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STEM School Needs to Ask School Districts for Test Results

Reporting requirements add some extra bureaucratic steps to the way a STEM school finds out how students are performing.

(TNS) — When they sit down to review results from this spring's PARCC tests, staff at the John C. Dunham STEM Partnership School at Aurora University will have to request their students' scores from the surrounding public schools.

That's because, unlike traditional public schools, information specific to the STEM school is not reported to the state, so it does not receive a traditional school report card. While the school is set to annually undergo a wide-ranging evaluation from an outside firm, detailed, comparative data about the school can be hard to find.

STEM school test scores are directed to the public schools in the four districts that formed the STEM school and are counted among their home schools' state data.

The STEM school is a partnership between Aurora University and four school districts — Indian Prairie School District 204, East Aurora School District 131, West Aurora School District 129 and Batavia School District 101.

Illinois State Board of Education spokeswoman Amanda Simhauser said scores are not reported to the state board specifically for the STEM school because federal funding for those students is tied to their home schools, where they remain enrolled. Officials call the STEM school an "attendance center," accountable to its governing board and the four school districts whose administrators sit on the board.

Sally Glavin, a Naperville resident who has repeatedly criticized District 204 for spending money on the STEM school instead of lowering class sizes within the district, said she tried to search for test results for the STEM school to see whether those students outperformed students enrolled in a gifted education program in Indian Prairie.

"Since we are paying for (the STEM school), at the very least we should be able to see how that school is performing," she said.

Many say the STEM school, now in its second year, is unique in Illinois. Focused on hands-on education using new technology, it serves about 200 third- through eighth-graders generally selected by lottery. Teachers from the four districts rotate through the school in a move designed to provide them training and allow them to bring knowledge back to their home districts. It's operated and funded by the four districts and Aurora University, working with corporations and non-profit organizations.

Some districts raised concerns while details about its operation were still being ironed out. Oswego-based Community Unit School District 308 rejected a pitch to join the partnership, citing the school's cost and relatively small size.

Traditional public schools and districts have state report cards, including detailed state test data, student demographics and information about teachers, enrollment and finances. Instead, the STEM school relies on an outside evaluator's report based on surveys, interviews, student tests and observations.

After Glavin's request, the school posted the evaluation on its website.

The nearly 30-page report includes some basic information about the school, as well as information about how the various partners in the school work together. Student demographics are listed in a paragraph about halfway through, and once PARCC scores became available last year, a summary of results was created listing the percent of students school-wide who met or exceeded expectations on the exam. It also includes information about other student tests and a rubric, according to the school.

"I don't think we provide any less information than any other school district provides to their parents before they make a decision to come to a particular school," said Sherry Eagle, executive director of Aurora University's Institute for Collaboration and a member of the school's governing board. "If anything, (we) provide more."

STEM School Director Arin Carter said staff "absolutely" look at PARCC scores, after they get them from each of the school districts. Parents also receive their child's score report.

She said the exam is new, so it's difficult to see how it aligns with state standards. But she said the results "show that our students are being successful at our school."

Parents looking for information about the school call "all the time," Carter said. Eagle said the school also has parent information meetings.

"Everything's working fantastic," Carter said. "We're completely seeing positive results in our students and we really feel like what we're doing is working. And the students enjoy coming to school."

When making PARCC scores public, the STEM school must be careful not to double count them at the state level since they are already counted as part of their home schools, Carter said.

Kane County Regional Superintendent Pat Dal Santo compared the PARCC reporting process to that of a special education cooperative.

Some of the STEM school partner districts said they can look at STEM students' PARCC scores. In East Aurora, spokesman Matt Hanley said the district could make scores available to parents looking for information about the school if students' identifying information is removed.

In West Aurora, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Brent Raby said he doesn't typically break out the STEM school scores because the test is brand new. He discourages parents from basing any decisions about the STEM school on test scores because he said it's not a gifted program and shouldn't be compared to one.

Instead, he encourages parents to think about whether a child likes math, science and technology, and whether a less traditional form of education could work for them and to attend parent night, search the district's website or visit the building for more information.

It is the STEM school's responsibility to track the effectiveness of student programs, teacher training and other aspects of the school, he said. He looks at the big picture based on parent, student and teacher feedback and reports from the STEM school, he said.

"They pretty much created a curriculum from scratch," he said. "And with their uniqueness of corporate collaboration, I hope that the parents who decide to go there want that learning environment for their kids. But they will be held accountable, just like any other school, for how their kids produce."

But Glavin, a District 204 parent and resident of Naperville, would like to compare STEM school students' performance to those in the district's gifted education program, Project Arrow. "Is the STEM school in Aurora markedly outperforming the (Project Arrow) students at the elementary and middle school levels?" she said. "Where are those test scores?"

Downstate, Paris Cooperative High School operates on a similar model. The boards of two school districts have equal control over the school, which is considered two separate high schools by the state, Director Dave Meister said. The state requires the school to report test scores separately for each member district.

Meister said he publishes his own version of a state report card as a way to track the high school's progress as a whole. As with the STEM school, the state tracks each district separately for money reasons, Meister said. While parents can track how the school is doing through his report and from local media coverage, he said it is a problem that the state isn't tracking the school's performance as a whole.

"It becomes problematic for multiple reasons," he said. "It's a bureaucratic nightmare."

©2016 the Naperville Sun (Naperville, Ill.), distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.