October 30, 2024

October 30, 2024

Dear District 67 Families, Staff, and Community:

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) released its 2024 Report Card today. This annual report is intended to show how the state of Illinois, each Illinois school district, and each public school are progressing on the state’s indicators of student success based on the previous school year’s data.

District 67 School Designations

Everett, Sheridan, Deer Path Middle School East (5th and 6th grades), and Deer Path Middle School West (7th and 8th grades) earned a 2024 "Exemplary" designation. Detailed information about how ISBE calculates its summative designations is available here. There are many reasons for this progress, including the dedicated work of our students, staff, and district families. We are also seeing results from our curricular shifts to Amplify CKLA for our K-5 learners, Amplify ELA for our middle schoolers, and 6-8 Illustrative for Math.

Cherokee Designation
Cherokee received a "Commendable" designation. Because the 2024 Report Card reflects last year’s data, we anticipated this outcome. We are collaborating closely with Dr. Cavanaugh and her team as they work together on returning Cherokee to its prior Exemplary designation. This effort began last spring when I invited the Center for Model Schools to conduct an Insight Assessment at Cherokee. Dr. Cavanaugh and other District 67 administrators have been hard at work since then, developing a focused school improvement plan to foster growth across all accountability indicators. The Cherokee school improvement plan focuses on academic and social support systems, student-centered instructional strategies, and the continuous improvement of teaching and learning. As a District leader and Cherokee parent, I have great confidence in our Cherokee staff, the work that is underway, and the promise that it holds for our Cherokee students.

District 67 Report Card Highlights

The Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) is the state assessment and accountability measure for Illinois students enrolled in a public school district. IAR assesses the Illinois Learning Standards incorporating the Common Core and will be administered in English language arts and mathematics to all students in grades 3-8.

Other highlights of our District 67 Report Card include:

Cherokee saw growth in the percentage of students in the two top-performing levels of math.
Everett achieved its highest Math and ELA scores on record.
Sheridan achieved its highest ELA scores on record.
Deer Path West achieved its highest ELA and Math scores on record.
Deer Path East achieved its best ELA performance on record.

Our District 67 2024 IAR results are shared here:

Full 2024 Report Card details for each District 67 school may be found below:

Click Here to View the Cherokee Report Card

Click Here to View the Everett Report Card

Click Here to View the Sheridan Report Card

Click Here to View the DPM-E Report Card

Click Here to View the DPM-W Report Card

Strategic Plan Progress and Next Steps

We strive to continue progress toward the goals outlined in the District 67 Board’s Five-Year Strategic Plan. This year, we have already instituted strategies to support our students and staff, targeting opportunities for improvement and bolstering our areas of strength. This list is not exhaustive but demonstrates our commitment to realizing continued growth this school year:

Data-driven math improvement at each District 67 building through teacher teams to translate current data into actionable instruction and student support.
A district-wide focus on academic success and student engagement through professional learning opportunities and classroom implementation.
An intentional shift toward writing and grammar instruction in year two of Amplify CKLA and ELA implementation, utilizing student artifacts and homegrown created rubrics to enhance instruction.
Convening subject-specific teams across grade levels at each building to assess progress on standards, continuity between grades, and opportunities for differentiation.
Increasing the capacity of our building leadership teams to capitalize on a distributed leadership model and support our shared responsibility for student success.
Ongoing progress monitoring of data through data meeting cycles

Each school has a school improvement plan to address their specific goals

District 67 and 115 Assistant Superintendent for Teaching, Learning, and Accountability Dr. Renée Fitzsimmons shares highlights of District 67 2024 Illinois State Report Card results in this video:

How You Can Help

I am always grateful when parents and guardians ask, “What can we do to help?” There are many ways, including ensuring your student’s consistent attendance, familiarizing yourself with our Portrait of a Learner vision and five-year strategic plan, making a note of important assessment dates, ensuring your student is getting enough sleep, and reaching out to your teacher or principal to collaborate when you have an idea or concern.

Thank you for your continued partnership as we advance these efforts and support your students in this chapter of their lifelong learning journey.

Sincerely,

Matthew L. Montgomery, Ph.D.