Only 1 in 10 Black ES and MS Students in 186 Showed ELA Proficiency in 2023

…and that’s just the start.

As our local newspapers’ capacity to cover local news has been greatly reduced, I’ve decided to offer some minimal coverage of our local school board. The plan is simply to offer up things that could go unnoticed for folks who don’t tune in to things like local school board meetings. I’ll likely add context and some commentary where I think it might be helpful.

Education news site The74 reported on the Missouri NAACP filing a federal civil rights complaint based on the disparities between Black and white students’ literacy scores across the state.

In my last post, I pointed to District 186’s 23% ELA proficiency rate in 2023. The story out of Missouri got me wondering a couple things: 1) How does 2023’s proficiency rate compare to years’ past? 2) How have the District’s Black students historically compared to their white peers in ELA proficiency?

Getting that data required a little digging on the District’s State Report Card. First, a historical look at District ELA elementary and middle school proficiency as measured by standardized assessments since 2012.

ELA
YEAR% PROFICIENTASSESSMENT
201267ISAT
201348ISAT
201446ISAT
201529PARCC
201629PARCC
201729PARCC
201827PARCC
201926.9IAR
2020N/AN/A
202121IAR
202221IAR
202323IAR
Source: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/District.aspx?source=profile&Districtid=51084186025

Next up, disaggregation of those data to show proficiency rates for Black and white students on those same assessments.

ELA
YEAR% PROFICIENTASSESSMENT
BW
20125278ISAT
20133061ISAT
20142758ISAT
201513.539.9PARCC
201614.140.2PARCC
201714.640.3PARCC
201813.537.5PARCC
201913.638.3IAR
2020N/AN/AN/A
20217.830.6IAR
20229.133.1IAR
20231035.5IAR
Source: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/District.aspx?source=profile&Districtid=51084186025

For 2023 Black students represented 44% of the District’s student body while white students made up 36.9%. Those numbers are not tremendously different since 2018 – 40%, 43/6% respectively – the earliest year such data are available on the state report card.

In addition to the obvious racial disparities above, is the fact total proficiency rates were already in decline before the pandemic, which is often blamed for poor student performance.

Still, 9 out of 10 Black elementary and middle school students in the District were unable to show proficiency in reading in 2023, and they were 25.5 percent behind their white peers.

For comparison, the Missouri NAACP complaint was based on 14% of Missouri’s Black third graders showing ELA proficiency compared to 61% of their white peers.

In District 186, 9.5% of Black third graders showed proficiency last year compared to 26.9% of their white peers.

At the Nov. 6, 2023 meeting of the School Board, none of these numbers was discussed and no questions were asked about ELA proficiency. The District’s presentation of the data focused on growth percentiles, and did not give an overview of proficiency data by sub-groups. Board members did not ask for that data.

Nine out of ten…no one asked questions.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=g5Wl-k4sul8%3Fsi%3Dax0D1ArFG_Ef4gud%26start%3D3190

What’s Happening with Superintendent Gill’s Goals?

As out local daily newspaper’s capacity to cover local news has been greatly reduced, I’ve decided to offer some minimal coverage of our local school board. The plan is simply to offer up things that could go unnoticed for folks who don’t tune in to things like local school board meetings. I’ll likely add context and some commentary where I think it might be helpful.

The Gist

  • Eight out of every ten district students test below proficient in reading.
  • Four out of every ten district high school students won’t graduate in four years.
  • The Superintendent made public six goals to improve these conditions and committed to four public progress reports on those goals.
  • Those reports never happened.
  • School Board members either forgot about the progress reports or ignored the fact they didn’t happen.

The Whole Story

This might seem like reaching into the wayback machine to find something to write about, but stick with me.

First, let’s start with some facts.

According to state data, District 186 had a 4-year high school graduation rate of almost 63% in 2023. Looking out six years, that rate improves to 72%. The four- and six-year rates lagged 25% and 16% behind the state average, respectively. Put differently, four out of every 10 students who started high school in Illinois’s capital didn’t graduate in four years.

