2012 Test Scores - Preliminary Numbers

[Robert Pauly]

Test score data for the 2011 - 2012 school year was released by the Trib and Sun Times today.  Here are some rankings from a Sun Times report:

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Emerson:  29th percentile (71% of elementary schools scored lower)
Piper:  46
Irving:  47
Komensky:  61
Pershing:  67
Jefferson:  68
Hiawatha:  72
Prairie Oak:  74
Havlicek:  77

MIDDLE SCHOOLS

Heritage:  44 (56% of middle schools scored lower)
Lincoln:  58
Freedom:  75

HIGH SCHOOLS

Morton West:  81 (19% of high schools scored lower)
Morton East:  87

[Ted]

   Just to be clear, when it comes to percentiles, a low number is good and a high number is bad.

  If the percentile is under 10, that means the school is in the top 10% of all schools across the state.

If the percentile is over 80, then that school is in the bottom 20% of all schools across the state.

Congratulations to Emerson.

[MRS. NORTHSIDER]

I also think it's important to note that all the elementary schools in District 100 had their scores go up from the previous year.  While some of the gains were small they were nonetheless gains.  As a comparison my employers daughter started working at an elementary school in Wheeling where the demographics and low income are very similar to most of the schools in South Berwyn.  Their exceeds or meets was 54% and this was down from 76% in 2006.  That district as a whole was 78.7 meeting or exceeding with 51% low income and that's with 2 schools in Arlington Heights, 3 in Buffalo Grove and 1 in Mt. Prospect which are predominantly caucasian areas with much lower rates of low income.  The remaining 6 schools are in Wheeling.  District 100 as a whole is 81% meeting or exceeding with 76% low income.  While there's always room for improvement the district seems to be on the right path.  As for the HS, well I don't even want to talk about it.  As mentioned before it's one of the biggest reasons decent people move out of Berwyn when their kids near HS.

[Bonster]

District 100 as a whole is 81% meeting or exceeding with 76% low income.

District 98 is at 78% meeting with 87.5% low income!

Interestingly D100 went down from 81% to 80.8% due to large drops at the two middle schools.  It should be interesting to see over time if the middle schools reverse those trends since (most of) the elementary schools have trended upward.

[Ted]

 I was looking at the stats this morning and comparing to other districts that have a large Hispanic population (over 60%).

  In Reading, 6 out of the top 10 schools in the state are in either Berwyn District 100 or in Stickney.  Emerson, Irving, Piper and Hiawatha in District 100 and Home and Edison in Stickney were all in the top 10.

  Hiawatha was tied for first place with one other school as the highest in the state at 90% meets or exceeds.

  In Math, the highest math scores in the state at largely Hispanic schools were also in District 100. Both Piper and Irving achieved a meets/exceeds percentage of 95%, which tied for first place with one other school in the state.  Emerson was also in the top 15 in Math.

As far as the middle schools, both Lincoln and Heritage were in the top 10 in both Reading and Math among middles schools with over 60% Hispanic population.

  The bad news seems to be that the elementary schools in District 98 were in the middle of the pack and Freedom middle school in District 100 is not faring well in comparison to other middle schools with large Hispanic populations.  It also looks like more work needs to be done at Komensky and Pershing schools in District 100.

  Also, the bottom school district in the state with a large Hispanic population was Cicero District 99.  Cicero was by far the worst Hispanic school district in the state and was in the bottom 10 among ALL districts in the state.

  Congratulations to Hiawatha for getting the highest meets/exceeds percentage (90%) in the state in Reading among largely Hispanic schools and congratulations to Piper and Irving for getting the highest meets/exceeds percentage (95%) in the state in Math among largely Hispanic schools.

[Vince Zaworski]

  The bad news seems to be that the elementary schools in District 98 were in the middle of the pack and Freedom middle school in District 100 is not faring well in comparison to other middle schools with large Hispanic populations.

Freedom Principal Jim Calabrese pointed out in his presentation to parents that the previous 8th grade class was much stronger than the incoming 6th grade class, which affected the overall scores of the school, but both the 8th and 7th graders improved their scores over their 7th and 6th grade scores from the year before.

I for one had never thought to look at it that way. We tend to focus on the school scores and neglect to track the individual classes as they progress through the system.

Scores aside, we attended the recent high school open house at Heritage and heard from several private school reps that they are really stepping up their recruitment of Berwyn students due to the growing reputation of the students graduating out of schools.

Since that event we attended  open houses at Trinity and Queen of Peace. Believe it or not but Trinity is not on our list. Our 7th grader was disappointed that  3 out of the 5 books that she would study in Trinity lit class will already be covered in her advanced lit classes at Freedom this year and next. Plus Trinity doesn't have much technology in their classrooms (no 1 to 1) and their science offerings are not as good as I expected. Their International Baccalaureate program is impressive though.

Queen of Peace has a solid science/engineering program and has been a 1 to 1 campus for 6 years. Definitely a good fit for the kid.

After all is said and done, the feeling I walked away with after visiting both of these schools is that our Berwyn schools are tracking students to attend some of the best high schools around, much in the same way that those same high schools are tracking them to attend higher quality colleges.

[OakParkSpartan]

Berwyn schools... does that mean D98 AND D100 or just D100?

[MRS. NORTHSIDER]

  The bad news seems to be that the elementary schools in District 98 were in the middle of the pack and Freedom middle school in District 100 is not faring well in comparison to other middle schools with large Hispanic populations.

Freedom Principal Jim Calabrese pointed out in his presentation to parents that the previous 8th grade class was much stronger than the incoming 6th grade class, which affected the overall scores of the school, but both the 8th and 7th graders improved their scores over their 7th and 6th grade scores from the year before.

I for one had never thought to look at it that way. We tend to focus on the school scores and neglect to track the individual classes as they progress through the system.

Scores aside, we attended the recent high school open house at Heritage and heard from several private school reps that they are really stepping up their recruitment of Berwyn students due to the growing reputation of the students graduating out of schools.

Since that event we attended  open houses at Trinity and Queen of Peace. Believe it or not but Trinity is not on our list. Our 7th grader was disappointed that  3 out of the 5 books that she would study in Trinity lit class will already be covered in her advanced lit classes at Freedom this year and next. Plus Trinity doesn't have much technology in their classrooms (no 1 to 1) and their science offerings are not as good as I expected. Their International Baccalaureate program is impressive though.

Queen of Peace has a solid science/engineering program and has been a 1 to 1 campus for 6 years. Definitely a good fit for the kid.

After all is said and done, the feeling I walked away with after visiting both of these schools is that our Berwyn schools are tracking students to attend some of the best high schools around, much in the same way that those same high schools are tracking them to attend higher quality colleges.

Your post is right on track on a few things.  I was lucky that my youngest daughter went to school with a great group of kids in her grade - smart kids with very involved parents.  Their ISAT scores reflect that.  My only thought on private high school if you're looking that way is to look into Fenwick or Nazareth if you're looking for an above average private school education that will probably pay you back in the long run - the amount you will pay for college.