No schools in DeKalb School District 428 are on probation because of the No Child Left Behind Act this year, but data problems have affected three.

District schools passed standards this year, said Linell Lasswell, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction with the district, but DeKalb High School and Huntley and Clinton Rosette middle schools experienced data errors that they now are appealing to the state. Other schools in the state are experiencing similar problems, Lasswell said.

The law, enacted in 2001, mandates that schools that have not met standards two years in a row be put on probation.

DeKalb High School, 901 S. Fourth St.; Huntley Middle School, 821 S. Seventh St.; and Clinton Rosette Middle School, 650 N. First St., could be affected next year, depending on how appeals turn out, Lasswell said.

Over the past few years, the district has moved to align its curriculum with state standards, Lasswell said. The No Child Left Behind Act has accelerated the process, at least at the high school, said Larry Stinson, DeKalb High School principal.

The high school’s performance on the Prairie State Achievement Examination, which is used to evaluate high school progress for the act, was above state standards this year, Stinson said.

The data problem at the school resulted from a classification system error and a miscount of juniors taking the test.

Stinson said at least 95 percent of students at the high school took the test. Students are classified into categories to target problem populations and find ways to help them. Some students who took the test were classified in the wrong categories, and some who were not juniors were classified as juniors.

Stinson said he hopes the problem will be resolved before the next round of tests in April. He said he does not think a resolution of the data will affect performance numbers.

Kristen Ross, principal of Clinton Rosette Middle School, said the school is going back to examine data that initially was entered. There are two interconnected areas in question, data and performance. Ross said she is confident there are data problems because the numbers do not add up concerning, among other things, how many students took the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, which is how performance is determined for middle schools.

Performance at Clinton Rosette is below the level Ross would like to see it at, but the actual level of performance is thrown off by the data problem, and an accurate picture of performance is not yet known, she said. Clinton Rosette may not have to improve as much as the tests currently show.

Either way, Clinton Rosette was not below standards last year, so the school will not be put on probation this year.

The school is seeking to increase performance by identifying specific students who had performance problems on the test, Ross said. Once identified, teachers specializing in helping students with math and reading performance will work with the identified students in small groups.

Teachers at the school have been receiving reading and math training, but three training sessions have been added to help improve English language issues, a problem area in the performance tests this year, Ross said.

The district has become more data-driven as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act, Lasswell said. In the the district, schools, principals and teachers are analyzing data to help improve school performance.