York High School Fails to Meet Annual Yearly Progress for the Fourth Year in a Row

Two of the 12 schools in Elmhurst Unit District 205 failed to meet federal adequate yearly progress, school officials said Tuesday during an afternoon press conference.

York High School and Churchville Middle School fell below federal benchmarks set by No Child Left Behind, the controversial educational reform initiative that calls for 100 percent of students to meet academic standards by 2014. Adequate yearly progress (AYP) is the measurement for reading and math performance for NCLB. Lawmakers and education activists are scrambling to make changes to NCLB standards before the 100 percent requirement takes effect in 2014.

In Illinois, AYP is measured by the Illinois Student Achievement Tests. Students are divided into various subgroups for testing purposes. If any subgroup fails to meet AYP, then the whole school does not meet AYP. 

For 2010, NCLB regulations called for 85 percent of each subgroup to meet AYP goals. The subgroups defined by NCLB are racial/ethnic (whites, blacks, Hispanics, Native American, Asian/Pacific islander and multi-ethnic); economically disadvantaged (students on the free or reduced lunch program); students with disabilities (students with an individualized education program); and limited English-proficient students.

Taken as a whole, the district fared well, with scores of 90.8 percent in reading and 92.8 percent in math. But certain pockets of students fell below the 85 percent mark. African-American students averaged scores of 70.8 percent in reading and 68.5 percent in math. Low-income and special education students also averaged scores lower than 85 percent. Students with limited proficiency in English performed well in mathematics, but not in reading.

“This is a high-achieving school district,” said Charles Johns, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

At Churchville, the students who fell short of the mark for AYP are special-needs students, those with individual educational plans. In reading, those students scored a proficiency of 55.7 percent. In math, those same students scored higher, with 67.1 percent. Churchville, which receives Title 1 funding, made AYP last year. Overall Churchville students averaged 88.1 percent in reading and 89.6 percent in math.

The story is different at York High School, though. As a whole, students averaged 73.2 percent in reading and 74.2 percent in match. Students in almost all subgroups failed to meet AYP at York. This is the fourth year in a row that York failed to meet AYP, which means the school will be placed on academic warning status. The school will have to submit a state-approved school improvement plan.

Johns, who joined district staff in July, said despite the low AYP scores at York, there are other indicators of academic success at the school, including increased scores in the Prairie State Achievement Exam and a composite average of 23.5 on the ACT. Johns said York's ACT score is the third highest in school history.

“We are still showing strong improvement at York. It may not be the banner headlines we want to see, but data shows marked academic improvement there,” Johns said.

Melea Smith, District 205 director of communications, said another indication of high academic achievement at York is that the class of 2012 has six National Merit Scholarship semifinalists.

“That’s just outstanding. We couldn’t be more pleased. We are very proud of the efforts of our students,” Smith said.

For the coming academic year, 92.5 percent of students in each subgroup must meet the federal standard. Johns said the district will continue to focus on improving the skills students need to achieve in college and the 21st century, including science, foreign languages, computers and technology and mathematics. 

“We want to make sure we’re pushing the kids forward and not just trying to meet adequate academic standards,” Johns said.