Exclusive: District 181′s dirty little secret

Posted: March 14th, 2012 | Author: admin | Filed under: | No Comments » -->

Residents of District 181 learned in recent weeks that an independent review uncovered a deeply flawed, unaccountable accelerated learning environment within the district’s schools. The third-party report also found students deemed not “gifted” have been denied exposure to differentiated classroom learning. The report further concluded that testing methods to determine who is “gifted” are “not subject to the important scrutiny of validation” and are therefore potentially invalid.

According to data known to district administrators since 2009 — now available to taxpayers here for the first time — testing was not only potentially flawed, but students who scored at or above designated cut-offs were not guaranteed placement in advanced or accelerated classes.

Documents obtained by School Sanity provide a detailed look at scores among fifth-grade students who were tested by the district for placement into sixth-grade (middle school) math classes. Here is the crucial finding:

A total of 481 students were tested in 2009:

• 232 placed into advanced or accelerated math from fifth-grade grade placement criteria.
• 249 placed into standard math from fifth-grade grade placement criteria

Out of the 249 placed into standard math:

• 137 students (55%) tested as high or higher than students placed in advanced math.
• 52 of these 137 standard students (21%) tested as high or higher than students placed in accelerated math.

This is data for one year. The testing was conducted several years prior to 2009, beginning in 2006. This suggests that literally hundreds of children have been denied an enriched and advanced curriculum in District 181.

Behind the scenes, Dr. Bonnie Strykowski, the district’s director of assessment and chief accountability officer, recognized the red flags in the 2009 data and brought them to the attention of her colleagues, including Assistant Superintendent for Learning Dr. Janet Stutz. Superintendent Dr. Renee Schuster, who arrived in 2010, authorized the independent review of the $1 million-a-year gifted education program but hastened to downplay its findings in recent weeks.

Strykowski’s contract was not renewed for 2010-11 and she has left the district. Stutz recently was offered a new one-year contract at a salary of $135,513. Last Monday night, the District 181 Board overwhelmingly approved her contract renewal.

 

 

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