Illinois School Report Cards: Here's How District 202 Did

PLAINFIELD, IL — The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) released its 2017-2018 Illinois Report Cards at the end of October, rating four Plainfield schools "exemplary," 23 "commendable" and one "underperforming" as measured by the new "Every Student Succeeds Act" (ESSA).

ESSA replaces the No Child Left Behind act and assigns the designations based on 10 indicators or performance including student growth.

These four Plainfield campuses were designed exemplary:

• Eagle Pointe Elementary School
• Elizabeth Eichelberger Elementary School
• Plainfield North High School
• Walkers Grove Elementary School

Drauden Point Middle School was the only District 202 campus that fell into the "underperforming" category. According to District 202, that designation was due to performance on the Dynamic Learning Maps Assessment among its special education students. Under ESSA, the district will get additional funding and resources to help improve academic achievement in that population.

All the rest of District 202's schools fell into the "commendable" designation, and Plainfield did not have any schools ranked in the "lowest performing" category.

Preschools including District 202’s Bonnie McBeth Learning Center were not assessed, and scores for Plainfield Academy, which serves both high school and middle school students, were incorporated into their home schools’ results.

“On the whole, District 202 did well, we are happy with our results and expect to do even better next year,” Dr. Glenn Wood, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said in a news release.

According to Chalkbeat, statewide, 20 percent of schools were ranked as "underperforming" or "lowest performer," and nearly half of Chicago schools failed to meet performance standards.

At a glance comparison

The state report card offers a snapshot of District 202's performance including:

• Graduation rate: 94 percent. State average: 85 percent
• Student mobility (Percentage of students who experienced at least one transfer in or out of the school between the first school day of October and the last school day of the year, not including graduates): 5 percent. State average: 7 percent.
• Chronic absenteeism: 15 percent. State average: 17 percent.
• Funding: $200 million in final resources; adequacy target: $320 million. District's financial capacity to meet expectations: 64 percent.
• Teacher retention: 88.2 percent. State average: 85.2 percent.
• Per-student spending:
• Instructional: $6,044.56. State average: $8,023.61.
• Operational: $9,895.43. State average: $13,336.60

The state report card also showed the average salary for District 202 teachers was $60,504, compared to $65,721 statewide. At the elementary level, District 202 averaged one teacher for every 19 elementary students, matching the state ratio. At high school, District 202 had one teacher for every 24 students compared to the state ratio of one for every 19 students.

Administrators also made less than the state average, earning an average of $96,101 versus $107,279. Administrative costs comprised only 1.1 percent of the total budget, compared to the state average of 3.1 percent.

“Our financial data show that District 202 operates very efficiently on behalf of our taxpayers,” Wood said in a release. “We get tremendous value for the resources we get from our community.”

Achievement data

In English Language, 45 percent of all District 202 students tested meet or exceed state English Language learning expectations, compared to 37 percent statewide.

Likewise, in math, 41 percent of all students tested met state learning expectations, versus 32 percent statewide.

The SAT college entrance exam replaced the ACT last year as the state’s official college exam and is given to all juniors.

On the SAT, 39 percent of district students met English Language learning expectations, compared to 37 percent statewide.

In math, 37 percent of district students met the SAT learning expectations, versus 34 percent statewide.

View District 202's Illinois Report Card here.

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