Dear Parents and Community Members:

School districts throughout Illinois publish an annual “report card,” which provides information about the performance and demographics of our schools. I present to you the 2008 Hawthorn District 73 report.

The snapshot of data provided in this report card is based largely on how students scored in the Spring 2008 Illinois State Achievement Tests (ISATs). Note that in general, student scores dropped across the entire state. Much of this trend is attributed to changes to the ISAT tests themselves. In addition, Illinois eliminated provisions for English language learners, who in previous years had taken a correlating Illinois Measure of Annual Growth in English (IMAGE) test. In general, Districts across the state with substantial populations of English language learners saw a downward trend in these scores.

With that in mind, Hawthorn reports some gaps in meeting the state and federal standards for adequate yearly progress. While this is not the trend we are working toward, we understand the circumstances. In fact, regardless of the testing process or this report card, all Hawthorn schools realize we have much work to do as we push toward a goal of 100 percent of our students demonstrating proficiency in reading and math by 2010.

The state standardized test is just one way to measure student achievement. While we take this data and the ISAT process very seriously, we have many more measures in place to provide us with powerful, actionable data. Throughout all of our schools, teachers and principals are using a variety of resources to help identify students’ strengths and weaknesses. Our emphasis on effective, immediate and on-going assessment through such tools as our internal Measures of Academic Process (MAP) and Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), combined with daily authentic assessments, offers us a realistic understanding of each student’s progress. Overall, this data shows that all of our schools are moving in the right direction — “Learning for All, Whatever It Takes.”

All of our teachers and support staff, administrative team and the Board of Education members are committed to the success of each and every student. It is vitally important for the entire community to participate with us in this process. On behalf of the Board of Education, thank you for your interest and for your support of our students and schools.

Sincerely yours,

Timothy Shanahan
President, Board of Education