A recent report concluded that seven out of 10 third graders in Illinois were not reading at grade level in 2023 based on their test scores, suggesting a majority of students statewide will face major educational hurdles ahead.
The report from <a href="https://www.illinoispolicy.org/see-how-well-your-local-3rd-graders-can-read" target="_blank">IllinoisPolicy.org</a> compiled the percentages of third graders failing to meet or meeting reading proficiency standards on last year’s Illinois Assessment of Readiness.
The tests are given to students in third through eighth grades each spring to assess their progress in meeting the Illinois Learning Standards in English language arts and mathematics.
Some of the lowest performing schools for the IAR’s reading test in Kankakee County were in Kankakee, Momence and Pembroke.
In Kankakee School District, the percentages of third graders not proficient in reading were: 100% at Taft Primary, 94.7% at Edison Primary, 94.2% at Steuben Elementary, 85.7% at Mark Twain Elementary, 84.3% at King Middle School, 70.4% at Lincoln Cultural Center, and 67.5% at Kennedy Middle School.
Je-Neir Elementary in Momence School District had 98.3% of third graders test as not proficient in reading last year. For Lorenzo Smith School in Pembroke School District, the percentage was 92.6%.
For schools in Bradley, Bourbonnais, St. George and Manteno, the percentage was in the 70% to 80% range.
Some of the best performing schools in the county were in Grant Park, Herscher and St. Anne, where percentages of third graders who tested as not proficient in reading were in the 60% range. (Grant Park: 61.3%; Herscher Intermediate: 62.4%; St. Anne: 69.7%.)
According to the report, if a child has not learned to read by the end of third grade, that child is likely to struggle throughout his or her education because fourth grade is when students transition from learning to read to reading as their main method of learning.
<strong>KANKAKEE</strong>
At Taft Primary School, which has one third-grade class, 100% of last year’s third grade students tested as not meeting reading proficiency standards.
Kankakee School District has appeared on similar lists of underperforming schools in the past.
Edison Primary School, where roughly 95% of third-grade students were not reading at grade level based on 2023 IAR scores, met the 100% threshold on the 2022 test, meaning not a single third-grade student could read at grade level based on their test scores.
Edison has the most third graders in the district, about 95 students.
Kankakee Superintendent Genevra Walters said the first step to raising test scores is making sure teachers are teaching material at grade level.
That means in a fourth-grade classroom, content must be taught at the fourth-grade level, even though some students may be at the level of a second or fifth grader.
The district has been working with The New Teacher Project, or TNTP, since 2019 to improve the focus on teaching material at grade level, she said.
“If the teachers are lowering the grade level, like if they have third graders and they are teaching at a lower grade level, the kids can’t pass the test,” Walters said.
The district also offers a variety of summer learning opportunities and Saturday school for additional support.
However, Walters said that support for students from the community is needed as well.
If a student is entering preschool at age 3 with a limited vocabulary, they are already behind in terms of their reading skills, as reading is correlated to vocabulary development, Walters said.
“We need parents to make sure that students are doing their work, going to school, that families are using larger vocabulary, that they are reading,” she said. “It really is going to take a community effort to raise those test scores.”
Walters said that test scores are not the only indicator of success in students, but they shouldn’t be ignored, either.
“I will say that our test scores do indicate that there is a problem with the development of our young people in Kankakee,” she said. “But the problem is not one person; the problem is a community. I’m not saying it’s the community’s fault, but I think the community has to come together for the answer.”
<strong>MOMENCE</strong>
At Je-Neir Elementary School in Momence, 98.3% of last year’s third graders were not proficient in reading based on the IAR test.
The school has three classrooms of third graders, each with about 20 to 25 students.
Lynette Thrasher, Momence’s director of curriculum and instruction, said the district is analyzing its IAR test data.
This includes looking at the number of students who came close to meeting the standard.
According to the Illinois Report Card, the 98.3% of Momence third graders who didn’t meet the reading standard breaks down to: 41.9% did not meet the standard; 30.6% partially met the standard; and 25.8% approached the standard. The remaining 1.6% of students met the standard.
Thrasher said the idea is to look at students’ growth over time and whether or not the schools are moving students closer to meeting the standard.
“The IAR is hard to measure and work with, especially in third grade, because it’s the first time they are taking it, and it’s a one-and-done,” she said. “Then by the time you get the scores, they’ve already moved on to the next grade.”
