School Report Card

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The Illinois State Board of Education compiles all public school standardized test scores — the Illinois Standards Achievement Test for third- through eighth-graders, and the Prairie State Achievement Exam for high school juniors. We analyzed and compiled the data from Boone, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties.

Check back often. We will update as we develop more features.

Chart Information

You can use this chart to sort results by various categories — rank, school name, enrollment, percent of low-income students, test scores — and each school and district page includes a map and links to the school and district websites.

What Is The Report Card?

The federal government requires most public schools to test students annually in certain grades in reading, writing and math. In Illinois, students are tested in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11. Results are reported by the Illinois State Board of Education. The 2012 results are for tests given in the 2011-12 academic year.

How We Did It

The Register Star got report card information early in exchange for agreeing not to publish it until today. We used the time to sort through nearly 4,000 schools for which information was provided and extract test-score data for those in the Rock River Valley.

School Rankings

We ranked local schools using the ISAT and PSAE composite scores. The scores come from standardized tests in individual topics taken in spring 2012. Statewide, the average ISAT composite score for 2012 was 82.1 percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards. In our region, 60 elementary or middle schools surpassed the state average. The PSAE average composite score was 51.3; 14 of 25 area high schools topped the state average.

Identifying Districts

The number after each school's name identifies the district.

Click on a district to learn more about it.

Low-income

This is the percentage of students who school districts said received Public Aid or were eligible for free and reduced-cost lunch. We provide the number here because poverty is widely recognized as a challenge to schools in boosting student performance.

ISAT/PSAE: Point Change

Test results place schools in one of four classifications: exceeds standards, meets standards, falls below standards, is on academic warning.

Reading, Math, Science

This is an average percentage of students who met standards calculated from the performance of students in each grade level on reading, math and science portions of the ISAT and the PSAE. The calculation results in slight variances from composite percentages reported by the state board on AYP reports because such reports include performance on specialized tests for special-education students.

Adequate Yearly Progress

This measures improvement toward state achievement targets from year to year based on test results, percentage of students tested, and attendance and graduation rates. Schools that fail to show enough improvement are placed on a watch list. Parents have the option to transfer their kids from these schools and, in some cases, get tutoring.

Notes

Parker Early Education Center in Harlem, Rockton Elementary, Highland Elementary in Meridian, Clark Elementary in South Beloit, and Riverdahl and White Swan elementaries in Rockford are not listed because students aren.t required to take state standardized tests until third grade.
Simon Elementary in Winnebago was changed to a K-2 school after Seward School closed. Simon Elementary no longer takes the ISAT.
Froberg Elementary in Rockford was changed from a K-2 school to a K-5 when it consolidated with New Milford Elementary and appears on the list for the first time.
The Rockford School District closed Jackson, New Milford, Stiles and Summerdale elementaries, so they are no longer on the list.
Academic Career Education High School in Rockford closed, but the Belvidere School District opened Endeavor High School, so the number of high schools remained at 25.
Dakota and Forreston have combination junior/senior high schools and appear on both lists.