Last night’s District 428 School Board meeting featured a presentation on academic performance.

The formal meeting began by focusing on the district’s performance on standardized tests, presented by Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Linnell Lasswell.

“We are pleased with the fifth grade scores,” Lasswell said. “By eliminating a transition and moving fifth graders to elementary school, we increased achievement,” whereas in the past they studied in the middle school.

The presentation broke students down into five subgroups; black, Hispanic, white, low-income and disabled. A gap in achievement exists with the low-income and disabled as the children age. The goal is to increase achievement in each subgroup, Lasswell said.

In assessing success by grade level, eighth graders were slightly below the state standards in math and reading. In the high school, there is also a call for improvement, but last year’s poor scores might have something to do with the “turmoil” the school dealt with toward the final months of the year, Lasswell said.

“Tests are only one snapshot,” said Superintendent Dr. Paul Beilfuss Performance-based assessment is another important form of learning measurement.

“Sometimes we get tied up in other things, these numbers are what we need to focus on,” said School Board President Andy Small. “We’ve got some work ahead of us.”

As business proceeded, the meeting shifted to discussion of hiring several needed professionals.

The board passed a budget consideration motion 5-0, which included hiring a consultant to assist in a mentoring professional development program.

The motion also authorized bringing in a compensation analyst to review employee pay, benefits and job descriptions.

The school board also filled another hole by budgeting for a demographer. At last week’s DeKalb Plan Commission meeting, area developers contesting a proposed impact fee disputed the school board’s presented student projection numbers. This highlighted the school board’s need for a demographer.

“Data relative to student projections have been based on different methods which have yielded different results. We need to clarify data,” said School Board Member Tom Teresinski.

“We hope we can use guidance from NIU Governmental Studies to analyze study projection data,” she added.

The budget consideration also reinstated four clubs at DeKalb High School: Students Against Drunk Driving, Voices of Diversity, Roots and Shoots and the Art Workshop.