Dear Beach Park Learning Community,
The purpose of this communication is twofold: one I wish to be very transparent with our entire learning community, and two, continue the growth and development of our partnership between school and home in order to address significant gaps in the learning of our Beach Park students.
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) released the annual Illinois Report Card today at www.illinoisreportcard.com. The Report Card shows how well our school district is progressing on a wide range of educational goals. One component of the School Report Card is the annual summative designation – a descriptor of how well our schools are meeting the needs of all students. The designations recognize schools with strong overall performance across a range of academic and student success indicators. There are five designations a school can receive – Exemplary, Commendable, Targeted Support, Comprehensive Support, or Intensive Support. Three of our schools received Commendable as an overall rating, one school received a Comprehensive Rating, Oak Crest Elementary School; and another school, Kenneth Murphy Elementary School received a Targeted Rating. While we want none of the schools to be rated below Commendable, there are several things to celebrate this year!
We increased the overall number of students grade level proficient in Reading from 11.2% last year to 20.9% this year! This is a huge increase and demonstrates our District doing the necessary work to reduce the achievement gap for all students! We increased the overall number of students grade level proficient in Math from 8.2% to 9.2%! Even though this is only a 1% increase, it is an increase and should be celebrated! Math will be a focus at all buildings in the coming years through our Strategic Plan Action Plans. The last thing I would like to celebrate is we moved the two schools identified last year as Comprehensive, all the way to Commendable in only one year! Beach Park Middle School has never received a higher rating than targeted since Illinois began giving designations to individual schools. This is a huge accomplishment for the students and staff at BPMS and evidence that the work being done at the middle school is making a huge difference in learning outcomes for our students! Howe Elementary School also moved from Comprehensive to Commendable in only one year! Please join me in congratulating our schools, our staff, our administrators, our students, and yourselves! Collective efficacy is in full effect in Beach Park District 3!
Even though two of our schools went down in rating, we are confident that the supports we put into place at Howe Elementary School and Beach Park Middle School are easily transferable to change their designation for next school year. We are proud of our students, faculty, staff, parents and the entire learning community in our efforts to meet our students where they are and help them grow, learn, and succeed. We will share more data in the coming months at upcoming Board Meetings. We are on our way as a District to receiving Blue Ribbon School Recognition from the Federal Government, and are excited to share this intense learning journey with all of you! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out, as my door is always open.
In Partnership,
Dr. Denise Wilcox, Superintendent