Officials agree there is something wrong with the data in Clinton Rosette’s 2003 Illinois School Report Card.

Linell Lasswell, DeKalb School District assistant superintendent for curriculum, said the reported number of economically disadvantaged students who did not take state tests in 2003, 11 percent, is inaccurate.

This percentage exceeds the 5 percent allowed by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act.

Page 5 of the report card details the percentage not tested. The report card data states 0.2 percent of 416 fifth graders, about eight, did not take the test.

The same page contains data stating 11 percent, or about 17, of Clinton Rosette’s 154 economically disadvantaged students did not take the test.

The district appealed the report card to the Illinois State Board of Education, but the appeal was rejected in June.

Naomi Greene, spokesperson for the ISBE, said the percentage is questionable but the district had the chance to re-submit its data.

“We can’t correct that. Only the district can correct that,” Greene said.

The appeal was rejected because the district either filed insufficient or incorrect data, but the reason could not be confirmed, Greene said.

The 2003 report card marked the first strike for Clinton Rosette. The second came at the start of this school year.

The ISBE released preliminary results of the 2004 Illinois Standard Achievement Test that indicate subgroups at Clinton Rosette and Huntley Middle School failed to make the grade, Lasswell said.

The district is appealing the 2004 report card on the grounds that Clinton Rosette was changed from a fifth- and sixth-grade school to a sixth- through eighth-grade school.

Having failed to make adequate yearly progress two years in a row, District 428 must offer Clinton Rosette parents the option to send students out of the district..

The district must take this step and provide additional reading and math tutoring to avoid losing about $700,000 in Title I funding, a program to ensure economically disadvantaged students get a good education.

Lasswell said she has contacted six school districts to take the students: Kaneland, Hinckley-Big Rock, Sycamore, Creston, Indian Creek and Hiawatha.

Lasswell said two districts have said they will not take any students but she declined to name them.

“I’m sure it’s a space issue as everyone is overcrowded,” Lasswell said.

Ronald Rood, superintendent of Hiawatha Community Unit School District 426, said his district has experienced a 10-percent growth in the last year, but the school board would consider DeKalb’s request at next Monday’s meeting.

DeKalb resident Vicki Erwin who has an eighth grader at Clinton Rosette, said her son is “doing fine” and she will not transfer him.

Clinton Rosette principal Sheila Conrad said she did not expect many parents to apply for transfer.

“I don’t expect we will see a mass migration of students,” Conrad said.