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Latino pupils fare well on shorter test
Improved scores get schools off watch list

By Tracy Dell'Angela, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporter Darnell Little contributed to this report

November 10, 2005

Big changes in a little-known test helped lift the fortunes of nearly 100 schools in the Chicago area--all of which recorded big increases in the reading results of immigrant pupils.

Facing criticism over the high-stakes reading test for pupils with limited English skills, the state this summer made the test easier to pass by cutting the number of questions.

Results were dramatic, especially for schools that had been labeled failing solely because of the academic performance of children who speak another language at home.

Without the change, the schools could have faced tougher federal sanctions.

"It's bought us a little breathing room, so we can concentrate on teaching and learning instead of just worrying about passing a test," said Anne Benevides, director of bilingual programs for East Aurora Unit School District 131. In that district, about 4,400 limited-English pupils took the test, called the Illinois Measure of Annual Growth in English, or IMAGE, in 2005.

This year, only two District 131 elementary schools are on the federal list of failing schools, compared with six in 2004.

State and local educators say they did not lower standards for limited-English students--they only made a flawed test fairer in the short term because the bar was set arbitrarily high. Passing scores were set high in 1998, in part to make sure children weren't moved too quickly out of special bilingual programs that help them become English proficient.

Illinois educators are working now on developing a replacement test, which they say will better assess the reading skills of limited-English students.

"We're not playing games. We're doing what's best for how this assessment is being used," said Becky McCabe, who oversees testing for the Illinois State Board of Education. "We owe it to the kids to give them an appropriate test. We're going down that road. We're just not there yet."

Statewide, about 92 percent of the 275 schools held accountable for bilingual children made "annual yearly progress" on reading scores, compared with only 53 percent in 2004, according to a Tribune analysis of recently released test scores. In all, 51 schools moved off the failing list solely because of the change in the test, according to the state.

In 5th grade, 68 percent passed the modified reading test, compared with only 26 percent in 2004. The jump occurred, in part, because school districts were allowed to give the modified test to more students who had been in bilingual programs longer. The number of 5th graders taking the test has nearly tripled in two years--from 3,458 to 9,662.

This year, the passing score for 5th graders taking the test dropped to 207, out of 450 possible, down from 230 out of 450. It's not clear whether pupils scored better or worse on the test this year compared with prior years because the state only releases the passing percentages, not the actual scores.

At Rollins School in District 131, Principal Karen Hart celebrated her school's test scores with a little light-hearted symbolism--pulling a stuffed monkey off her back and hanging it from the library ceiling at the start of the school year.

Two years ago, Rollins School was labeled failing because its immigrant pupils did not know enough English to pass the IMAGE test in reading--despite dramatic academic gains by every other student group in every subject. Staff morale sank, and Rollins braced for sanctions, such as mandatory tutoring or offering transfers.

Then, the state made the series of changes that reversed Rollins' fortunes. In 2004 the state allowed pupils in their 4th and 5th year of bilingual instruction to take the IMAGE test instead of the ISAT elementary reading test. The state also decided that students didn't have to take any reading test during their first year in a U.S. school.

Still, Hart knows that monkey won't be off her back for long.

"It was a temporary sigh of relief and a way to say to everyone that what you are doing really is working," said Hart, whose high-poverty, low-spending school sees more than half of its students come and go in a given year. "But nothing has changed about our routine. It's relentless because the standards are constantly going up."

Districts with big immigrant populations have been howling about the IMAGE test since 2003, when the state began using it to measure accountability under No Child Left Behind. But critics pointed out that the test was designed to measure progress in learning English, which is different from the ISAT, which measures grade-level mastery of reading.

IMAGE uses line drawings and short text passages to gauge comprehension skills. There are fewer questions--48 compared with 67 on the 5th grade reading ISAT--and every question can be answered with a yes or a no. In the ISAT, reading passages can be as long as four pages, with vocabulary found in a novel or textbook.

McCabe said she expected schools with high concentrations of Latino students to improve, but she didn't expect the bumps to be so dramatic. The state has about 158,000 children in bilingual education, of which about 94 percent live in the Chicago metropolitan region.

The five districts with the largest populations of limited-English students--Chicago, Cicero, Elgin, Waukegan and East Aurora--each saw reading scores improve by some 20 percentage points or more. Elgin's scores jumped from 25 to 56 percent passing.

At Field Elementary in Wheeling, record-high IMAGE scores this year pulled the school off the federal sanctions list. But Principal LaVonne Knapstein said the school's success rests on far more substantial reforms than a change in the IMAGE passing score.

The school offered after-school help last spring to all English-language learners in Grades 3 through 5. It launched a program called Run 4 Life, which gives all students a daily fitness break, helping them re-energize for their afternoon lessons. Classroom teachers receive about 90 minutes of planning time daily and meet weekly as teams to discuss the needs of individual students.

The school, where a majority of students are Latino and low-income, also posted gains on the ISATs over the last two years, with 80 percent of pupils passing math and reading in 2005, up from 51 percent in 2003.

The ISAT reading scores of the school's Latino 5th graders increased from 48 percent to 65 percent passing, which Knapstein points to as evidence that her immigrant pupils have been successful in transitioning from bilingual programs and modified tests.

"I don't think we have the luxury of taking a deep breath, not with" the No Child act, Knapstein said. "With that little noose around your neck, it does make you look at every program and ask, `Is this working?'"

Still, it's not all blue skies for schools with big bilingual programs. They are bracing for the rollout of a new state test for English learners this winter, a monster of an assessment that has nothing to do with the federal No Child reforms. But it's one that McCabe acknowledges will be a nightmare to launch.

The new test, called ACCESS, will measure how well students are progressing in bilingual education. It is tied to a different pot of federal money than the low-income dollars at stake with No Child reforms.

This year, all bilingual students must take ACCESS, parts of which must be given to students individually by a trained teacher. The test will measure academic English, not just social language skills, a change principals predict will cause scores to tank especially in the first few years.

"It's been a real pain, and we'll take the blame for that," McCabe said. "We're kind of expecting our kids aren't going to do well on this."