Proficiency across ELA, math, and science gives some indication as to why District students may have difficult graduating on time. Not only do district averages continue to lag behind the state, but approximately eight out of every ten students failed to show proficiency in English on 2023 state assessments as well.

Eight out of ten.

I’ll likely be bringing up these and other data as I write about the Board.

For now, let’s let these two images ground the question driving this post: What’s happening with Superintendent Gill’s goals?

During the 1 May 2023 board meeting, Superintendent Gill outlined her six strategic goals for the district:

Goal 1 is to address with urgency the most underperforming elementary, middle and high schools, based on ISBE designations and other data sources such as attendance, assessment (both qualitative and quantitative) data, student conduct and support systems in place. Gill asked that a Board committee be formed to work with her on this goal.

Goal 2 is to examine research surrounding the data processes and the recommendation of retention or social promotion in District 186 schools. In particular, to analyze data surrounding students promoted to high school from 8th grade.

Goal 3 relates to Freshman on Track, a measure that is part of the overall school designation program for the ISBE School Report Card data released each fall. Gill noted this goal will monitor programming and individual growth of students in all high school programs to make sure 9th grade students are on track, as well as monitor student supports, as needed. These supports could include mentoring, tutoring, attendance supports, and so forth.

Goal 4 is to design communication and support structures for students to address graduation rates of all District 186 credit bearing programs.

Goal 5 is to conduct a study surrounding the issues of declining enrollment in district schools, utilize future forecasting of enrollment and analyze its relation to the community’s overall population. Gill noted that the analysis will be presented to the Board of Education by the end of the 2023-2024 school year.

Goal 6, to monitor and communicate with the Board of Education regularly on the hiring, recruitment, promotion, and support for all staff as the district navigates an overall teacher shortage in education. Additionally, Gill reported that as the Consent Decree, which is based on the Desegregation Order of 1976, is supported, she will communicate matters concerning minority recruitment, hiring, support systems and promotions.

In light of graduation and proficiency data, these goals align to pressing needs. Related to Goal 3, state data show 69% of district 9th grade students were on track to graduate in 2023.

In this same presentation of her goals, Gill committed to the Board that she would report progress toward these goals across four future meetings: Nov. 23, 2023; Jan. 16, 2024; March 18, 2024; and June 17, 2024.

Here’s the thing – she never did.

Not only do Board minutes show no record of any progress reports from Gill in those meetings, they also show no indication any board members inquired about this progress.

Eight out of ten don’t show proficiency in reading.

Four out of ten don’t graduate in four years.

Three out of ten aren’t on track to graduate.

No one checked to see if we’re making progress to help turn that around.

19 Aug 14 – District 186 School Board Meeting

As out local daily newspaper’s capacity to cover local news has been greatly reduced, I’ve decided to offer some minimal coverage of our local school board meetings. The plan is simply to offer up things that could go unnoticed for folks who don’t tune in to things like local school board meetings. I’ll likely add context and some commentary where I think it might be helpful.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ta6clFzjhak%3Fsi%3DZmWrhyJLdhAcNpmo%26start%3D1927
Full video of the 19 Aug. ’24 District 186 School Board Meeting.

Following the Pledge of Allegiance, acknowledgement of board members’ with students who had their first days of school that day, and swearing in this year’s student representative on the Board, Board President Micah Miller turned the meeting over to Superintendent Jennifer Gill for her report.

Gill reported 13,004 registered students as of the meeting time and a 89.03% district attendance rate for the first day.

District Vacancies

Across the district, Gill reported 11 current certified teacher vacancies and 64 vacancies of the 309 paraprofessional positions in the district. Of the paraprofessional openings, 15 of the 111 classroom para positions were vacant and 49 of the 111 one-to-one positions. Gill noted several of the vacancies would be filled by Board approvals at the meeting.

