Kaneland School District 302 using Indicators of Success to monitor achievement

Kaneland School District 302 is using Indicators of Success to monitor the achievements of its students.

Sarah Mumm, director of educational services EC-5, and Patrick Raleigh, director of educational services 6-12, led a presentation on Indicators of Success, as well as the Kaneland School Report Card, during the school board meeting Nov. 27.

The data will be available for review on the district’s website beginning Dec. 11.

“Some of the indicators you will see are direct results from the school report card,” Kaneland Superintendent Todd Leden said. “Some of them are our own created data that we use in the district.”

Leden asked Raleigh about students who are identified as requiring additional help and the time it takes for them to receive it.

“Because of the relationships with our MTSS (multi-tiered system of support) staff, they do a really, really great job the first couple of weeks of just building those relationships,” Raleigh said. “Sometimes it’s teachers that (the students) haven’t had before, particularly with our sixth grade level. So our first administration of i-Ready (a web-based diagnostic assessment and instruction program) usually comes around late September so we can use that data to help intervene based on i-Ready score, but at any time once we get into our typical school year, we go through all of the beginning of the school year stuff.”

That includes getting to know you activities while continuing to grow relationships.

“Usually about the two- to three-week mark into school is when you are going to get some kind of work samples back,” Raleigh said. “And over the last three to four years, we’ve worked really hard working with our students to advocate for their needs and you’ll start to see that early on, usually late August into September.”

Many Kaneland High School students are earning a grade-point average between 3.0 and 4.0, with 59% landing in that range in 2023. Those surpassing 4.0 are able to excel at that level through AP coursework.

“Really, the bulk of our students are falling between that 3 to 4 points on the grade-point average,” Raleigh said. “What we’ve seen over the last few years is a significant decrease in those students that are really struggling.”

Raleigh said 88.6% of Kaneland freshmen are on track to graduate, having failed no more than a single core semester class while finishing the ninth grade with at least six credits.

“When we talk about freshmen on track and the focus that has in the individual intervention plan we have for students, we are starting to see more and more success,” he said. “Pair that with the number of kids taking higher-level courses the last couple of years and we’re starting to see some good things that are happening locally with our kids here in our course selections.”