News Releases
District 15 Recognized by Standard & Poor’s
Community Consolidated School District 15 is one of 69 Illinois school districts to be identified by Standard and Poor’s School Evaluation Services as an “academic outperformer.”
An outperforming school district, according to Standard and Poor’s, is one that shows a significantly higher percentage of students who scored “proficient or above” on the state’s reading and math tests when compared to other school districts with similar levels of economically disadvantaged students. To be selected for the designation, districts had to maintain excellent performance for two consecutive years (2003-04 and 2004-05). “Academic achievement levels are compared with the percentage of economically disadvantaged students because educators and researchers have found that there is often a strong correlation between the two indicators,” Standard and Poor’s said in making the announcement.
District 15 students were shown to have achieved a reading and math proficiency score of 85.3 percent, compared with a state average of 65.0 percent for the 2004-05 school year. The district’s economically disadvantaged student population was reported as 23.5 percent, compared to a state average of 40 percent. The analysis, conducted by Standard and Poor’s for the first time this year, was conducted using state-reported data.
“We are very pleased to have our district recognized in this way,” commented Dr. Robert A. McKanna, superintendent. “It is a real tribute to our students’ continued strong academic performance.”
More information about the state’s outperforming districts can be found on the Illinois homepage of www.schoolmatters.com.
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