Looking good, but Kane school administrators see room for improvement

Illinois State Board of Education released their annual school report cards on Oct. 30, and nearly all Kane County school districts saw an overall increase in reading and math proficiency over last year.

The reports cards show schools' proficiency ratings in several categories, and based on those results, assign each school a summative designation of Exemplary, Commendable, Targeted, Comprehensive or Intensive, in descending order.

Here's a rundown of how Kane County schools fared and how some administrators are responding to their district's grades:

St. Charles School District 303

St. Charles students have the highest overall proficiency in the county for both math and reading, with three D303 schools achieving exemplary status and eleven receiving a commendable designation.

Superintendent Paul Gordon said he was not surprised by their scores because of the amazing educators and principals they have in the district.

"It's not a surprise because of the amount of time, work and energy we've all put in to achieving our goal," Gordon said. "Is there still work to be done? There absolutely is, but it's nice to know the work that we're doing is putting us on the right path."

D303 students' reading proficiency improved over last year in all but one school, with both middle schools ranking among the highest in the county.

Gordon said the general response to the report cards was very prideful.

"I'm so proud of the entire staff," Gordon said. "It literally is everybody in this organization pulling in the same direction, all for the benefit of our students."

D303 Chief Academic Officer Christine Igoe attributed their success in reading proficiency to the implementation of a new resource last year across all grade levels, as well as a lot of time spent supporting that implementation.

Igoe said this year, the district is focusing on improving their math curriculum. She said their administrators will be looking at the schools that did well like Fearson Creek and Norton Creek elementary schools - both in the top 100 in the state - and taking a systemic approach to see how they can better support the schools that may need improvement.

Gordon said the report cards are helpful in gauging the overall health of the district and to measure where they are at academically in a variety of different content areas. He said the data shows that they're becoming a vibrant, thriving school district with some areas still to improve on.

"We definitely take it seriously," Igoe said. "It's designed for us to be able to reflect on our own practices. It's not really designed to be kid-by-kid data."

Gordon said when reviewing the report cards, community members should keep in mind that they are a moment-in-time assessment and a snapshot of where students are at and how they're doing as a district.

Batavia Public School District 101

Batavia was the only school district in Kane County to improve reading proficiency at every school in its district. In math, D101 saw an overall improvement, however several elementary schools dropped from last year's proficiency levels.

Superintendent Tom Kim said he wasn't sure what to expect in his second year with the district, but he wasn't surprised by the success. He said their improvement is partly thanks to strong academic support and social-emotional foundation, built by an emphasis on core instruction for all students.

Three schools in D101 were awarded exemplary status and five were commendable, up from one exemplary and seven commendable last year. Kim said he's proud of the results and confident that the district will continue to grow and build on their work.

Kim said D101 administrators have been reviewing the data from ISBE as part of an ongoing conversation about how the district can improve its metrics.

"I believe that these data are great points of reference for us to check in on how we're doing and whether we're progressing towards where we want to go," Kim said. "The way I look at it is; it's just another piece of data for us to look at. Nothing is the end-all be-all, but it's definitely a critical piece to understanding how we're doing."

One area Kim said the district will be looking to improve on is math. Batavia students' math proficiency improved overall, with older students seeing the most improvement, however most elementary schools saw a decrease in proficiency. Kim said he sees this as an opportunity for the district to look more closely at why that might be, and to make sure that their teachers have the support and resources they need to provide the strongest curriculum possible.

The district still has students highly impacted by the pandemic, Kim said, who and are still be adapting to "full-blown school-mode." He said one thing the pandemic helped them identify was ways to support students in which they may not have thought of before, like fostering a sense of belonging and creating a sense of confidence in their abilities.

"The students are going to continue to find their footing," Kim said. "It's a very different feeling than what students were experiencing during the pandemic."

Geneva School District 304

Geneva School District 304 saw the highest number of exemplary status schools in the county, with four earning exemplary status and four earning commendable status.

Geneva students' overall reading proficiency improved greatly. While the high school and some elementary schools showed slight regression, South and North Middle Schools saw the biggest improvement, jumping more than 20% and 30% respectively. Fabyan Elementary School' students' reading proficiency is the second highest in the county and among the top 100 in Illinois.

Math proficiency showed slight improvement overall, despite six out of nine schools regressing from last year. Both middle schools improved their math proficiency by nearly 10 percent.

"In Geneva 304 we are certainly proud of the academic achievement and growth that our students have demonstrated over the last year, and we are pleased that all of our schools once again fall into the commendable and exemplary categories," Superintendent Andrew Barrett said in an email. "Still, we're always cautious about putting too much stock in a complicated accountability system that is not only difficult to interpret and explain, but that also fails to account for numerous ways that great educators discern the growth and progress of their students."

Kaneland School District 302

Kaneland schools improved in overall reading proficiency, however overall math proficiency dropped slightly, resulting in one school dropping from a commendable designation to targeted. The other five D302 schools retained their commendable designations.

Overall reading proficiency in D302 improved nearly 5% since last year, and Kaneland High School was the only school in the district to regress.

Deputy Superintendent Kurt Rohlwing is new to the district, but will become superintendent next July. He said the district's overall outlook, in response to the report cards, is that the district is doing well and wants to do better.

"I believe there's always room for improvement," Rohlwing said. "It's an optimistic time in Kaneland. We're doing some different things as we look at our curriculum process and I think we're going to see even better growth over the next couple of years."

Rohlwing said the improvement in reading proficiency is a result of a curriculum review the district conducted last year. He said they are currently conducting a similar review of their math curriculum, which he hopes will result in the same type of shift in next year's scores.

Rohlwing said while McDole Elementary's drop in status is disappointing, they have already begun digging into the data from ISBE to identify the cause and put together an action plan to address it.

"It's Important that people understand that a targeted school is not a failing school," Rohlwing said. "McDole elementary is doing some really good work...This is the result of one particular subgroup that is struggling, but that is definitely going to be a focus for us in the coming year and for years to come."

Rohlwing said there is a disconnect between the ISBE school report cards and the i-Ready assessments their students take three times each year. He said with assessments like the school report cards, it is important to identify why the data is important and what purpose it serves, which he said is more of a reflection of the district's systems than of students.

"It's like any other data. You celebrate the good and figure out what you did right, and then you see how you can replicate that in other areas moving forward," Rohlwing said. "I like to use this as an external validation of what we're doing. We do take it seriously, but it's not everything. We try to be clear with our community and our students that the number does not make you a successful or unsuccessful student."