Oswego school district officials pleased with district’s report card

Oswego School District 308 Deputy Superintendent Heather Kincaid views the Illinois State Report Card as a way to track the district’s progress and see where the district still needs to improve.

The 2024 Illinois Report Card was released Oct. 30 by the Illinois State Board of Education. Kincaid said the district is “very excited” that Boulder Hill Elementary School improved its status on this year’s report card.

Last year, Boulder Hill was designated a targeted school, 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% of schools. This year, Boulder Hill is one of 16 schools in the district designated as commendable – a school that has no underperforming student groups, a graduation rate greater than 67% and whose performance is not in the top 10% of schools statewide.

Kincaid said the staff at Boulder Hill came together as a team and put in more supports for students across the school.

“So they were really kind of working together to look at each student and really consider what academic or what social-emotional supports the students needed,” she said. “They did some extra after school support. So it was really just looking at the students in general and at what they needed. It was students, staff and families coming together to talk about what were the needs of the students.”

Three Oswego schools – Fox Chase Elementary School, Long Beach Elementary School and Old Post Elementary School – are on the targeted list this year. But three schools are targeted to specifically support the achievement of children with disabilities.

“With their targeted designation, they have more opportunities to support children with disabilities,” Kincaid said.

Wolfs Crossing Elementary School is designated as an exemplary school on this year’s report card. Exemplary schools are schools performing in the top 10% of schools statewide, with no underperforming student groups.

Other improvements include the district’s chronic absenteeism rate dropping from 22.9% last year to 20.9% this year. Chronic absenteeism is defined as the number of students who miss 10% or more of school days per year either with or without a valid excuse.

Excused absences include illness, suspension and the need to care for a family member.

“We look to improve our absenteeism rate every year,” Kincaid said. “Across the district, our chronic absentee rate improved 2%. We were excited, because the more we can get students into a school and into the educational environment, the better it is overall for the success of the district.”

One way to measure a student’s progress at the high school level is through the 9th Grade On Track scores. Students identified as “on track” have earned at least five full-year course credits (10 semester credits) and have earned no more than one semester “F” in a core course (English, math, science or social science).

This year’s Illinois Report Card shows the 9th Grade On Track score is 92.5%, up from last year’s score of 92.1%.

“It looks at what grades our freshmen are earning, because the ability for our freshmen to successfully complete classes will impact their graduation,” Kincaid said. “If they’re not passing their classes, then that could potentially put them off track for graduation. It’s just another piece of the puzzle to make sure that we are giving the students the support that they need.”

Math proficiency is one area where Kincaid would like to see improvement. This year, the district’s math proficiency is 30.9%, slightly down from last year’s 31.1% math proficiency.

This year’s state average for math proficiency is 27.9%.

“We want to make sure that we’re looking at our students’ experiences and our curriculum and materials and even our instruction,” Kincaid said.

Theresa Komitas, the district’s executive director of communications and public relations, said it is important for the district to identify where there is room for improvement.

“As a district, we want to celebrate when things are going really well, but we also want to use our data to identify areas where we can really be focused on improvement and providing additional supports,” she said. “We want to kind of acknowledge it both ways.”