Illinois Report Card: Sycamore students above state average in math, English language arts proficiency

SYCAMORE – Sycamore School District 427 was above the state’s average in multiple categories, including math and English, according to the 2023 Illinois State Board of Education Report Card released Oct. 30.

But there still are areas in which the district needs to improve, officials said.

State Report Cards compare individual schools and their districts with others across the state. The number of students who are proficient in math and English language arts are tabulated through the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, an exam that students in grades three through eight complete annually in the spring.

According to the Report Card results, a larger percentage of Sycamore students are proficient in math and ELA than the state average.

District 427 Superintendent Steve Wilder said he thinks the results tells district staff that they’re heading in the right direction.

“We’re keeping up with other comparable schools as well as schools across the state,” Wilder said. “And in many areas, our students are performing above the state average or better than the state average. Again, that’s not every single area, but there’s always some areas to improve and areas to grow – and one of the benefits of information like this is it helps us to identify that.”

“It’s one more measure we can use to identify areas that we can grow and improve, but overall I think it tells us that we’re heading in the right direction.”

According to the data, 5.9% of students with a disability at Southeast Elementary are proficient in ELA, compared with the school’s average of 28%. Similarly, 11.8% of students with a disability at the school are considered proficient in math while the school’s average is 29.2%.

Wilder said he and his staff recognize the need to help students with disabilities at Southeast Elementary but said the exam may not be apt for those students’ academic prowess.

“We do recognize that one of our schools, Southeast Elementary, was identified as a school that is going to see some targeted support, and that’s really based on one demographic, and it happens to be students with disabilities,” Wilder said. “So that’s a group of students at all levels and all schools and across the state where students take an exam that isn’t necessarily based on their cognitive performance but really just their age.

“And while we’ve known that for years, we’ve accepted the challenge to work with all of our students, including our students with disabilities.”

District 427 had an enrollment of 3,539 students, an average class size across all grade levels of 22.7 students and 252.6 full-time equivalent teachers in the spring, according to the Report Card data.

The district’s student population is 79% white, 11.2% Hispanic or Latino, 3.6% Black and 1.6% Asian; however, 97.6% of teachers are white.

Sycamore has a higher average four-year high school graduation rate (93.6%) than the state average (87.6%), and also was ahead when it comes to tackling an issue Wilder said has long plagued schools: absenteeism.

More than 21% of Sycamore students are chronically absent from class, according to the Report Card, but that’s about 6% better than the state average.

“Attendance has been something that schools have looked at even prior to the pandemic, but I think the pandemic a couple of years ago really impacted that,” Wilder said. “In Sycamore, we were remote for quite a while, and then we came back using a hybrid model and, obviously, we’ve seen some impact from that. So maybe some of that chronic absenteeism is a little bit of a carryover from that.

“I think attendance rates have improved since the pandemic. But again, it’s one of those areas where I think we’re doing OK but there’s certainly room to improve.”

Although the district is ahead of the state when it comes to graduation rates and class attendance, it’s significantly behind in a measure that the Illinois State Board of Education believes is paramount to a student’s ability to enter a science, technology, engineering and mathematics career field.

According to the 2023 Report Card, 16.1% of Sycamore eighth graders passed Algebra 1 compared with the state average of 31%.

Students who pass Algebra 1 before entering high school are more likely to complete Calculus before graduation, which officials have said helps them perform well in science-focused bachelor’s degrees.

Wilder said district staff will look at math proficiency numbers from all students below eighth grade as they work to bring the statistic in line with the state average.

“It’s not really just the students at the eighth-grade level, it’s students and how they’ve progressed through our curriculum even the years before that,” Wilder said. “So our students performing not just at eighth grade but seventh grade, sixth grade and even down into elementary school, and just making sure that everything’s aligned the way it’s supposed to be. But also taking a look at where we can add some content that wasn’t there or modify the curriculum a little bit to make sure our students are prepared.”