WARD J ELEM SCHOOL (PK - 8)

EXERCISE CAUTION in comparing the 2022 designation to the 2019 designation. ISBE amended the Illinois accountability system to account for the impact of the pandemic on school performance metrics. Designations may not be comparable depending on each district’s circumstances. View the changes in the What’s New With Accountability fact sheet. ISBE created a one-year-only opportunity for early exit from school improvement status to account for pandemic-related anomalies in school performance data. See the list of schools eligible for early exit here https://www.isbe.net/_layouts/Download.aspx?SourceUrl=/Documents/School-Elig-Early-Exit.xlsx.

Exemplary – Schools performing in the top 10 percent of schools statewide with no underperforming student groups.

Commendable – A school that has no underperforming student groups, a graduation rate greater than 67 percent, and whose performance is not in the top 10 percent of schools statewide.

Targeted – A school in which one or more student groups is performing at or below the level of the “all students” group in the lowest performing 5 percent of schools.

Comprehensive – A school that is in the lowest-performing 5 percent Title I eligible schools in Illinois, those high schools that have a graduation rate of less than 67 percent or less, and those schools that have completed a full Targeted Support school improvement cycle, where the performance of one or more of the originally Targeted student groups remains at or below the level of the “all students” group in the lowest-performing 5 percent of Title I eligible schools at the end of the four-year improvement cycle. Schools in Comprehensive Support shall receive comprehensive services.

Intensive - A school that has completed a full Comprehensive Support school improvement cycle, but whose performance remains in the lowest-performing 5 percent Title I eligible schools in Illinois or is a high school that has a graduation rate of less than 67 percent or less at the end of the four-year improvement cycle.

Student groups used in the calculations include major racial and ethnic identities, students with Individual Education Plans (special education), English language learners, and students from low-income families. In order to protect students’ privacy, a group must include at least 10 students in order to be counted in the calculation of Summative Designations.

• Illinois State Board of Education’s (ISBE) Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Resource Page

• ISBE’s Explanation of Summative Designations

• An overview of Illinois’ State Plan for ESSA

• The Illinois ESSA Plan Executive Summary