2006 PSAE AND ISAT RESULTS ::
Percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards in reading and math for grades 3 through 8 and grade 11:
HOW WE RANKED THE SCHOOLS
The Chicago Sun-Times' annual rankings are based on average scores on 2006 state reading and math tests, not the percent passing or gains.
The Sun-Times used a well-known statistical method called standardizing to analyze the reading and math scores of every public school student in the state who took either the Illinois Standards Achievement Tests, given in grades third through eighth, or the Prairie State Achievement Exam, given in grade 11.
The method compares each student's score with the state's average score, and uses that information to create a school average that is then compared to the average of other schools.
Only reading and math results were studied; they are the only tests that trigger sanctions under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Also, only tests from class sizes of at least 10 students were counted.
Because ISATs were expanded in 2006 for the first time to all grades, third through eighth, the Sun-Times created two ISAT lists this year — one for top elementary schools, based on third- through fifth-grade scores, and the other for middle-grade programs, based on sixth- through eighth-grade scores.
As in years past, the ISAT analysis was based only on public schools with at least two grades tested. Some schools, such as those serving grades K-8, may have been eligible for both the elementary and the middle school list.
The middle-school rankings should have been unaffected by a state decision to lower the passing bar, from the 67th to the 38th national percentile, in eighth-grade math.
The analysis was done by database reporter Art Golab.
Rosalind Rossi
Source: Illinois State Board of Education data (Released March 10, 2007)
