This school year, teachers at Churchill and Willow Schools are working under new plans designed to improve outcomes for students in special education.
During the 2024-25 school year, teams of administrators, teachers and special education staff worked on ways to improve academic outcomes for English/Language Arts and Math, and ways to reduce chronic absenteeism in the school population.
The academic plans are geared toward students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) that outline goals, services and accommodations, and for students with a 504 plan that provides students who have disabilities with equal access to the general school curriculum.
In District 153, Willow School serves pre-kindergarten through second grade, Churchill School serves third, fourth and fifth graders, and James Hart School serves sixth, seventh and eighth graders.
The teams at Willow and Churchill came together after the Illinois State Board of Education notified District 153 that both schools were given “targeted” designations because students with special education needs failed to show academic growth on the Illinois Assessment for Readiness and an English/Language Arts Student Growth Percentile. The district is given three years to show improvement.
In her presentation to the District 153 school board Aug. 11, Churchill Principal Tara Peacock said the team is hoping for a 5% growth in English/Language Arts and 8% growth in math scores. Professional development is in place for all teachers, and parents will receive communications on student progress every six weeks “because we’re all part of the village.”
“It’s not that our students didn’t grow, they just didn’t grow as much as students that don’t have an IEP or 504,” Peacock said. While the state goal is to improve learning for special education students, Peacock said the work being done by faculty “is going to impact all of our children.”
Willow has limited testing data because the children are so young and are just starting to learn to read and understand math, said Principal Ryan Jones. She pointed out that Willow’s data is directly tied to Churchill’s data because Willow students transition to Churchill and their test scores reflect on the work Willow teachers did with second graders.
Jones shared District 153’s in-school testing data for 2024-25 that shows reading proficiency for first graders at 55.5% and second graders at 36.6%. Math proficiency was at 42.7% for first graders and 40% for second graders.
Willow’s new schedule will allow more time to teach foundational standards and increase rigor and teachers will be given professional development and coaching around strengthening math and reading fundamentals.
Absenteeism is affecting a large population of the District 153 student body. The state absenteeism average is 26.3% of students chronically absent. Pre-pandemic the rate was 17.5%.
Jones said the administration will be trying a number of ways to reduce the high number of students who are absent “because kids who are at school learn,” she said.
Absenteeism at James Hart was 24% last year; Churchill absenteeism was 22%, and at Willow it was 28%. According to the state, chronic absenteeism means a child was absent 10% or more of the school year.
At Churchill, staff hopes to get its absenteeism rate down to under 20%.
Willow’s absenteeism of 28% last school year was an improvement over the previous year when it was 33%, Jones said. Willow now has an attendance team in place to communicate with families to give them a sense of belonging and stress the need for social and emotional skills that students learn at school. She hopes to get absenteeism down to 20%.
“Willow kids don’t get themselves to school, it’s their parents, right? We’ve been monitoring attendance and are in contact with families,” Jones said.
Both Churchill and Willow will be using positive recognition programs for students who have monthly attendance of 90% or better.
