WREX.com – Rockford’s News LeaderSchools report card: Winnebago makes the grade, Rockford falls short

Schools report card: Winnebago makes the grade, Rockford falls short

By Marissa Alter

WREX (ILLINOIS) - The grades are in. Illinois releases its report card for every school in the state today.

Depending on the school district, it was either a day to celebrate or a day to forget.

Good news for Durand High School. It was one of about 50 schools already on improvement status that made adequate yearly progress. That means no further sanctions like mandatory services or stricter regulations.

Teachers and students in the Winnebago School District also had reason to smile. All schools made adequate yearly progress.

"We're really proud of what we've achieved over the past year," says Julie Bell, an English teacher at Winnebago High School.

In 2009, students were 71% proficient in math and 67.4% percent in reading.

"We projected we were going to be close," explains Principal Beth Summers, "but there was definitely some extra things we needed to do. Those extra things happened in the math and English departments and actually building-wide--even in elective areas, where PE has been helping provide test prep questions for their weekly PE test."

Teachers at the high school made sure to expose students to the type of questions they'd see on the tests and put them under time constraints.

"Coming in junior year, the teachers really stress prep for all the tests, and I feel that here at Winnebago, our teachers did a great job," adds Winnebago Senior Austin Montgomery.

Next door, in the Rockford School District, test scores overall lagged behind expectations. Fewer schools increased their scores from last year, and the district as a whole advanced its standing on the state's academic watch list.

Beyer Elementary School had some of the lowest scores. Here's a look at the percentage of kids who met or exceeded standards in each grade there.

BEYER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

GRADE          READING         MATH

3                  29.4                 57.4

4                  33.3                 54.9

5                  33.3                 42.9

All four Rockford high schools fell below the state average. Auburn performed the best. 42.3% of students met or exceeded standards.

ROCKFORD HIGH SCHOOL TEST SCORES

Auburn          42.3

Guilford         37.3

East              30.4

Jefferson       30.1

The district's bright spots came from Brookview Elementary and Washington Gifted, the only schools throughout 205 to score about the state average.

ROCKFORD'S BRIGHT SPOTS

Brookview Elementary School  84.2

Washington Gifted School        99.8

We tried to contact district administrators to comment on the scores, but no one was available.

In Belvidere, the high schools also failed to make AYP. Here's a breakdown of how juniors at Belvidere and Belvidere North did on the reading and math sections of the PSAE.

BELVIDERE HIGH SCHOOL TEST SCORES

                          READING                MATH

Belvidere           52.4                       50.7

Belvidere North  60.3                      52.8

Those numbers were slightly above Harlem High School. There, just about 50% of students matched standards or surpassed them.

Rochelle Middle School also stood out this year. 39 schools in Illinois were taken off the state's watch list for making AYP two years in a row. Rochelle middle school was one of them.