2004 Illinois School Report Cards Posted

Please click on Illinois School Report Cards under Quick Links
on the right side of the home page to view this year’s report cards.

A Message from Superintendent Gary T. Catalani:

The annual release of the Illinois School Report Card gives District 200 cause to celebrate and reason to maintain its focus on continuous improvement. As you review the report cards, you will find interesting information about the demographics and academic performance of individual schools and the District as a whole. This information has been made available to parents, staff and community since 1986, but has taken on significantly more meaning with the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). NCLB calls for all students to meet or exceed state standards by 2014 and show incremental improvement toward that goal evey year. Progress is measured by student performance in reading and math in third, fifth, eighth and eleventh grades on tests generated by the State of Illinois—ISAT, PSAE, IMAGE and IAA—and given in April.

In District 200 we embrace the intent of NCLB to help all students learn at high levels. For the last six years, we have worked with our schools to develop plans that identify specific ways to help improve academic performance, especially for those students who are struggling learners. This is a system that works. Our test scores are higher and data shows that more students are successfully engaged in the learning process. In fact, during 2003 District 200 scores increased in 43 of the 58 tested areas. We attribute this to our school improvement planning and the very dedicated efforts of our teachers and staff.

The District as whole met the requirements of NCLB this year. However, even with our focus on individual student needs, we have groups of students in four schools who for the second year did not meet the standards required by NCLB. These schools, like all others in the District, continue to plan interventions that will help these struggling students. Two of the schools, Johnson Elementary and Monroe Middle, were required to offer what is known as ‘choice’ under the law because federal funds are used in those schools to help pay for reading and math teachers. ‘Choice’ means that all familieis in the school must be offered the option of attending another District 200 school. Only two families at each school took advantage of that option. Following is a table showing the schools that did not make AYP this year as defined by NCLB:

All principals have attached an explanation of their school improvement efforts on the last page of their report card. Please take a moment to the read the information and then visit the school office if you would like to review the entire document. The District’s improvement plan, which follows the same format as that used by the schools, is posted on our web page and may be found at the end of the report card list.