DECATUR - Ever since No Child Left Behind took effect in the 2002-03 school year, educators across the United States hold their collective breath when the annual scores come out, worried that they haven't met performance goals.

Thomas Jefferson Middle School has never met the mark ? until this year.

"All the way from the custodians to the principal, if everyone here did not work together as well as we do, we would not have the results that we have," said Christopher Young, who teaches eighth-grade math at the school and in the after-school program.

Thomas Jefferson's performance rose significantly in every measured category. Reading went from 58.4 percent of students meeting state learning goals in 2007 to 70.9 percent meeting or exceeding in 2008. Math rose from 60.5 percent to 69.9 percent meeting or exceeding state goals. The results of every measured subgroup, from low-income to black students to special education students, rose in reading and math, and attendance ? which is another required goal ? went up as well. Performance goals this year were 62.5 percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards. In 2009, the target will be 70 percent and will rise annually through 2014, when all students in all subgroups must meet or exceed standards.

Schools that fail to meet state goals face escalating consequences each year, and Thomas Jefferson had to file a reorganization plan last school year. If the school makes goals again in 2009, those consequences will be removed and the school can start over with a clean slate.

"We truly believe they will (make it) again this year and that will take them off the list and then they can really celebrate," Superintendent Gloria Davis said.

Principal Shannen Ray said several factors contributed to the school's success, from the professional learning communities model to the new math curriculum to the after-school program that started last year to provide skill-building and homework help to students three days a week.

In Thomas Jefferson's after-school program, Young said, students spend a half hour with a reading teacher, a half hour with a math teacher, and a half hour with a teacher who helps with homework. The staff decided that schedule would more adequately meet students' needs, and keep them from getting restless after already spending the day in class. The program also offers recreational activities and a free evening meal as well as transportation home, all paid for by the 21st Century Grant the district received in 2007.

Structure, discipline and clear expectations help students succeed, Young said, particularly in middle school and with children whose home lives might be chaotic.

"I'm big on building rapport with my students," he said. "I actually pick two or three students every year I want to focus my time with, usually kids that are a little bit of a troublemaker, kids that really need help and don't have a real structured home life. These are kids that are going to fall through the cracks if we don't do something about it."

Professional learning communities are made up of teachers who meet regularly to share their expertise, talk about individual students' scores, and discuss concrete ways to help those students improve. Teachers across the district are using the model.

"What we've asked (schools) to do this year is to put heavy emphasis on targeting individual students," Davis said. "At Stephen Decatur (Middle School) in team meetings they're looking at individual students in math and reading, and when I say look at them, I mean what are they doing well on, which students did not quite make (the goals), who are on the bubble."

Students "on the bubble," she said, are the ones who missed making state goals by only a few points, and with a little more help could make it next time. During the school day, in addition to regular classes, those students are getting extra one-on-one help with tutors and teacher assistants, and steered toward the after-school program as well.

Thomas Jefferson was the only one of Decatur's secondary schools to reach progress goals. While Stephen Decatur did not make adequate yearly progress, the school missed by inches, failing to meet state goals in only one category, special education students. All other subgroups improved and reached the targets required for each subgroup to meet in order for a school to make adequate progress under No Child Left Behind.

Both high schools failed to make adequate progress, and while graduation rates are up significantly in both, reading and math results are down at Eisenhower compared to 2007. MacArthur's math results are higher, but reading is down from 2007 there, too. Eisenhower met goals only in graduation rates, though results improved in black and low-income math, while MacArthur met goals in white reading and math, black math, and low-income reading and math. At Eisenhower, 32 percent of students overall met state goals in reading, 24.6 percent in math, while at MacArthur, 44.5 percent met reading goals and 47.6 in math.

Though some Decatur schools' reading and math results still don't meet the 62.5 percent threshold, several qualify for Safe Harbor, which allows a school to meet goals if results are improved over the previous year.

A major victory in the district in 2008 was attendance figures, Davis said. The state's attendance goal was 90 percent and Decatur schools met that mark.

"It doesn't matter how high you score, if you don't meet attendance goals, you don't make AYP," Davis said. "That's been a problem we've had over the years, so one of the big focuses is to bring up attendance."

It makes sense, she said, that children who aren't at school won't learn as much, so last year a new program called Miss School, Miss Out began to encourage good attendance, several area businesses agreed to refuse to do business with school-age children during school hours, and the Department of Student Services made efforts to help families solve problems that could affect the children's attendance. Buildings held assemblies and provided incentives to encourage attendance and staff members even occasionally visited students' homes.

Decatur faces the same difficulties any urban district has, Davis said, with fractured families, low-income populations and kids coming from homes without structure.

"It's just a difficult mountain," she said. "It doesn't make it impossible. It doesn't mean we can't do it. It's just difficult."

Decatur also met state goals in reading as a district, with 62.6 percent of students overall meeting or exceeding standards, though the district missed meeting state goals in math. In general, reading and math results are up in 2008 from 2007, and 13 of the elementary schools met state goals. Brush College, Muffley and Parsons did not, due to reading. Brush College and Muffley missed the mark by a few percentage points each. Muffley's low-income students missed Safe Harbor by fewer than six points, while Parsons' black students did not meet standards by about 16 percentage points.

Brush College has met goals in previous years, Davis said, which could mean this year was just a "bump in the road."

"Sometimes you just have a year when things don't quite go the way you want them to," she said.

Another hurdle this year was a last-minute change in the test given to English language learners. Davis said the requirements for that test changed and schools weren't notified until well into the first semester, which didn't leave much time to prepare the students.

"It's kind of hard when you've been in this country two or three months and I give you an assessment in English and you have to pass it and you can't read (English)," Davis said.

Decatur's English language learners attend Johns Hill Magnet School, where they have a program just for them, but there aren't enough to qualify as a subgroup for the purposes of the test. They're counted as part of the school population but not as a separate group.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Achievement test results for other areas schools do not appear today because the Illinois State Board of Education is not expected to release them until later this month. Individual school districts can release their own results earlier, and Decatur has done so.

vwells@herald-review.com|421-7982