Black students lag behind peers in U46 benchmarks

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Updated: July 21, 2011 2:21AM

ELGIN — Black students in Elgin School District U46 are behind in reading at first grade, in high school readiness at third grade and in college readiness at sixth and eighth grades — three important benchmarks in the district’s five-year accountability plan.

The district presented statistics on those benchmarks this week as part of a school board update on its Destination 2015 plan.

U46 board member Traci O’Neal Ellis called that data “distressing.”

O’Neal Ellis also suggested it might be helpful to identify the individual students and parents who are struggling in school, rather than just their race. And she and board member Joyce Fountain stressed the importance of using as many methods of communication as possible to inform each of those parents of opportunities to help their children in school, such as the first U46 African American Family Education Summit last December.

“These are parents who feel disenfranchised by the district. These are parents who are intimidated. These are parents who don’t trust other folk,” O’Neal Ellis said. “I would encourage you to look into different communication strategies going into the next U46 African American summit.”

A total 66 percent of first-graders tested at or above their reading level in this spring’s standardized testing, according to U46.

Among students who are black, that number was lower: 45 percent. That’s fully 12 to 33 percentage points behind students who are Hispanic (57 percent), white (72 percent), Asian (78 percent) or two or more races (64 percent).

The Elgin school district has targeted having 98 percent of first-graders at reading level by 2015, according to Destination 2015.

Gap widens

The gap starts to widen even more by third grade, according to information presented by the school district.

Third-graders’ reading scores fell several points this year in U46, according to the district. They dropped from 59 percent of students testing on target — to be ready for high school reading — in the 2009-10 school year to 57 percent on target last school year, the district said.

Of those, 30 percent of black students are testing on target for high school readiness. That puts them 47 percentage points behind their Asian peers, who scored the highest, with 77 percent testing on target.

Scores also dipped in math: 66 percent of third-graders were on target in 2009-10, compared to 63 percent last year, according to U46.

In math, only 27 percent of third-graders who are black are on target to be high school-ready, the district said. That left them anywhere from 27 percentage points behind their Hispanic peers to 55 points behind their Asian peers.

U46’s goal is 94 percent of students on target to meet high school readiness standards in math, and 86 percent on target in reading, by 2015, according to its accountability plan.

More sixth-graders are on target to meet college readiness standards. Last school year, 53 percent tested on target in math and 50 percent in reading, according to U46. That’s up several percentage points from the 2009-10 school year, when 50 percent were on target in math and 45 percent in reading.

U46 will have to bring those numbers up to 78 percent on target in math and 72 percent in reading in the next five years to meet Destination 2015’s goals.

Meantime, black students still trailed behind their peers, up to 41 points behind in reading and 55 points behind in math, the district said.

The number of eighth-graders who tested on target to meet those same standards on the EXPLORE standardized test also dipped, from 46 percent in 2009-10 to 43 percent last year. The school district wants 75 percent of its eighth-graders to be college-ready by 2015, according to its accountability plan.

Again, black students were behind: 21 percent tested college ready, the district said. That’s 49 points behind Asian students, who tested most college-ready.

U46 Director of Elementary Instruction Jennifer Bond told the board Monday the district is planning additional interventions for students and professional development for teachers. It also is researching what caused some of those drops in scores, she said.

“This information will help us determine our next steps,” Bond said.

And U46 announced Tuesday the creation of a chief of equity and social justice position in the district and the appointment of Ushma Shah, most recently a consultant to Chicago Public Schools.

Shah will examine the impact of district decisions on different racial and ethnic groups, according to the job description for the position provided by U46.

She also will develop interventions to help bridge achievement gaps, especially for students who are black and Hispanic, among other responsibilities, that description said.

Destination 2015 is a five-year accountability plan to spell out a mission, vision, values and goals for the school district, as well as specific academic benchmarks and targets for its students.