Student First, the District’s student transportation contractor began the year short 13 drivers necessary for all routes, Gill said. To make up for the shortfall, 17 drivers from the District’s ELC would be handling those routes until the ELC opens Aug. 27. By that time Gill said the some of the 17 new hires currently training with First Student would be ready to take over.

Gill said anyone interested in becoming a bus driver ($25/hr) or bus monitor ($16/hr) should reach out to First Student and noted training time for new hires was compensated.

Celebrations

Gill began her celebrations noting the District’s theme for the year, “Level Up 186.” She said it was meant to connect to students’ interest in leveling up in gaming and also “taking their learning to the next level.”

Gill shared photos from welcome back celebrations for teachers and students across the district as well as photos from the “AVID District Path Training: Creating Engaging and Rigorous Classrooms” from Aug. 13 and 14 attended by teachers from Southeast High and Jefferson Middle. Gill said the training was of particular note because all schools are “focusing on AVID” across the District.

Read more about AVID here.

Approval Items

In addition to standard items such as payroll, the following agenda items were unanimously approved by the Board:

  • $55,000 to the National SAM (School Administration Manager) Innovation Project (NSIP) for a site license. The District has already implemented the SAM process with select schools and leaders.
  • $53,000 in federal Title I funds for the contracting of The Thoughtful Classroom as the State Board approved Learning Partner with Dubois Elementary School. Dubois is required to contract a Learning Partner by the State Board because the school earned a Comprehensive rating on its 2023 school report card.

Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESEA) provides supplemental financial assistance to school districts for children from low-income families. Its purpose is to provide all children significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high-quality education, and to close educational achievement gaps by allocating federal funds for education programs and services. Title I allocations to state education agencies and local education agencies (LEAs) are based primarily on annually updated LEA poverty estimates produced by the U.S. Census Bureau. Then, within-LEA allocations to schools are based on school poverty rates, for which a common measure used by LEAs is the number of public school children eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (FRPL). 

The Board approved up to $119,00 for “RSM US LLP to assist with consulting needs for the Fiscal Year 2024 Audit Preparation.”

Board members approved moving the maximum allowable reimbursement amount for staff and board members from $3,000 to $4,000 and increasing the per diem for food to $70. Gill said the increases were necessary to accommodate rising costs of travel and other expenses.

A final item on the agenda was adoption of new district language on personal electronic devices into the student handbook. Discussed and ratified over the course of the last few meetings, this new language moves to a centralized approach to policy and away from the previous freedom of schools to set individual approaches. Of particular interest were the universal consequences listed in the new policy:

  • 1st – Take phone for the day & send to the office, admins call the parent / guardian
  • 2nd – Take phone for the day, Parents/Guardians will be required to pick up the phone before the office closes and take the phone with them. The time should be communicated to the parent of when the offices closes. (If the phone is not picked up, it remains in the office until it is picked up).
  • 3rd – Restorative conversations and classroom detentions and/or administrative detentions will be issued.
  • 4th – Other disciplinary consequences will be issued for repeat offenders and repeat offenders can be required to bring the phone to the academic office with the appropriate grade level administrator each day if parents/legal guardians require their child to have a phone before or after school for safety.

Full minutes of the meeting can be found here.

The next meeting will be September 3 at 6:30 PM in the Board Room, at 1900 West Monroe, Springfield, Illinois.

What I’d Share About Trauma

A colleague of mine is set to lead some professional learning for childcare workers. Her topic is trauma-informed care, and she reached out to see what I’d make sure to include if I were talking to the audience.

