast enough under the law. South Loop landed on the federal list of failing schools this year after it barely missed the pass rate for low-income students on the math exam, according to report card data being released Wednesday by the Illinois State Board of Education. And if scores don’t improve in the spring, the school will face sanctions.
South Loop isn’t the only school in such a predicament.
Statewide, 100 schools, including South Loop, boosted pass rates by at least 19 percentage points over three years, but 11 of those schools still landed on the failing list. Five of the 11 are in the Chicago area.
The story of South Loop Elementary exposes one of the most oft-heard complaints about No Child Left Behind: While yearly test data offer a snapshot of a school, the data do not provide a full portrait. A peek inside South Loop reveals a dramatic change under way–a change that cannot be captured with a pass-fail rate.
A new way of thinking
“When a successful school is labeled as failing, I think it confuses parents and lowers morale at the school,” said South Loop Principal Patrick Baccellieri. “Every school has its own particular circumstances, and I think people need to consider those circumstances. I believe in the idea that every child can succeed, but making dramatic changes takes time.”
Five years ago, South Loop was among the lowest-performing schools in the state. Only 34 percent of students passed state exams, well below the 63 percent state average and less than the citywide 38 percent rate.
The school, nestled in the Dearborn Park II community just south of the Loop, was reeling from a nasty battle between affluent Dearborn Park residents and those from the Hilliard Homes public housing development. The two fought for control of the school and, in the end, most Dearborn Park residents chose not to send their children to South Loop.
In 2000, 93 percent of the school’s pupils lived in poverty and most were bused from public housing complexes.
The bruising fight left a legacy of low teacher morale, community angst, student discipline problems and abysmal test scores. The school went through six principals in four years.
Enter Baccellieri.
Stability found
Baccellieri, who has a master’s degree in education and another in theology, was charged with turning around the troubled school and bringing Dearborn Park children back to South Loop. First, Baccellieri, who became principal in 2002, reached out to parents to restore the trust shattered by years of fighting.
Then, he set out to fix the school culture, which everyone agrees was “rough.” During the 2002-03 school year, an average of 60 students a month were sent to the principal’s office for discipline problems. The disruptions made it difficult for teachers to focus on teaching.
Baccellieri and a group of teachers created a discipline policy–called the South Loop Way–that dictates student behavior in the classroom, on the bus, in the cafeteria, even standing in line: arms at sides, one floor tile away from the child in front. Now, only two to three students are sent to the principal’s office each month.
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But South Loop administrators and teachers agree the rapid rise in test scores can be tied primarily to a dramatic change in classroom instruction and to an embracement of testing.
Baccellieri persuaded his teachers to realign their curricula around the state learning standards–detailed guidelines that spell out what Illinois children should know and when they should know it. Questions on the state’s elementary and high school exams are tied directly to the learning standards.
In the summer of 2003, Baccellieri and a group of teachers gathered every week for four hours to pore through the state’s learning goals and create a blueprint for each classroom.
The blueprint is like a ladder, with each grade level’s standards building on the prior one.
Baccellieri then pushed his teachers to embrace testing. The only way to ensure students were learning the goals, Baccellieri reasoned, was to assess them on the material. At South Loop, students are tested three times a year. Teachers use results to measure each student’s progress and drive instruction throughout the year.
“People may think it’s a lot of testing, but it lets me know exactly where every single one of my students is falling behind,” said Angelika Friedman, who teaches 3rd grade at South Loop. “Then I can target what each student needs to work on.”
On a recent morning, students read a passage about a little girl who tried to catch a fish. Friedman told students to write a paragraph about a time in their life when they had to work hard to reach a goal.
Then Friedman gave her 30 students a “student-friendly” scoring rubric and asked them to grade each other’s paper. That rubric, nearly identical to the one used to score state achievement exams, spells out exactly what students must do to get a good grade.
Eight-year-old Alexis Mason gave her classmate a 3 out of 4 on the assignment.
