D99 Sees Hike in Low-Income Students

Updated 12:45 p.m. with more information

The percentage of low-income students attending North and South high schools  has increased substantially while the student body has grown more diverse.

The 2010 Illinois School Report Card data was presented by Dr. Mary Biniewicz, assistant superintendent for student learning, at the Oct. 18 meeting of the Community High School District 99 board.

Out of a total 5,413 students, 16.9 percent qualified as low-income—a "quite marked increase" from earlier years, Biniewicz said. The rate was only 5.4 percent in 2002, increasing to 10.5 percent in 2008 and 14 percent in 2009.

The "low-income" designation is based on eligibility for the Free and Reduced Lunch Program. The federal government sets the criteria used to determine eligibility based upon income and the number of family members. 

The increase in the low-income rate directly relates to participation levels in the Free and Reduced Lunch Program, Biniewicz told Patch. "Families who qualify for Free and Reduced Lunch also qualify for fee waivers in District 99," she said. "In 2010, 16.9 percent of our student body participated in the Free and Reduced Lunch Program as compared to 8.8 percent in 2006, which constitutes close to a two-fold increase."

"Some of our families are faced with severe financial challenges," Biniewicz told the board. "It causes us to dig deeper to provide financial and emotional support and understand what the students bring to school everyday and what their parents may need."

Meanwhile, the district also is becoming more diverse, with the number of white students decreasing from 79.3 percent in 2002 to 73.4 percent in 2010, with the largest shift occuring since 2006, when the number of white students stood at 77.9 percent.

"Our student population is becoming more diverse, which is not to say they are vastly different from anyone else," Biniewicz said. The district's changing population is "very much in line with area, state and national trends." she said.

Changes in student population may result in changes to the subgroups that are considered in calculations of the district's Adequate Yearly Progress, as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act, Biniewicz told Patch.

"There may be additional subgroups that surface in the 2011 PSAE testing and subsequent AYP data as compared to the subgroups in 2010," she said. "A school or district must have at least 45 eligible members in a subgroup in order for the subgroup to be considered in that year's AYP calculation." 

A junior subgroup may have the required 45 members  one year, but not the next, Biniewicz explained. The Prairie State Achievement Exam or PSAE, administered to juniors, is used for determining AYP.

Other data presented to the board indicates the district's chronic truancy rate—defined as 10 percent or more days absent without a valid excuse—has stayed between two and three percent for the past five years. The student attendance rate rose to about 95 percent in the past two years after the board adopted a goal to increase attendance, Biniewicz said.

The district's graduation rate has jumped from 84 percent in 2002 to more than 96 percent in 2008 and 93.9 percent in 2010. This despite an increase in the number of credits required to graduate and looming economic challenges which, in some districts, have resulted in a lower graduation rate.

"That hasn't happened here in Downers Grove," Biniewicz said.

The district also has seen a dramatic increase in the number of students taking and scoring well on Advance Placement tests, she said.

Between 2001-02 and 2009-10, the number of students taking the tests increased by 55.5 percent to 664, while the number of tests taken increased by 50.1 percent to 1,294.

Achievement also jumped, particularly in the number of students scoring 4 or 5 on the tests, which are marked on a 1 to 5 basis which roughly parallels the letter grades E, D, C, B and A.

The number of tests with scores 4 or 5 increased 99.7 percent to 763 from 2003-04 to 2009-10. Last school year, 59 percent of the AP tests taken by District 99 students achieved scores of 4 or 5.