The district uses other kinds of benchmark data to measure students’ growth during the year, compare different cohorts of students from year to year, and make decisions on curriculum and instruction.
“We were seeing growth, and of course COVID happened, and there was a dramatic drop …” she said. “From that first year back in ‘21, we’ve slowly started to see that growth come back again, and we’re getting back to where we were pre-COVID.”
Since the pandemic, the district has implemented additional interventions, including reading and math after-school tutoring and social-emotional support.
“There’s mountains of research that shows the earlier you can provide interventions, the more beneficial it will be,” Thrasher said.
Thrasher also said that Momence has a higher population of students who are English language learners than other area districts. At Je-Neir Elementary, this represents about 13 to 15% of students.
“Research also shows that it can take up to five years to become proficient in a new language,” she said. “So, if there’s an English-language learner who is starting kindergarten with us, they are not going to be proficient in English by third grade. “… There’s just a lot of different things that make that third-grade test a little more challenging than other grades.”
<strong>BOURBONNAIS</strong>
For the three schools with third graders in Bourbonnais School District, the percentages of students not reading at grade level based upon the 2023 IAR scores were: 72.7% for Shepard, 85.7% for LeVasseur, and 74.5% for Shabbona.
Bourbonnais Superintendent Adam Ehrman said that the district is analyzing its testing data as well, including the results of IAR and Star tests.
This includes looking at the percentages of students who partially met or approached meeting the testing standards.
“There’s data within the data,” he said.
He said the district will be starting a new English language arts curriculum next year for kindergarten through third grades that will be more aligned with the fourth- through sixth-grade curriculum.
Past testing data was one part of the equation that led to the change.
“It’s very important on a macro level. … We do factor in the IAR scores, but I wouldn’t say it’s the [main] factor,” he said.
Ehrman said the district looks closely at year-to-year growth and many other factors, not just how students perform on the one particular testing day.
“We don’t ever want to take one assessment point and define ourselves as being great or bad based upon one set of data,” Ehrman said.
He said it is important not to “jerk the wheel” when it comes to changing things in a school because of test scores.
He compared the scores to assessing a person’s health.
“If we were looking at the health of the body, you wouldn’t just take what the scale is saying or what the blood pressure is saying,” Ehrman said. “You want to look at all of those factors to determine what is the wellness of the individual from a health perspective. Likewise academically.”
Based on 2023 Illinois Assessment of Readiness test results, below are the percentages of third graders who did NOT meet the state standard for English language arts:
Bradley School District:
• Bradley West: 79.3%
Bourbonnais School District:
• Alan Shepard: 72.7%
• Noel Levasseur: 85.7%
• Shabbona: 74.5%
Kankakee School District:
• Edison Primary: 94.7%
• Kennedy Middle: 67.5%
• King Middle: 84.3%
• Lincoln Cultural Center: 70.4%
• Mark Twain: 85.7%
• Steuben: 94.2%
• Taft Primary: 100%
Across Kankakee County:
• Chebanse: 50.8%
• Grant Park: 61.3%
• Herscher Intermediate: 62.4%
• Manteno: 73.1%
• Momence/Je-Neir Elementary: 98.3%
• Pembroke/Lorenzo Smith: 92.6%
• St. Anne: 69.7%
• St. George: 71.4%
Iroquois County:
• Cissna Park: 79%
• Donovan: 74.1%
• Glenn Raymond: 64.6%
Iroquois West Elementary: 37.8%
• Milford: 85.7%
Will County:
• Beecher: 59.5%
• Peotone: 68%
• Wilmington LJ Stevens: 65.9%
Source: <a href="https://www.IllinoisPolicy.org" target="_blank">IllinoisPolicy.org</a>
State Rep. Jackie Haas, R-Bourbonnais, has launched her fourth annual summer reading program. Students from kindergarten through fifth grade can participate by reading 10 or more books before Aug. 5. Books over 150 words count for two books. All students who complete their summer reading will receive an invitation to an ice cream party and certificate ceremony in late summer.
Once a student completes their reading, they can fill out their form and have their parents verify the information. Online forms can be completed at <a href="https://www.RepHaas.com" target="_blank">RepHaas.com</a>. Paper forms are available at Haas’ district office at 370 E. Court St., Kankakee.