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District 59 presents 2023‑24 school report card as state reworks cut scores; board notes EL and growth results
Summary
District presenter Tom Ludloff told the board that all 14 district schools were designated 'commendable' under the 2023‑24 Illinois school report card, and flagged that statewide cut‑score changes altered proficiency rates; board members sought more school‑level crosswalks and benchmark comparisons.
The Community Consolidated School District 59 board heard a presentation on the district’s 2023‑24 Illinois school report card and fall benchmarks, and discussed how statewide cut‑score changes affected local proficiency figures.
Tom Ludloff, the district presenter, said the district’s 14 schools received a ‘commendable’ designation under the current state framework. "Basically, this past year, all 14 of our schools were considered commendable," he said, and walked the board through proficiency, growth and subgroup scores.
Why it matters: the Illinois State Board of Education revised cut scores and unified reporting categories, which produced a notable shift in district‑level proficiency rates even where student growth occurred. Ludloff explained that the state lowered some proficiency cut points and reworked grade‑band expectations, so comparisons to prior years should be made with caution.
Ludloff described multiple measures used in the summative index, including proficiency, ELA and math growth (which together account for half the summative rating), climate survey results and subgroup indexes. He noted both areas of progress — “over 10 percentage point growth overall” at one example school for certain subgroups — and places where the district trails state averages at particular grade levels.
Board members asked for more granular school‑level reporting and a crosswalk between the state report card and the district’s local benchmark tools such as iReady. One member asked whether changes lowered expectations; Ludloff replied that the state "lowered the cut scores" but said the state frames the change as alignment with national expectations rather than a simple reduction.
District staff also reviewed fall benchmark results: reading and math start‑of‑year scores, the new Spanish reading assessment (given to dual‑language participants), and long‑term English‑learner metrics. Ludloff said the district’s long‑term EL rate is 6.3 percent versus 23.8 percent statewide, and pointed to chronic absenteeism and teacher retention metrics as other accountability indicators.
What’s next: board members requested that staff prepare school‑level slices and a clearer comparison between the state report card measures and local benchmark data for an upcoming meeting so trustees can monitor trends and interventions.
