School Board Criticizes Administration for Poor Test Scores, Vows Change

Sluggish test results in Valley View School District 365U have raised the ire of school board members who recently sent administrators a clear message: Fix it or we'll find people who can.

Disappointment in the district's Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) results, which showed the district's students' reading skills had decreased while their math skills showed slight improvement, prompted board members to devote most of their Aug. 23 meeting to stern rebukes of the administration.

The results prompted some angry board members to issue warnings that a change in leadership could be on the horizon if the issue isn't resolved.

"Mediocrity is not acceptable anymore," school board president Steven Quigley said. "We spend a lot of money … and we want results. We need to make changes, and the changes need to start in the classroom."

"If they don't fix it, I want new people," said board member Mike Evans, referring to Valley View's senior leadership.

Perhaps the most glaring finding was that Bolingbrook's Jaime McGee Elementary School was the only Valley View school to exceed its Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) mark, a key measuring stick in the federal No Child Left Behind program. 

That means that 20 other Valley View schools failed to meet the mark, including Bolingbrook High School and Romeoville High School — the two high schools in the district.

Under No Child Left Behind, at least 77.5 percent of students must meet or exceed the standard in math and reading on the ISAT.

At Bolingbrook High School, only two groups — white and Asian students —met the expectations in reading. In math, white, Asian and Hispanic students met the criteria.

But as a whole, Bolingbrook High School failed in both categories.

Romeoville, meanwhile, fared worse. No groups met the benchmark in reading, while two groups — Hispanic and the economically disadvantaged — passed in math.

"In five years, we've basically spent about a billion dollars — a billion," board member Richard Gougis III said. "These numbers are frightening. I don't want to hear we are tweaking the process. What I want to hear is that we are dramatically changing the process. We need a fundamental shift. And it starts in our belief system."

Gougis said he had serious concerns about teachers and administrators who, in his opinion, don't believe Valley View students can cut it. He said that mindset is manifested by years of offering what he termed "garbage courses" that passed students through without properly preparing them for a college education or the real world.

Those with that mindset, he said, need to pack their bags.

"That thought process is poison and it needs to be eradicated," he said. "You either need to change (your beliefs) or you need to leave. I mean, we've spent a billion dollars in five years and we have worse results on the high school level. How much money do we have to spend to get better results?"

Faith Dahlquist, the district's assistant superintendent of education, took the brunt of the criticism from the board, although board members made it clear they felt all administrators were responsible.

Dahlquist presented the district's plans for improvement, which included an increased sense of rigor at all grade levels and an increased emphasis on principal and assistant principal participation in instruction.

 "We need to have our principals and assistant principals be in the classrooms more, having an agreed upon idea of what good teaching looks like," she said.