Assessment and Learning in Lincolnwood

NCLB the reauthorization of ESEA

In 1965, the federal government authorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, since that time there have been several reauthorizations of this law, most notably the recent reauthorization generally referred to as The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. NCLB requires all states to measure each public school's and district's achievement and establish annual achievement targets for the state. The overarching goal is for all students to meet or exceed standards in reading and mathematics by 2014. To accomplish this goal, each state has been required to define what it means to meet or exceed standards. Scores on the state assessments are used to measure adequate yearly progress (AYP) for all public schools.

Assessment and Learning in Lincolnwood

In Illinois, standards were devised and codified in 1997. These standards, referred to as The Illinois Learning Standards or ILS define what all students in all Illinois public schools should know and be able to do as a result of their elementary and secondary schooling (http://isbe.net/ils/). Specific frameworks, (i.e., The Illinois Assessment Frameworks or IAF) were devised to define those elements of the standards (i.e., ILS) that are appropriate for state testing (http://isbe.net/assessment/IAFIndex.htm).

In addition to State testing, Lincolnwood also uses scientifically-based assessments (http://www.studentprogress.org/) of basic skills in reading to identify students who may require more support than what is offered in a typical classroom setting. This year we have begun to use a web-based data warehouse called “AIMSweb” (http://aimsweb.com) for curriculum-based measurement to assist our staff with using data for decision-making.

Required State Testing

Each year the state of Illinois is required to measure the performance of all students from grades three to eight and eleven and schools relative to the ILS and IAF. The measurement of student performance is accomplished in Illinois with one of three (four if we include high school) state tests. These tests are the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT), the Illinois Measure of Annual Growth in English (IMAGE) and the Illinois Alternative Assessments (IAA).

ISAT and IMAGE are administered each year in Early March. Reading and Mathematics are assessed in each grade from 3 to 8 and 11. Science is assessed in Grades 4 and 7. Last year Writing was assessed in grades 5 and 8. Each test is typically one or two sessions for Science and Writing and three sessions for Reading and Mathematics. Reading, Math and Science tests each have two types of items. Each of the tests have a norm-reference component which means scores are comparable to national percentiles and stanines. In addition, each of the tests has a criterion-reference component which means scores are compared to a set standard (i.e., ILS and IAF).

In the tables below, test sessions are described by the type of item, and type of response required for ISAT.

 

	Session 1		Session 2		Session 3
Reading	45	Minutes	45	Minutes	45	Minutes
Comparison Type		Norm reference (Based on SAT 10)		Criterion reference		Criterion reference
Passage Type	6	Short mixed	1	Short informational;	1	Short informational;
		(literary, informational,poetry)	1	Long literary	1	Long literary
Response Type	30	MC Items	20	Total MC Items (4, 16)	20	Total MC Items (4, 16)
			1	Extended Response	1	Extended Response

 

	Session 1		Session 2		Session 3
Math	45	Minutes	45	Minutes	45	Minutes
Comparison Type		Mixed NRT & CRT (30 items based on SAT 10)		Criterion reference		Criterion reference
Response Type	40	MC Items	30	Total MC Items (4, 16)
			3	Short Response
					2	Extended Response

Each year scores from the three measures (i.e., ISAT, IMAGE and IAA) are combined to determine whether a school or a district is making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), which is reported as part of the school report card for all schools in Illinois. An Adequate Yearly Progress Status Report (also known as the AYP page) is provided on the e – Report card. E –Report cards for previous years are archived on the Illinois State Board of Education website (http://webprod.isbe.net/ereportcard/publicsite/getSearchCriteria.aspx)

State Assessment Results

The Adequate Yearly Progress Status Report for Rutledge Hall and Lincoln Hall Schools can be found ....

The scores obtained from state testing indicate that the majority of students are meeting or exceeding standards in Reading and Mathematics.

	READING		MATH
GRADE 3	87%		97%
GRADE 4	85%		93%
GRADE 5	87%		92%
GRADE 6	91%		88%
GRADE 7	93%		91%
GRADE 8	93%		94%

In Lincolnwood School District 74 we are looking at all students. One way we are unpacking the complexity of looking at groups of students is using a box and whiskers plot (also known as a box-plot). The box plot is constructed by computing local percentiles, and displaying key percentile ranks. The box is considered typical performance spanning from the 25^th percentile to the 75^th percentile. The “whiskers” that extrude above and beneath the box represent student scores that are above and below average. Scores that fall above and below the whiskers are “well above” average and “well below” what is typical in the district. Each box represents a grade level performance.

Colors are used to depict performance descriptors for ISAT. Red represents academic warning, Yellow represents below standards, green represents meeting standards and blue represents exceeding standards.

 
For Math, in each grade, the top portion of the box is surrounded by blue. This means that about half of the typical (i.e., average students) in every grade are exceeding standards. From this we can infer that the math curriculum in Lincolnwood is well aligned to the Illinois Learning standards, and teachers are effectively teaching the curriculum.

For Reading, in each grade, typical performance (i.e., the box) is surrounded by green. This means that typical students in Lincolnwood meet standards.

 
From this we can infer that teachers in Lincolnwood are effectively teaching the Illinois Learning Standards. While we are very concerned about students who are not meeting standards (i.e., scores represented in yellow and red), and strive toward increasing the number (and percentage) of students meeting standards, we are also concerned about the number of students who are exceeding standards (scores in the blue), especially in the area of Reading.

The number and percentage of students in each performance category are presented in the table below.

ALL TESTS		READING				MATH
	WARNING	BELOW	MEETS	EXCEEDS	WARNING	BELOW	MEETS	EXCEEDS
GRADE 3	0%	13%	61%	26%	1%	2%	43%	54%
	0	16	77	33	1	3	54	68
GRADE 4	2%	13%	52%	33%	2%	6%	50%	43%
	2	16	65	41	2	7	62	53
GRADE 5	0%	13%	54%	34%	0%	8%	62%	29%
	0	15	64	40	0	10	74	35