A WARRIOR STUDENT MEDIA Publication
McHenry Community High School | Volume 5, Issue 5 | November 27, 2023
Rolling in the dough
NEWS
Photo by: Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images / TNS
See side two for the full review
Illinois school report card shows SAT improvements
MCHS sees noticeable changes compared to the 2022-2023 school year according to the school’s report card Michalina Sotka Print Managing Editor
FEATURES
McHenry High School’s school report card was recently released, and has shown some noticeable changes, specifically in the a “academic progress” catergory. The school’s report card is essentially a report of the changes in things like test scores, participation and proficiency rates, as well as graduation and attendance rates. The data that is shown can be compared to the overall state of Illinois and past school years. “While there are definitely positives in this year's report card, there are definitely things we can still work on,” said Dr. Jeff Prickett, the Upper Campus principal. In the academic progress category, percentages in areas like SAT performance, proficiency and participation have seen changes from the percentages of the last school year. Other noticeable rises and falls in percentages include graduation rate and the number of 9th graders are “on track” to graduate on time. In the 2022-2023 school year, the percentage of students who met expectations on the SAT was 18.1%, and the percentage of those exceeding
expectations was 6.8%. This means that only 24.9% of students met expectations of performance on the test. SAT performance has seen an increase in progress in the English language arts category since then, with the overall percentage of students meeting expectations rising to 29.3% (20.6% meeting expectations, 8.7% exceeding them). These changes in SAT performance could be a result of the test moving to an online format, as well as the decrease in time taken on tests. Assistant Superintendent for Learning and Innovation Administration Carl Vallianatos says the district's interventions explain the boosts in scores. “We continue to work to help students strengthen their skills since the pandemic and we are one year farther away from that very difficult period for learning. We also had a great incentive last year for students to take the SAT in March to get more practice and exposure,” said Vallianatos. Prickett states, “I am happy that our ELA scores are on an upward trajectory, but our math scores still need some work.” In 2022-2023, MCHS had a 25.6% rate of expectations being met. Only 1.2% of testtakers out of the 25.6% were able to score in the ‘exceeding expectations’ category. Despite the rise in progress in the
The Illinois State Report Card for McHenry High School shows some improvements, especially from the 2021-22 school year, but administrators say there's still room for improvement. | Photo by Haley Passarelli
ELA category, there has been a decrease in progress in the mathematics category compared to the previous school year. Although the decrease is less than a 1%, it is still a change. Although the overall percentage decreased, instead of only 1.2% of students exceeding expectations, 4.8% have been able to achieve that as of this year. Proficiency in the ELA category has increased from 24.1% to 29% since the previous school year. A decrease occurred in the Mathematics section with 24% proficiency last year to 23.8% this year. The science category also showed a decrease in proficiency from 54% to 51.8% proficiency. Participation in standardized tests by students have increased from 96.6% to
Pen friends forever
Multilingual students are offered the chance to practice their writing skills with teachers
Brando Sanchez reads his letter from his pen pal in his English Lab for Multilinguals class on Nov. 2. Multilingual students work on their grammar and writing skills and connect to staff members throughout the school by sending pen pal style letters back and forth. | Photo by Eli Frommes
Kiera Miller Staff Writer The English Lab for Multilinguals, teacher has a small group of students which received their letters today. The kids opened it with joy finding out that their pen pal has much more in common
with them than they thought. 50 students are now taking part in letter writing with staff. The pen pal program connects staff and students through their letters. Any staff member throughout all of MCHS is pitching in to talk to students
97.3% for this year in the ELA section. There has also been an increased percentage in the math section, with a previous 96.3% and present 97.1%. The science category saw a noticeable decrease in the area, starting at 100% last year and dropping to 94.6%. The graduation rate of MCHS by students who enrolled as freshmen in the 2019-2020 school year is 88.4% this year, a drop from the previous year’s 92.4%. Despite the decrease in graduation rates, there has been a rise in the percentage of “on track” freshmen, meaning that 88.3% of them are expected to graduate within the 4-year period. This is an improvement from last year’s 84.6%. Prickett states, “Students and teachers working together to understand how to get better goes a long way toward success.”
with some having multiple pen pals. Throughout the course of the whole year, one letter is received per month for students in the English Lab class, which is a class that helps students who don’t speak English and helps them learn the language by doing
classroom activities. New assistant director of multilingual education Kelsey Podgorski states “This program is creating a connection between the student and the staff member.” A few years ago when Mchenry’s staff took a panorama survey. It showed a need for quality time with teachers and their students. Teacher at MCHS Kaley Freund says “Students' names would be filled out on a form and the students write down whatever is interesting to them.” Other skills that students obtain through the program are that they become stronger writers, gain abilities to address “snail mail” envelopes. Snail mail is mail that is carried by the traditional postal delivery services. A Voice For Educators of America describes a similar program for i international pen pals on their website, “Students care more about spelling, grammar, and punctuation because they want to impress and make a good impression on their pen pals.” Another benefit of the program is, by writing the students “ignite a curiosity for the world outside of what they know.” as described by A Voice For Educators of America. The program may be extended in the future to other English classes and beyond due to its success.