Most Chicago public school pupils met or exceeded state tests in reading, math and science for the second consecutive year, according to preliminary results released Tuesday. Increases were highest in math, with a slight drop-off in science.
Sixty-four percent of 3rd through 8th graders citywide passed the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, administered in March, a jump from 61.8 percent the year before — the seventh straight year the percentage has gone up, although changes in the test last year make comparisons problematic.
School officials were particularly excited about the math results, which they credit in part to a new math and science initiative introduced in about 180 schools since 2003. As the district extends the program, officials believe science scores may follow.
Michael Lach, director of math and science for the district, said most schools focus first on reading, then math, followed by science.
“We really hit a home run on mathematics, but we have some work to do on science,” he said.
Chief education officer Barbara Eason-Watkins said the district will expand its Chicago Math & Science Initiative, which provides extra training for teachers, a kindergarten-8th grade curriculum and science kits equipped with bugs and beakers for hands-on learning.
“Schools that have participated in our math and science initiative over the last three to four years are performing better on the science portion of the test than schools that have yet to receive that curriculum,” Eason-Watkins said.
Kenneth Staral, principal of Ogden Elementary School in the city’s Near North Side neighborhood, said his school used the district’s revamped math curriculum, Everyday Mathematics, to teach its kindergarten through 5th grade pupils. Developed by the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, the curriculum exposes pupils to math concepts such as data and probability, geometry and spatial sense and measures and measurement.
Ogden also is trying a more hands-on approach to science.
“I think teaching has to change with the times,” said Staral, 46. “When I went to school, everything was textbooks. We didn’t have science labs, we didn’t have hands-on science. But now students are more hands-on, they are into technology, they are more willing to experiment. … That’s how they learn.”
The ISAT results were announced Tuesday at a news conference attended by Mayor Richard Daley and top Chicago school officials at Lloyd Elementary School on the Northwest Side, which was chosen because its test scores have inched up for six straight years.
“Last year, when our students achieved record high scores in all subjects, we challenged everyone to keep the progress going,” Daley said. “Across the system our students, parents, teachers and principals have met that challenge.”
Critics questioned last year’s state test results, claiming that the impressive gains — a 61.8 percent overall pass rate compared with 47.3 percent in 2005 — owed more to a revamped test than to improved pupil performance. The revised test, which included new questions, timing requirements and scoring procedures, was administered last year for the first time.
Illinois State Board of Education officials said no substantial changes were made to this year’s state test. Statewide results will be released later this year.
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Overall, 60.9 percent of Chicago pupils met or exceeded state standards in reading this year compared with 59.1 percent in 2005-06, while the pass rate in math jumped to 68.6 percent, 4.6 percentage points over 2005-06.
The preliminary figures released by Chicago Public Schools show that 5th and 8th graders posted the biggest percentage-point increases from last year.
But Williams Multiplex, a kindergarten through 5th grade school in the Douglas neighborhood, posted the greatest overall 1-year gain. This year, 64.8 percent of the pupils passed the exam compared with 46.4 percent last year, an 18.4 percentage-point jump.
Coming in second was Jackie Robinson Elementary School in the Oakland neighborhood on the South Side, which had a 15.9 percentage-point gain. This year 64.3 percent of Robinson pupils passed the state exam compared with 48.4 percent last year.
Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan and Eason-Watkins attributed the continued gains to better-trained teachers, an emphasis on reading and an intense focus on state learning standards — the detailed list of what pupils should know at each grade level.
“What this represents is significant, steady, sustained progress in schools in every neighborhood in the city,” Duncan said. “And that is simply the result of a great deal of hard work put in by students, our teachers, our principals and the community.”
The pass rate in science, however, dropped to 60.4 percent compared with 63.3 percent last year.
The ISAT tests 4th and 7th graders in science. Test scores in 7th-grade science dropped by 5.7 percentage points to 62.8 percent. Fourth-grade science scores were flat, with 57.4 percent passing.
Though small, the dip in science scores caught Daley’s attention. He said the city is concerned about student performance in the sciences because “when businesses don’t see the preparation of students in math, science and technology, they basically move jobs away from America.”
At Lloyd Elementary, while Daley and school officials were touting the increased scores, Jessica Arreola was attending summer school to help her with math.
Jessica, 9, said she remembers studying for the exam when she and other 3rd graders took it in the spring.
“I think it was helpful, but it was kind of hard. The reading and the math was hard,” Jessica said. “I read a lot of books. It helped me because now I know a lot about reading.”
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