Saturday, October 23, 2010
 
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Illinois schools' 'incomplete' aims to be completed

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[October 23, 2010]  SPRINGFIELD -- One of Illinois' leading education advocates, Advance Illinois, says it can't tell parents just how well their kids are doing in schools because there is no way to tell.

HardwareAdvance Illinois recently released a report card for Illinois schools. The report looks at students from early learning classes through college, and it gives the state very poor grades.

But Advance Illinois also gives the state a rather large "incomplete" because there is simply not enough information to measure performance, according to executive director Robin Steans.

"We've got no way of knowing whether our kids are ... starting school better prepared developmentally, socially, emotionally, as well as cognitively, because we don't have an agreed-upon way to look at that and then talk about it," said Steans.

Steans said the report card from Advance Illinois looked to go beyond just pass or fail test scores. She is quick to point out that there is a lot more to education than just test results. But test results did play into Illinois' grade for K-12.

Advance Illinois gives the state's schools a C for kindergarten through high school, in part because Illinois students continue to flounder on state tests.

"Our fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math scores on national tests are in the bottom half of the country -- only 33 percent of our kids are where they ought to be on those tests," said Steans.

And older students are in just as bad a shape. Steans said too many high school graduates are not ready for what they'll face at community college or a state university.

"By the end of high school, only 22 percent of our kids are getting college-ready ACT scores across the board," she said. "Which means they're really not going to be ready to go on and be successful at the next level."

Steans and Advance Illinois insist Illinois' leaders need to work to reverse the poor showings and also need to do more so that students can be measured. The organization suggests a number of new requirements that would better track student learning, teacher performance and the effects of changes in the classroom.

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Matt Vanover, spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Education, said the state is working on all of that.

Vanover points out that the state board agreed last year to move toward new classroom standards, and lawmakers approved a new measuring stick for teachers.

"A lot of what the (Advance Illinois) report talks about are areas where the state is already moving forward, like a new longitudinal data system," said Vanover.

That new data system will better track students as they move from kindergarten through high school. And one of Advance Illinois' other suggestions, tracking student performance and teacher evaluation, is also in the works.

Vanover said lawmakers adopted a plan to link student performance with teacher evaluations as part of the Race to the Top process in January of this year.

As for getting students college-ready, Vanover said the state board adopted new, tougher learning standards. Those are expected to be formalized this fall, but students will not be tested on the new standards for a few more years.

Steans and Advance Illinois don't want parents to think the state's schools are failing. Instead, Steans said Illinois leaders need to see that there are areas of real need that need to be addressed immediately.

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Online: Advance Illinois

[Illinois Statehouse News; By BENJAMIN YOUNT]

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