DeKALB | Across the United States, schools are making an effort to narrow the achievement gap between minority and white students.

According to the 2005 national report card, the nation’s largest achievement gap resides in Illinois. While the report card showed many states are making progress in closing the gap, Illinois is not among them.

Dr. Lindsey Hall, principal of DeKalb High School, disagrees.

“DeKalb High School is not experiencing anything unusual,” Hall said.

The DHS 2005 Report Card

The most pronounced area of the gap is among students of low-income families, 23.9 percent of the students at DHS. Only about 25 percent of economically disadvantaged students met or exceeded the standards in reading, math and science on the 2005 Prairie State Achievement Examination. Students without that obstacle more than doubled their percentage.

Time for an intervention

The DHS administration is trying to get students into higher math classes to give them the best education possible.

“[DHS] has eliminated general math classes so that by the time students graduate, they will have taken algebra,” said Lynell Lasswell, assistant superintendent of District 428. “Graduation requirements are being raised gradually in English, math, science, fine arts, and technology.”

Most struggling students are at the pre-algebra level in math. This is where direct changes have been made based on eighth-grade Illinois Standards Achievement Test scores, teacher recommendations and previous math grades.

DHS has hired a new pre-algebra teacher to reduce class sizes and also is trying a new approach to teaching math: pre-algebra support. In other words, struggling students attend two math classes every day. Students have one class in the morning to learn new material. Later in the day, they have a second class to reinforce and practice concepts taught in that morning’s lesson.

Hall said the reactions of some students, when told they will have to take two math classes a day, were understandably unfavorable.

Most students do, however, realize the class is designed to help them and weren’t resistant, Hall said.

Other projects

Last summer, all District 428 staff participated in a three-hour diversity training session through the NIU’s Affirmative Action and Diversity Resources.

“Areas emphasized were appreciating others’ circumstances, cultures, sharing of experiences of discrimination and seeing others not as labels, but as people,” Hall said.

DHS biology teacher Sue Wong is head of Project Breakthrough. The project is designed to help the high school become a more inclusive learning environment by increasing communication, school spirit and extracurricular opportunities.

Last fall, the project administered the Organizational Health Index (OHI), a survey designed to measure an organization’s climate. In addition to the entire DHS staff, 300 to 400 students participated in the survey. Question topics included the school’s cleanliness, bullying, teacher “fairness,” students’ views of their own academic achievement and the difficulty level of classes.

“Students have to feel welcomed and part of the learning environment,” Hall said.

Hall is eagerly awaiting the April 2006 PSAE results, but acknowledges it will take a long period of time for DHS’ changes to affect test scores.