Improving academic performance for all students, particularly minorities, and improving minority teacher recruitment are among the top goals for new Dist. 200 Superintendent Attila Weninger, who unveiled his first district goals last week at the Aug. 23 Dist. 200 Board of Education meeting.
Weninger’s goals emphasized improving minority student performance and teacher recruitment, but also improving school climate and developing a new organizational structure.
The first of his four goals is to “improve academic achievement for all students, especially minority and special education students.”
To do this, he said, the school will try to meet the targets for performance on the Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE), which juniors take each spring.
This year, the school failed to make the federal targets Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) of No Child Left Behind legislation for performance across every subgroup, the fourth time in five years Oak Park and River Forest High School has failed to make AYP.
The 2007 PSAE scores for African-American and low-income students in both reading and math were below state benchmarks. In addition, special education students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) also scored below standards in math.
Special ed students did, however, make AYP in reading through a “safe harbor” provision.
To better measure academic achievement, Weninger’s first goal included the development of a “method of tracking student achievement over time,” including baseline data for grades 6-12.
This, he said, would help the high school measure the transition between grades eight and nine. Currently, elementary and middle school students take the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT).
After the presentation, board members debated declining test scores and minority hiring at OPRF.
Board member Sharon Patchak-Layman suggested that eighth graders were regressing when they moved to the high school, citing evidence from their ISAT scores, but fellow member John Rigas disagreed.
“You can’t give a different test, compare the two, and tell me they’re regressing,” Rigas said.
The high school is already taking steps to improve performance on the PSAE, said Phil Prale, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. Prale said OPRF has organized a collaborative teaching model for transitioning freshmen. The school is also using a reading program called Project CRISS (Creating Reading Independence through Student-owned Strategies) to help with literacy. Another program, Agile Mind, provides computer services in Algebra I classes to accelerate progress, Prale said.
He added that OPRF offers subsidized tutoring through third-party contractors to a small group of students.
With respect to minority teaching hiring, Weninger would like to employ 20 percent of incoming faculty and administration as minorities and suggested having more personal contact with minority candidates.
Board member John Allen raised the possibility of a concerted effort to recruit candidates from historically black colleges and universities. Board member Dietra Millard, meanwhile, asked whether the benchmark of 20 percent was high enough.
Jason Edgecombe, assistant superintendent for Human Resources, said the high school already seeks out qualified candidates at job fairs at the College of DuPage, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and elsewhere.
According to OPRF’s 2006 Illinois School Report Card, 11.4 percent of OPRF’s teachers are black while 4.1 percent are Hispanic, and 1.2 percent are Asian or Pacific Islander.
As for developing a new administrative structure, Weninger said administration and the board would accomplish that after surveying staff and parents. Weninger, though, had previously said that he would unveil the new structure this month and would do so at last week’s board meeting.
On the goal of improving school climate, Weninger called for a “broader and deeper transition program for ninth-grade students,” and said he “would like to have students and parents feel more confident about the school.”
To guide future action, he suggested surveys and a careful assessment of academic and co-curricular programs.
The board approved Weninger’s goals 6-1. Layman, who voted no, suggested that the board wait before approving the goals in order to have more time to review them.