But the tests were only being administered in person, which meant many students would be unable to take them.
Like officials at other Illinois districts, Superintendent Tony Sanders asked the U.S. Department of Education for a waiver allowing his district to skip the tests — which were suspended in 2020 — for another year. And like other districts, he was denied.
Nearly 60 percent of students at the suburban district are from low-income families, a sector that has been particularly vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Many of our students who are living in poverty are from families who were afraid for their children to come back into the school building,” Sanders said. “We know the pandemic has had a disparate impact on low-income families, so we did expect it would have an impact on their children’s assessment results.”
Sanders’ concerns were validated last month, when preliminary data from the Illinois Report Card for the 2020-21 school year showed the already significant academic achievement gap facing Illinois students from low-income families has widened dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Illinois students from economically disadvantaged families — who represent nearly 50 percent of the state’s roughly 2 million students — appear to have borne the brunt of the disruptions to education during the pandemic, with test scores for students in grades 3-8 plunging in math and English language arts on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness.
Now, with Illinois schools slated to receive around $7 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funding, educators hope to bridge the gap with everything from tutoring and teacher development, to after-school programs and extra social emotional support for students dealing with trauma.
Still, school officials say despite Illinois classrooms being fully reopened for in-person learning this fall, the pandemic is far from over, and academic recovery efforts continue to be hampered by students in quarantine, hiring challenges and educators who are already exhausted, just two months into the new school year.
While around 25 percent of low-income third graders met proficiency standards for math in 2019, that number declined sharply during the pandemic, with only 13 percent of third graders in that demographic meeting proficiency standards on the recent assessment.
For all demographics, third grade math proficiency dipped from 41 percent of students in 2019, to 31 percent during the pandemic.
Low-income third grade students also showed steep declines in English language arts aptitude, with 24 percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards in 2019, but falling to just 13 percent during the last school year.
The sharpest declines were found in eighth grade math, with just 12 percent of low-income students showing proficiency, dropping from 25 percent of eighth graders in that demographic meeting or exceeding standards in 2019.
Officials at Chicago Public Schools said they are using federal dollars to support pandemic recovery efforts, including re-engagement with absent or missing students, including spending $525 million this year and next for the district’s new Moving Forward Together initiative.
The half-billion dollars will be spent on research-backed resources and flexible funding that will give local schools control over how to fund programs that support the academic and social emotional recovery and growth of their students, according to the CPS website.
One in five Illinois students was chronically absent last year, missing 10 percent or more of the school year, with or without a valid excuse — a 21-percent increase from 2019, ISBE officials said.
“Chicago Public Schools is committed to investing in our students as we deal with the constantly evolving issues that have arisen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” CPS Chief Financial Officer Miroslava Mejia Krug said in a statement.
“We continue to prioritize resources for communities most impacted and harmed by COVID-19 including closing the achievement gap,” Krug said.
CPS is using federal COVID-19 dollars for teacher development, intensive intervention through tutoring, additional instructional resources and expanded opportunities outside of the school day, officials said.
Federal funding is also being used to ensure a safe return to fully reopened schools, improved virtual learning and technology and an effort to support “local school-based decisions to better meet the unique needs of school communities,” officials said.
The state report card includes data from student assessments delivered last spring at around 90 percent of Illinois schools, and taken by roughly 70 percent of students, ISBE spokesperson Jackie Matthews said.
The state-level data is preliminary as it does not yet reflect all districts. On Nov. 1, school districts received access to the school and district aggregate data for a correction period, Matthews said.
Unlike in previous years, the state is releasing the data in two batches, with the district-specific data slated for publication Dec. 2. The testing window last spring was extended because of the pandemic, running from March 15 through May 28, and some districts opted to conduct testing this fall.
Among the most grim findings in the state report card from the 2020-21 school year are higher rates of chronic absenteeism, lower rates of ninth graders on track to graduate, and significant declines in the percentages of students across grade levels attaining proficiency in math and English language arts, ISBE officials said.
Overall, around 18 percent fewer students met grade-level standards in math, with significant decreases in proficiency among younger students, who officials said likely had more difficulties adjusting to remote learning than older students.
The rate of ninth grade students on track to graduate dropped 5 percent from 2019 to 2021, which officials said was a result of more students receiving failing grades.
The state also reported nearly 70,000 fewer students enrolled in Illinois public schools, including a roughly 10,000 decline in students attending Chicago Public Schools.
Susan Savage, assistant superintendent for instruction at Elk Grove Village-based Community Consolidated School District 59, said the district relies on data to inform their decision making for students, nearly 60 percent of whom are from low-income families.
“It was such a challenging time, and we didn’t even have all of our students in school,” Savage said.
“Every student has lived through COVID, but they are all in different places,” she said.
In addition to launching a new math curriculum, Savage said the district is identifying students who need extra help with reading and language arts, and is providing time for social and emotional learning at the start and end of each school day.
Yet despite the pandemic-related hurdles still facing many local families, students in the district appear to have welcomed the return to the classroom, she said.
“Students are just so happy to be back to school, even though we’re all still dealing with COVID,” Savage said. “Even with their masks, you can see the joy in our students’ eyes, and that they’re excited to be back.”
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