Students rebounded in academic growth on 2022 Illinois Report Card; school ratings return

The soon to be unveiled 2022 Illinois Report Card shows student academic growth has rebounded and slightly outperformed pre-pandemic levels in reading and math — a positive trend that state education officials attribute to statewide investments of federal pandemic relief funds.

Although student academic growth slowed significantly during the pandemic, the 2022 baseline student growth percentile on this year’s state report card shows that academic growth appears to be heading in the right direction, Illinois State Board of Education spokeswoman Jackie Matthews said.

But Matthews also said that despite the “positive news in the area of student achievement,” the impact of frequent disruptions to student learning is also evident on this year’s state report card.

“Proficiency is not where it was before the pandemic, but this accelerated rate of growth shows us we’re on the right track,” Matthews said in a statement this week.

On the 2021 Illinois Report Card, students showed dramatic declines in academic achievement and higher rates of chronic absenteeism.

The new data from Illinois school districts that delivered the mandated Illinois Assessment of Readiness in spring 2022 to students in third through eighth grades and the SAT to high school juniors are expected to be released Oct. 27, officials said.

This year’s state report card features several new data elements, including an informational tool called the Equity Journey Continuum, which allows districts to track their progress toward closing gaps in student achievement, opportunities and supports, Matthews said.

“The tool analyzes data points that districts already collect and report to ISBE through the lens of equity to make that data more useful for improving outcomes for all students,” Matthews said.

For the first time since 2019, Illinois schools will be rated once again, as required by federal law, using four possible designations:

• Exemplary, which recognizes the highest performing 10% of schools.
• Comprehensive, which identifies the lowest performing 5% of schools.
• Targeted, which identifies schools whose overall performance is above the lowest performing 5% of schools, but that have one or more student groups whose performance is on par with the lowest performing 5% of schools.
• Commendable, the designation for all other schools.

The designations are determined by multiple measures of performance, Matthews said, and for the state’s elementary and middle schools, the primary indicator — which accounts for 50% of the designation — is student growth.

Among the data, student growth measures how much students progressed in one year compared to other students in their grade statewide who started at the same baseline, and proficiency reflects the percentage of students who met or exceeded grade level standards who scored in the top two out of five possible IAR performance level categories, including: Level 5, exceeded expectations; Level 4, met expectations; Level 3, approached expectations; Level 2, partially met expectations; and Level 1, did not yet meet expectations.

For Illinois high schools, the primary indicator, accounting for 50% of the designation, is the graduation rate.

Matthews said Illinois “did amend its accountability plan to account for the impact of the pandemic on most of the accountability indicators.”

The state also created an opportunity for “early exit” from school improvement status for schools newly designated for targeted or comprehensive support if they meet certain criteria that indicates the designation is more likely a result of pandemic data anomalies rather than an accurate measure of school performance, Matthews said.

Although all states are federally required to designate schools that are targeted for comprehensive support, in Illinois these schools will participate in a four-year cycle of school improvement, including conducting a needs assessment, developing an improvement plan, and implementing the plan, Matthews said.

As funded by federal Title 1 school improvement grants, the state’s lowest performing schools are assigned an IL-EMPOWER coordinator, an ISBE employee hired to support schools through the improvement process.

A spokeswoman for Chicago Public Schools said the state’s largest school district “supports assessments and accountability systems that inform school improvement work in order to help students succeed as they prepare for college, career, and civic life.”

“As a means of differentiating school performance, the state’s summative designations help target additional state funding to schools with the most need, which are then used to engage external partners in improvement efforts and those additional dollars are helpful,” CPS spokeswoman Mary Fergus said in a statement.

“In our district’s experience and under our former accountability system, we found that the emphasis on labeling schools for their performance solely on student outcomes was more punitive than informative to a school community,” Fergus said.

CPS is in the process of “working to build a new approach to accountability aiming to drive school improvement and promote equity and excellence,” Fergus said.

“We would emphasize that there are many factors such as school leadership, innovative teaching and parental engagement that make up a school’s climate and culture and contribute to student success beyond just a narrow set of student outcomes,” she said.

At Elk Grove Village-based Community Consolidated School District 59, Superintendent Terri Bresnahan said although the longitudinal growth data for students and the level of transparency around the data can be beneficial, school ratings themselves “are not helpful.”

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“Rating students across schools, districts and the state with labels does not help improve the learning and growth of our students and their educational experience,” Bresnahan said.

Yet Bresnahan said she appreciates the support some of the district’s schools have received from the state’s IL-EMPOWER system, which she said “has allowed schools to access additional funding to provide support and resources to individuals and groups of students in a targeted way.”

“Access to these funds certainly supported our students and schools, and we are grateful for that,” she said.

John Burkey, executive director of the Large Unit District Association, applauded the state board’s efforts this year to provide targeted support for struggling schools.

“The point is not to use a hammer, but to provide schools with the support they need to get better,” Burkey said.

“I think the state assessment data are important if we use it in a positive way — to help students and schools move forward,” Burkey said. “Our schools are absolutely overwhelmed right now, and if IL-EMPOWER can be a vehicle to support those who are most in need, it will be a very positive thing.”

kcullotta@chicagotribune.com