Valley View School District 365U saw a rise in the percentage of students passing the math portion of the Illinois Standard Achievement Test, or ISAT, according to recently released state data.
Roughly 59 percent of Valley View students passed the math portion of the ISAT this spring, up from about 51 percent last year, according to state data.
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District officials say it is a move in the right direction and indicative of the hard work put in by staff and students.
Valley View has in recent years increased its focus on math as it implemented the new Common Core curriculum, according to Rachel Kinder, the district’s assistant superintendent for educational services.
Common Core is a new set of standards being rolled out in classrooms across the state.
“Change is hard, and when you’re in the change process, it’s of course stressful,” she said of the changes Common Core required of both teachers and their pupils. “We’re very proud that we are making that progress.”
These increases show that this new focus is taking hold and starting to produce visible results, Kinder said.
“Our students are meeting the increased level of rigor put in front of them,” she said. “We absolutely expect this positive trend to continue.”
The percentage of Valley View kids passing the reading portion of the ISAT stayed largely static overall, with about 56 percent of students passing, according to state data.
Kinder said an increased focus on reading has already begun at district schools and that she expects state test scores to reflect that focus in the future as well.
At the same time, the district’s understanding of Common Core continues to evolve as the new curriculum challenges students and educators to think about studies in a different way.
“When the teachers first started the process, it was new and a big learning curve,” Kinder said. “But we continue to get better at it, like any district.”
Valley View also saw an increase in the percentage of students passing the ISAT overall, from about 54 percent in 2013 to 57 percent in 2014, according to state data.
“Students are definitely rising to the occasion,” Kinder said.
The percentage of 11th graders passing the Prairie State Achievement Examination, or PSAE, rose in Valley View to 46.4 percent this year, up from 44.4 percent last year, according to state data.
Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202’s percentage of students passing the ISAT’s math portion increased this year, while reading decreased slightly compared to 2013, according to state data.
About 75 percent of students passed the math portion of the ISAT this year, up from about 71 percent last year, according to state data.
The percentage of students passing the reading portion dropped from 68.6 percent last year to 66.2 percent this year, according to state data.
“Certainly there is always room for improvement, but District 202 has as lot to be proud of in terms of our academic success,” Glenn Wood, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said in a statement.
The percentage of Plainfield 202 11th graders passing the PSAE rose by one percentage point, to 60.1, according to state data.