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Inside the Illinois Report Card

Principals Spotlight on Learning

OVERVIEW

Purpose and importance

The Illinois School Report Card is a comprehensive tool provided by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) that offers valuable insights into each school’s performance. It serves as a key resource for parents, educators, and the community to understand how well schools are meeting student needs and supporting academic success. The report card is designed to promote transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement across the state’s public schools. By providing a snapshot of academic achievement, growth, and other critical factors, it helps stakeholders make informed decisions, set goals, and implement strategies to foster student success.

What it measures

The Illinois School Report Card measures a range of areas that reflect student achievement, including scores from standardized tests like the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) for grades 3-8. 

K-8: ELA, math and science proficiency, growth rates in key academic areas over time, chronic absenteeism, and climate survey (students and staff taking the survey, not the results)

How families can access it

Click this link: Illinois Report Card (These results are from the 23-24 school year.)

Type in: Worden Elementary (You can also type in Edwardsville CUSD7 for the district’s snapshot and from the menu on the left, go to the Schools in District tab.)

Academic performance 

*# of students that meet or exceed grade level expectations has increased in both ELA and Math!

*Our Science Assessment score is significantly higher than the state average.

Successes

*Our Summative Designation is Commendable!

*The Overall Index Score increased by 13.35 from the previous school year.

*94% Student attendance

EXPLORING THE SUMMATIVE DESIGNATION

The house is a visual model used to represent and explain the school’s summative designation. The house framework helps illustrate how different metrics and indicators come together to show the school’s overall performance. The roof represents the summative designation itself with the index score, while the floors represent specific performance metrics.

Components comparing 22/23 vs 23/24 school years

We received the highest score possible in our Math Proficiency AND Science Proficiency BOTHschool years!

Additionally, we increased our scores in every other category under the house🙂

Our biggest increase was in the area of Math growth (10.85 to 19.14)

What is summative designation?

This is the overall performance measure assigned to schools. There are four levels of designations:

Exemplary – top 10 percent statewide that have no underperforming student groups

Commendable

Targeted – schools with one or more underperforming groups

Comprehensive – schools in bottom 5 percent statewide

Worden Elementary is a COMMENDABLE school! ðŸ’š In fact, our Commendable score went up from 61.59 to 74.94 this year. 

WHAT MAKES UP CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM

Chronic absenteeism is missing 10 percent or more of school days in a year – excused or unexcused. For our district, that’s approximately 17 days. It differs from truancy, which refers specifically to unexcused absences. 

Statewide, Illinois has a 26.3 percent chronic absenteeism rate. As a district, we are below the state average at 16.7 percent rate, while here at Worden our rate is 15 percent. This number is also one of the specific performance metrics that factors into our school’s summative designation.

Chronic absenteeism can significantly affect a student’s education and future success. Students who are frequently absent miss valuable and important instruction and classroom experiences. 

At District #7, our mission is to Empower Each Student to Achieve Personal Success. Addressing chronic absenteeism is essential to achieving this mission because consistent attendance lays the foundation for academic growth and long-term success. 

Worden Elementary and District #7 are committed to partnering with families to reduce chronic absenteeism. We want to ensure that every student has the opportunity to thrive. We encourage students to be at school by discussing the importance of this at the Morning Meeting, providing a welcoming environment, and rewarding classes with incentives when they have the highest attendance. We want all of our students here at school so we can learn.

WHAT WE ARE DOING TO MOVE OUR SCHOOL FORWARD

When I walked into the D7 world I was immediately impressed with all of the movement towards making data driven decisions. When we look at supporting students, we must begin by looking at supporting teachers so that they in-turn can keep doing what is best for kids. Creating a climate and culture here at Worden Elementary that encompasses an environment where students and staff alike want to COME to school is the first step. We work hard making this place a safe and inviting thing place to be. 

On the academic side of things, we are implementing our curriculum with fidelity and are using formative and summative assessments to check for understanding. Additionally, we are using our PLC team time to delve into data trends related to essential standards so that students are given access to the curriculum in a meaningful matter and therefore able to take previously learned content and build upon it to learn the next concept. This allows us to scaffold skills and provide support where needed. 

When you have a positive climate and culture in a building, and you add that to a rigorous (and supported) curriculum you are starting off strong. We are in a really good place here and we will keep moving forward. 

  • Worden