The following article was selected from the Internet Edition of the Chicago Tribune. To visit the site, point your browser to http://chicagotribune.com/. ----------- Chicago Tribune Article Forwarding---------------- Article forwarded by: Cayata Dixon Return e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Article URL: http://chicagotribune.com/news/metro/chicago/article/0,2669,ART-52114,FF.html ---Forwarded article---------------- Elite high schools see scores slip By Michael Martinez<BR>and Ray Quintanilla As speculation continued Wednesday over who will run Chicago's public schools, new test data obtained by the Tribune suggest that the drop in performance that initiated the leadership shakeup cuts deeper than previously acknowledged. Schools chief Paul Vallas, who has led the schools for six years, gave no indication about his future role during his State of the Schools speech Wednesday, where he trumpeted the system's progress, including net gains in test scores since 1995. But test results from individual high schools show that some of that progress was erased this year at five out of the six college preparatory high schools that took the test last year, too. These magnet schools are centerpieces of Mayor Richard Daley's efforts to improve education in Chicago and staunch the flow of students to private schools and the suburbs. Under complete but preliminary school-by-school test results—which the school system has uncharacteristically delayed releasing this spring—nearly all of the city's top college preps saw reading scores drop on Tests of Achievement and Proficiency (TAP), the secondary school version of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. Ninth and tenth graders took the test earlier this month, and the test results show what percentage of students are reading at grade level, or national norms. Lindblom, recently converted to one of the city's college preps, saw a drop of 8 percentage points to 45.4 percent of its students reading at grade level. Whitney Young dropped more than 2 percentage points, to 93.9 percent. Reading scores also dipped at Jones, Southside and Lane. Only Northside saw its reading scores go up, by the slimmest margin—0.1 percentage points. Northside now has 97.1 percent of its students reading at grade level. (Comparisons could not be made at the other school, Payton, which opened earlier this school year. In the first year of testing, 85.1 percent of students there read at grade level.) It was the system's falling test scores that touched off the biggest shakeup since Daley took control in 1995. Board President Gery Chico resigned abruptly last week, and attention focuses now on whether Vallas will be next to go. On Wednesday, Daley said that Vallas is doing "a good job," but he reiterated that "everybody is replaceable." When a reporter said there was a sense that Daley was not giving Vallas his full backing, the mayor replied, "Oh my God. What am I supposed to do? Wear shoulder pads?" In a press conference after his annual address, Vallas restated he will make a decision on whether he will continue with the system after the last day of school, June 12. But Vallas insisted he could lead the school system next year, if he wanted. "Look, I can take it to whatever level it needs to go," he said. "Nobody's going to have to tell me I don't have it anymore." "The point is, I reserve the right to make decisions on the future," he said. "I don't have anything on the side. I don't have a burgeoning consulting business. ... When it comes to my future, no one is going to push me to [make a decision now]." Daley, meanwhile, continued to mull candidates to replace Chico, who announced his resignation as school board president last Thursday. The mayor originally said the decision could come this week, but one mayoral aide said Wednesday that it may be made next week. Vallas said complacency was to blame for the top-performing schools' drop in reading. Vallas said that the freshmen and sophomores who took the TAP didn't take it seriously this spring because it is scheduled to be phased out next school year and replaced with pre-ACT tests given in October. "As one principal put it, they are all tapped out," Vallas said. "I really think the college preps took a hit because this isn't a high stakes test for them." Vallas added that 56 percent of the city's 77 elementary and high schools on academic probation saw improved scores. But Vallas declined to release individual elementary school test scores, saying they will be distributed next week. At Jones Magnet High School, Principal Cynthia Barron said she and her staff have spent much of the last two weeks reflecting on what went wrong. Her school attracts some of the system's highest achieving students, yet scores in reading dipped to 84 percent reading at grade level from 86.6 percent. "We are looking at our long-range planning right now to see what we can do to address this," Barron said. "We are looking at what we can spend more time on and assess if we are approaching the tests the right away." The new test scores also showed a drop at three out of the five high schools targeted for "intervention" from the central office. Two of these schools, where the board can summarily fire teachers at the end of the school year, saw reading scores rise: South Shore High, with 14.5 percent of its students now at grade level, and DuSable High, with 9.5 percent. One of the schools facing intervention, Collins High on the West Side, now holds the city's worst reading score—only 4.9 percent of its students read at grade level. Bowen High on the South Side fell to 10.4 from 13.5 percent of its students reading at grade level. Orr High, on the West Side, fell to 10.7 percent. Vallas said that intervention needs a few more years to mature but conceded the results were "disappointing." He pointed out how other reforms are "proving successful," such as schools on academic probation and the "re-engineering" of faculties at about a dozen high schools. The slide in reading scores also hit the system's neighborhood high schools, where administrators worry the most about the sanctions that can accompany poor test scores. Kathy Ruffalo, principal of Sullivan High School, said her staff has begun comparing test scores student by student. That might be the only way to determine why reading scores at her school declined from 28.3 percent of students reading at grade level a year ago to 22 percent this year. "Reading is something that is emphasized across our entire curriculum, and it's being done in every class," Ruffalo said. "We are going to sit down, student by student, to determine what went wrong." Tribune staff reporter Gary Washburn contributed to this article. ---------------------------------------------------- This is the CPS Mathematics Teacher Discussion List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