Not wanting to double up on what I was sure she’d already be sharing, I sent her the following from Fostering Resilient Learners by Kristin Van Marter Souers and Pete Hall:

I am going to introduce you to a powerful series of six communication steps to begin using with your students and loved ones. I use these often in the couples therapy work that I do, and I swear by them in my interventions in the classroom setting with educators, administrators, students, and families. The steps are as follows:

  1. Listen.
  2. Reassure.
  3. Validate.
  4. Respond.
  5. Repair.
  6. Resolve.

Souers points out we usually hit #s 1, 4, and 6 pretty well, and I’ll admit this used to be my classroom practice. When problems arose in my classroom or in adult classes I teach, these three steps felt like all I needed to “handle” the problem and move on. These three kept us on schedule.

Unfortunately, they didn’t live up to my commitment to care for those I was teaching. In truly frazzled moments, listening more likely ended up as hearing which led to responding in ways that were inauthentic and one-sided, which led to a resolution that took care of what I needed and maybe took care of a piece of what the other person needed.

Pretty decent fail on the ethic of care.

Luckily(?), Souers points out I wasn’t alone:

Repair is one of the biggest steps we miss in education. So often, we mistake a student’s return to regulation as a form of repair. But getting a student to a place of being able to return to the classroom does not constitute repair; it just means that the student may now be primed to reflect on what happened so that repair can actually take place. In addition, many of our students and staff have never had healthy repair modeled for them, so the concept is foreign. Many families engage in the pattern of rupture-separate-return, in which a disruption, argument, or hurtful exchange occurs; the parties involved separate from each other; and, after time passes, they return and act as though nothing happened. Opting not to address what occurred leaves a void of understanding and a lingering fear that the upset may happen again. We have a huge responsibility to model what healthy repair looks like and to incorporate structures into our discipline and corrective policies that enable this step to take place.

Souers, Kristin Van Marter ; Hall, Pete. Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom . ASCD. Kindle Edition.

Since I’ve started incorporating all six steps, I’ve seen a few key outcomes:

  • I’m more connected to whomever I’m working with. The process is a mindful one. It requires me to stop what I’m doing and make sure I’m connecting with the other person.
  • There’s more time. Whether working with my kids or with adults I may be teaching or managing, making sure we’ve worked through the entire process means the conversation isn’t lingering. In each 1-4-6 scenario, my day or time was often interrupted down the road because the other person hadn’t felt the repair and closure they needed to move on. Whatever the original problem, it would keep gnawing away at focus and relationships like an unattended to splinter. Now, we’re working things through, so they aren’t re-manifesting later on.
  • I’m checkin in. As a somewhat conflict-avoidant person, I would often hit 1, 4, and 6 and then avoid the person and the problem for fear that festering splinter would start poking me. The issue, though, was always worrying me. As a caretaker, I remained concerned the other person was still upset and in need. A tough tension to navigate. Now, having worked through to repair and resolution, I feel much freer to check in with the person as a signal I’m still thinking about them and as a way to strengthen our relationship.

The Wind Storm

About two and a half years ago, my kids were – for their second time – visiting what would become our house . It was a week-long visit. I knew I hoped I’d be their forever home, but they thought they were just on a vacation.

One afternoon, I was walking around the block while they went ahead of me on their scooters. “This is what it’s going to be like,” I thought to myself smiling calmly.

“ZAC!” I heard, “He fell! There’s blood! He needs help!” my daughter came yelling to me.

The kids had gone around a corner just out of my sight, and my son had slid off a curb and crashed his scooter, gashing his knee in the process. I ran to him, picked him up and ran the rest of the way to the house.

“Grab the scooters!” I yelled behind me.

What a sight we must have been. He was wailing. She was all of 9 years old, dragging two scooters across the concrete. I’m sure I had a look of pure panic on my face. Irrationally, I thought, “They’ll never let me have these kids now!”

The scene in the bathroom was one of more wailing, navigating a very protective older sister and a little boy who had no reason to trust me clinging to my neck while I cleaned the gravel from his knee. We continued to be a sight.

Today, two years and change later, we had an intense wind storm with gusts of 100+ miles per hour. Neighbor Fran texted to let me know our trampoline had taken flight, hung in the power lines for a few minutes and ended up in Neighbor Gary’s yard. So, we had an adventure to look forward when we got home.

