Chicago area's best schools

Sun-Times analysis ranks schools based on today's fresh test score results

Chicago's Northside College Prep kept its firm hold on the state's top-scoring high school spot, while a new arrival — Palatine's Fremd High — muscled its way into the top 10 by vaulting over eight other schools.

Chicago claimed four of the state's 10 highest-scoring public high schools, six of the top 10 middle-grade schools, and four of the top 10 elementary-grade ones.

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Sam Lowenthal, 13, (left) and Alex Kritikos, 13, work on a problem in their eighth-grade algebra class at Hawthorne Scholastic Magnet School, 3319 N. Clifton. The Sun-Times ranked the school No. 4 statewide for its middle-grade Illinois Standards Achievement Test scores.
(Rich Hein/Sun-Times)

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Sun-Times Special Report

Coming Sunday: Tale of two schools: Burnham Math and Science Academy in Chicago catapulted over 400 elementary schools through vigilance and careful state test analysis. Pleasantdale Middle in Burr Ridge excels on state tests largely by ignoring them – and using other ways to take its academic “temperature.”

Coming Monday: How Fremd High School in Palatine leap-frogged into the Sun-Times’ list of the top 10 high schools in the state.

Those are some of the results of a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of 2008 state test scores released today statewide. The Sun-Times analyzed the reading and math scores of every third- through eighth-grader in the state, as well as every public school junior. The annual rankings are based on actual student scores rather than the percent "passing" the state standard.

Naperville District 203 produced the highest-scoring suburban middle school: No. 7 Kennedy Junior High in Lisle. River Forest's Lincoln School grabbed the top suburban elementary title, coming in at No. 6 statewide.

And, once again, Hinsdale District 181 managed a clean sweep: All seven of its elementary schools and both its middle schools made the top 50 list.

Hawthorne Scholastic Magnet — No. 4 statewide for its middle-grade scores — was the only Chicago top-10 standout that doesn't use tests to pick its kids, but as a magnet school, it does use a race-based lottery.

Hawthorne kids are motivated to excel, said Principal Anna Alvarado, because "they all want to go to one of the selective-enrollment high schools. Our kids aspire to that."

Chicago — with 84 percent low-income kids — dominated not only the top but the bottom of the Sun-Times' lists, producing 42 of the 50 lowest-scoring high schools; 39 of the 50 lowest-scoring middle-grade schools and 46 of the 50 lowest-scoring elementaries.

Statewide, the percent of third- through eighth-graders passing their Illinois Standards Achievement Tests rose slightly, to 79.1 percent. But the percent of juniors passing the Prairie State Achievement Exam dipped to just over half, or 52.5 percent.

At the same time, the high school achievement gap widened, as white scores rose but black and Hispanic scores fell. Almost two-thirds of white students passed their PSAEs compared to less than a third of Hispanics and only a quarter of blacks.

Once again, controversy swirled around this year's tests.

Thousands of kids who were still learning English were required to take state tests for the first time, dragging down results in some schools with heavy immigrant populations. As a result, the number of schools that missed their federal No Child Left Behind progress targets based solely on limited-English students soared from eight to 66 statewide.

Plus, every reading and math ISAT test — close to 1 million exams — had to be re-calculated this year to ensure comparability to past years.

Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan called the PSAE results "screwy" after the state started giving less weight to Day Two of the test. He refused to compare this year's PSAEs to last year's in the district's evaluation of its own schools.

Township High School District 211, headquartered in Palatine and housing five high schools, appealed its PSAE results, saying the district no longer considers the PSAE "a meaningful or reliable indicator of student achievement." District 211 officials said an "inaccurate and dysfunctional scoring system" had resulted in some students who didn't pass the PSAE, based on two days of exams, yet whose Day One ACT scores were "high enough to enter high-caliber universities."

State Board of Education officials stood behind their tests. More than 93 percent of kids who passed their PSAEs under this year's scoring method also would have passed it under last year's method, they said. High scores on the ACT, taken on Day One, don't necessarily translate into high PSAE scores from Day One and Two combined, they said.

Schools Supt. James Koch said outside experts — including federal officials — found this year's exams comparable to past years. State tests are "reliable" measuring sticks, he said.

However, Koch said schools are becoming increasingly concerned about meeting federal progress targets. This year, to meet those targets, 62.5 percent of tests taken had to pass state muster, up from 55 percent last year. Between the higher bar and new testing of kids with limited English skills, 31 percent of schools failed to meet their targets, up from 24 percent last year.

Under No Child Behind, 100 percent of kids are supposed to pass their state tests nationwide by 2014.