BETHALTO - Bethalto Community Unit School District #8 has five “commendable” schools, according to the Illinois School Report Card.
During the Board of Education’s regular meeting on Nov. 26, 2024, Director of Teaching and Learning Alyssa Smith analyzed the scores on the Illinois School Report Card. These scores measure how school districts compare throughout the State of Illinois. All five of Bethalto’s schools received “commendable” designations.
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“It is extremely impressive,” Smith said. “This is a thrill to see.”
Civic Memorial High School received a score of 90.77. The “exemplary” designation is 91.26, meaning Civic Memorial was .49 points away from an “exemplary” score.
Smith and Civic Memorial Principal Justin Newell requested a meeting with the state before the official scores were released to contest this, but the meeting was rescheduled for December. During that December meeting, they will be talking to the state about their scores and how to increase the score for next year.
“We are pretty sure that we found that less-than-a-half percentage point,” Smith said.
As a school district, Bethalto has a 96% graduation rate and a 15% chronic absenteeism rate, which measures students who have missed 10% of school days. According to the data, 44% of teachers at Bethalto have a master’s degree or higher, which is “well above the state average,” Smith said.
“Ninety-seven percent of our teachers are at that proficient or excellent level, which says a lot about the quality of the teachers that we have in this district to serve our students,” she added.
Bethalto students consistently scored near the state average on assessments like the SAT and the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) tests. Smith compared scores from last year’s Illinois School Report Card and noted that all Bethalto schools have improved in the past year.
“The reason why you continue to see those scores creeping closer to ‘exemplary’ is because at [Bethalto East Primary School], we’re building that foundation, and it’s continuing through the schools to the point that our students are continuing to make that growth and getting closer and closer to that ‘exemplary’ mark,” she said.
To view the Bethalto Community School District #8 Illinois School Report Card, click here.
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