Gary answered his door.

“Gary, if you wanted to borrow our trampoline, all you had to do is ask.”

“I think my trampoline days are long gone.”

The kids and I started to pull the legs and such off the trampoline in Gary’s back yard. The boy went back to our house to get the dogs who’d been barking orders at us from across yard back in the house to bring some semblance of calm to the neighborhood.

The girl and I were working and heard the boy yelling, “Come! Come! Come! Come!” Listening through the wind, I heard the tone my heart knows needs me – now.

A gust of wind had blown through the garage door to slam the back door on his fingers. One of them had a decent chunk of skin missing. He clung to me once we were in the bathroom. Unintelligible words coming from his mouth, gulping air. The kind of crying only children can do when life hurts and scares at the same time.

Once I’d determined no need for a visit to urgent care, “I know what we are going to do, but I won’t do anything without you telling me it’s okay. Would you like me to tell you what we’re going to do?”

A whimpering nod.

Around this time, his sister appears. “What’s going on!?”

We explain, wailing much lessened.

She is concerned, but waiting for directions.

We move through the steps of repair. When we run out of things requiring three of us, I ask her to go clean up the shreds of paper the dogs greeted us with when we go home. She goes without argument. She knows I’ve got this.

Once the bandage is secured with ample antiseptic, he asks to go play a video game and she asks to watch a show. I say yes and start to make dinner.

The rest of our evening is status quo. Well, eating dinner with a non-dominant hand was interesting to watch.

Two years ago, or even four months ago, any of these things would have derailed our night and possibly our week.

Tonight, I didn’t stop to think, “This is what it’s going to be like,” because this is simply what it’s like. This is our family.

Next Monday, two years and 16 days since they moved in, we’ll sit in a courtroom, and a judge will make our family official. Tonight, though, we wrangled an errant trampoline, patched up a finger, cleaned up after anxious dogs, ate dinner, and brushed and flossed.

I’d say it’s official.

Play Dates

I’m writing this from the basement.

Upstairs are 5 children under the age of 12. Two of them are mine.

We’ve been having a pretty quiet Sunday morning. I even got coffee on the couch. We started moving around a bit and then the request came, “Can we go see if the kids around the corner can play?”

Sure. We don’t have plans until after lunch. Go run and get your wiggles and sillies out.

A few minutes later, “They can’t play.”

No problem. They settle in. M asks if she can go for a walk. T asks if he can play Spider-Man. Yes to both. I keep moving, cleaning bathroom, moving laundry from dryer to hamper and pretending someone else is coming to fold it all.

A knock at the door.

“Zac, they can play!”

Great!

“They said they just have to be home at 2.”

I look at the clock. It is 10:30 in the morning.

Admittedly, I am relatively new to this play date thing. But, sending your young children to a neighbor’s house for 3.5 hours feels like a big move, right?

I’ve met these kids’ mom one time.

I just realized lunch is within that timeframe. Am I supposed to feed these three?

I mean, of course I’m going to take care of the kids and make sure everyone’s having fun and being safe. I’ll make sure they have a good lunch. I’ll help my kids clean up the messes that follow my specific “you can play with whatever you want as long as everyone picks it up before they go home”.

I’ll parent the hell out of this play date.

And, I’ll keep wondering about the wisdom of this move. I’ll work myself to being okay with assuming there won’t be any reciprocity.

Because, I have two kids and know how much it all feels like on the second day of a weekend when they keep looking to you for what’s next and what they can do and snack. I know what it’s like to have two, and can imagine what it’s like to have three who are all even younger.

Because, sometimes, it’s all so heavy that I understand how a parent brain might think, “That guy with the kids around the corner passed muster in the three minutes I talked to him. Maybe he and his kids can carry this weight for a little bit.”

18 May 21 – The Dentist

This afternoon, we were supposed to go to the dentist. Again.

