Only 52 percent of Chicago Public Schools students met or exceeded standards for the Illinois State Achievement Tests (ISAT) this year, compared to 74 percent last year.
But that decrease is due to a new scoring system, CPS officials say. Adjusted scores—that is, the results if students last year were ranked by this year’s system—show that composite scores for meeting or exceeding standards basically stayed the same, increasing slightly from 51 percent to 52 percent.
But CPS officials and Mayor Rahm Emanuel are proud of the modest gain, calling the last 12 years “strong and steady growth” (see charts, below). Emanuel credited this year’s rise to a longer school days.
Schools that opted to have longer days, as part of the Full School Day program, tripled their scores, according to CPS. Meanwhile, 65% of schools showed some sort of increase in scores meeting standards.
CPS CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett told the Chicago Sun-Times she is proud of students raising scores, but thinks more work needs to be done.
“I’m in no way satisfied but it does mean that we need to be persistent and we’re moving in the right direction with our children,” Bennett said.
She added that she has fingers crossed that scores will continue to increase, but worries how looming budget cuts will affect the numbers.
Adjusted scores show a 12 year increase. Under the new system, only 23 percent of CPS students were meeting test standards in 2001. Use the chart to compare adjusted ISAT scores by year and subject.
Data source: ChicagoPublicSchools
