Well, it looks like parents and children and school leaders in La Grange have something to brag about, as their public schools scored some impressive rankings in the 2008 Illinois Report Cards, according to data released just a few hours ago.
Rankings show each school fared compared to schools statewide, while percentiles compare that school's scores to those of other schools who took the same test(s).
Out of 654 schools taking the Prairie State Achievement Exam, Lyons Township High School placed 32nd out of 654 best performing high schools on the PSAE across Illinois, racking up a 74.3 percentile. LT, with campuses in La Grange and Western Springs and serving students in a much larger geographical area, ranked just below Glenbard South High School in Glen Ellyn and just ahead of Lincolnway East High School in Frankfort. The best performing school on the test was Northside College Prep in Chicago -- with a 99.3 percentile.
(The PSAE is taken by juniors and includes the ACT, taken to determine if students are academically prepared for college and the workplace)
On all state tests, LT ranked in the 74.3 percentile at 2,177th among 3,698 schools statewide.
On the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, District 105's Spring Avenue Elementary School ranked 53rd out of 3,097 grade and middle schools, at the 97.3 percentile.
So how else did La Grange schools perform on the ISAT? Quite well:
District 107's Pleasantdale Elementary in unincorporated La Grange ranked 71st at 96.7 percent; Cossitt Elementary was 205th at 94.7; Ogden Avenue Elementary was 224th with a 94.4; District 106's Highlands Middle and Elementary schools in the Highlands ranked 261st and 262nd, with a 94.0 each, respectively and District 105's Seventh Avenue Elementary came in at 529th with a 91.3.
Park ranked 608th with a 90.6 percentile and Forest Road was at 967th at an 87.7. (ISAT is a state test taken by 3rd to 8th graders that uses some questions used nationally)
On all state tests, we know how LT did and it had a higher ranking than both Riverside-Brookfield in Riverside (2,192) and Argo Community in Summit (3,511). But the grade schools fared much better. Again these are rankings among 3,698 schools statewide.
District 105's Spring Avenue Elementary came in 42nd with a 97.2; Pleasantdale Elementary was 67th with a 96.5; Cossitt was 198th with a 94.5; Ogden Avenue was 229th with a 94.2 and Highlands Middle and Elementary ranked 251st and 296th, respectively, with a 93.9 and 93.4 percentile. Park Junior High was 584th at 90.5; Seventh Avenue Elementary was 611th at 90.3 and District 105's Gurrie Middle School was 892nd with an 88.0.
In La Grange Park, Forest Road Elementary came in at 918th with an 87.8 and District 95's Brook Park Elementary was 945th with an 87.6.
Overall, Pleasantdale was 43rd in the top 50 middle schools in Illinois --more than twice as well as its 2007 ranking of 89th. Its '08 percentile was 75.70.