“You need an introduction,” she wrote on her classmate’s paper.
Alexis later said she liked her classmate’s paper. “But I don’t think it’s good enough to get an A,” she added. “She needs to make a better introduction. You need that for a good story.”
Then Alexis thought about her own paper.
“I need a better introduction too,” she said.
It’s not all about tests
But South Loop teachers do not spend the day focused on boosting test scores. The next day, Friedman’s students verbally retold their stories–in animated style–to a classmate. Friedman wanted them to improve their fluency and use their imaginations.
Krista Kaleel, 8, who transferred to South Loop from a private school this year, says she prefers her new school.
“I like this school because I get to learn a lot,” the 3rd grader said. “And I get to have fun.”
The dramatic changes at South Loop have enticed many Dearborn Park residents back to the school. As a result, the percentage of low-income students dropped to 52.5 percent last year from 93 percent in 2000.
But a Tribune analysis of last year’s test scores reveals that almost three-quarters of students who took state exams came from low-income homes. Most of the school’s more affluent students are enrolled in the early grades, in which students do not take state tests.
“This is not about test scores, even if people want to see it that way,” Baccellieri said. “This is about our responsibility to teach all children what they need to know to be successful in life.”
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Fast progress, but not fast enough
Chicago’s South Loop Elementary School has had rapidly changing demographics and has made significant academic progress, but not enough to get off a federal list of failing schools.
South Loop Elementary at a glance:
ISAT tests passed
2001: 34.0%
2002: 34.4%
2003: 32.8%
2004: 49.4%
2005: 52.0%
Race/Ethnicity
2001: Black 99.8%
White 0.2%
2002: Black 99.3%
Asian 0.2%
Hispanic 0.2%
White 0.2%
2003: Asian 1.0%
Black 92.5%
Hispanic 1.0%
White 5.5%
2004: Black 84.0%
Asian 1.9%
Hispanic 2.2%
White 12.0%
2005: Black 74.7%
Asian 5.2%
Hispanic 3.4%
White 16.7%
Low-income
2001: 92.2%
2002: 90.8%
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2003: 78.4%
2004: 67.9%
2005: 52.5%
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding.
Sources: South Loop Elementary School, Illinois Board of Education
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Top schools in Chicago
Rankings from the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) and Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE) are based on a school’s combined test scores.
Best overall 2005 ISAT results
Not all schools include all grade levels that were tested (3, 4, 5, 7, 8).
KEY: (o) Grade does not exist at school (x) Grade tested
By percent of test scores that met or exceeded state standards
%%
SCHOOL 3 4 5 7 8 PCT
Keller Elem. Gifted Magnet (x)(x)(x)(x)(x) 100%
Lenart Elem. Regional Gifted Center (x)(x)(x)(x)(x) 100%
Young Magnet High (O)(O)(O)(O)(x) 100%
Decatur Classical Elem. (x)(x)(x)(O)(O) 99.5%
Morgan Park High (O)(O)(O)(x)(x) 99.1%
Edison Elem. Regional Gifted Center (x)(x)(x)(x)(x) 99.1%
Taft High (O)(O)(O)(x)(x) 98.7%
Kenwood Academy High (O)(O)(O)(x)(x) 98.1%
Edgebrook Elem. (x)(x)(x)(x)(x) 96.9%
McDade Elem. Classical (x)(x)(x)(O)(O) 95.8%
Best overall 2005 PSAE results
Students in 11th grade took the Prairie State Achievement
Exam.
By percent of test scores that met or exceeded state
standards
SCHOOL PCT
Northside College Prep. 98.7%
Young Magnet High 95.3%
Payton College Prep. 93.7%
Jones College Prep. 86.9%
Lane Technical 77.1%
Brooks College Prep. Acad. 68.8%
Von Steuben Metro Science 65.3%
Lincoln Park 58.5%
Chicago H.S. for Agri. Sciences 58.1%
Morgan Park 50.4%
Source: Illinois State Board of Education
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