We were at the orthodontist Friday for my daughter. She had the choice of getting her braces off Friday or keeping them on for a few months longer to really straighten some teeth. It may not surprise you to know she chose to get them taken off.

It did surprise her – and me and her brother – to know the process of having your braces removed. Pliers to pull off the brackets, that drill thing to remove the glue, weird foam in your mouth for retainer impressions.

What I thought was going to be an early morning check in turned into two hours of crying and hugs and “I don’t want to do this. Let’s leave now.” She was saying it, but I was thinking it. Because it was an early morning appointment, we’d not eaten breakfast either. The plan was to check on the braces and pick something up on the way to school.

Dental work can be triggering for kids from trauma. It is invasive and requires you to give up control. These are things folx with no history of trauma find problematic, now multiply that exponentially.

We made it through Friday. The braces are off for a year or so until we head into Phase 2. And, I am incredibly proud of my kids. She made it through and she knew I would be there. She knew she didn’t have to be the bravest person in the room because I’d do that for her as long as she needed to.

And she was still so brave. Brave and trusting.

About my kids and kids in general I’ve heard or read this line several times in the last year, “They’re so resilient.”

And, yeah, they are. But that’s not a reason to ask them to be. My kids, and all kids have proven their resiliency. So, when there’s the chance to not ask them to prove it anymore, I say we take it.

So, I re-scheduled today’s dentist appointments. Pushed them back a few weeks. Decided we could use a night of not proving our resilience to anyone.

30 Jan 21 – Trauma

I’m worried my kids will have teachers who haven’t done or refuse to do the work of becoming trauma-informed in their practice.

I’m worried the actions that come from survival instincts of flight, fight, freeze, and submit will be mistaken for their true and beautiful personalities.

I’m worried this will mean my kids won’t be seen for the amazing people they are.

According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, “More than 25% of American youth experience a serious traumatic event by their 16th birthday, and many children suffer multiple and repeated traumas.”

Acknowledging trauma and acting in trauma-informed ways are not the same things. Without the latter, we will only find success by accident and happenstance. That’s unacceptable.

If you are an educator who hasn’t yet started this work, start. If you work with children, you work with children in trauma. They need you to do this work.

Some places to start:

29 Jan 21 – She ran up a wall

Starting a good many months back, I signed the kids up for Ninja classes through a local gym called Warrior Playground. It’s an obstacle course gym in the vein of American Ninja Warrior or my favorite Ultimate Beastmaster.

In these pandemic times, classes are limited to 4 students, which is pretty amazing. Among all the obstacles, the warped wall has most been the focus of both kids’ efforts. It’s what it sounds like. In the first weeks, they were able to run up and summit the 8-foot wall. No problem.

Next, Coach Glenn challenged them to get to the top of the 12-foot wall. So, for more than 4 months, that’s what they’ve been trying to do.

Well, today, the 11yo did it. For week’s she’s been within 6-8 inches. But those 6-8 inches have proven too much. It has led to many a “Can we go home now?” midway through class.

Running into and up a wall more than twice your size can take the spirit out of you on a normal day. When it’s the wall you’ve been running up against for months, it can feel literally insurmountable.

Tonight, at dinner, she said, “And, Coach Glenn said, ‘Believe you can do it.’ So, I closed my eyes and decided to believe I can do it. And, I did it.”

Simple as that.

I don’t need to list all the walls she’s faced. I don’t need to warn her of all the walls ahead. She knows what they were, and she’ll know them when she meets them.

“So, I closed my eyes and decided to believe I can do it. And, I did it.”

Keep going, love.

28 Jan 21 – Ten (living) people I will likely never meet, and very much would like to

10. Dan Levy

9. Brandi Carlile

8 & 7. The Avett Brothers

6. Robert Fulghum

5. Vice President Harris

4. Rainbow Rowell

3. The Most Rev. Michael Curry

2. Sen. Tammy Duckworth

1. George Takei

Who are ten of yours?