Lake Forest on Topic Comments

By Erik Carrier

Last week, I heard an interview with Lake Forest District 115 & 67 superintendent, Dr. Matthew Montgomery, and District 115 board president, John Noble, on Lake Forest on Topic.[1] During the podcast both men defended the disappointing 2023 Illinois Report Card[2] proficiency rates of Lake Forest High School (D115) students. Mr. Noble downplayed school-to-school score comparisons, highlighting instead successful academic “growth” over the course of a student’s career at District 67 & 115 and Dr. Montgomery, likewise, emphasized the value of a “constant state of improvement” among students. Dr. Montgomery went on to elicit his favorite talking point that, though 35% of students languish below proficiency in Math and Reading, D115 ranks among the top 10% of Illinois high schools. He lamented criticism by some parents that D115 did not perform as well as Adlai E Stevenson High School (District 125) in the recent US News and World Report rankings, noting that the 81-place difference is immaterial considering the over 25,000 high schools evaluated and District 125’s greater emphasis on SAT preparedness. Dr. Montgomery, finally, wrestled the conversation away from standardized test performance which he “hates” to his “Portrait of a Learner” initiative which he and Mr. Noble spent the remainder of an hour lionizing. However, are benchmarks based on standardized tests really unrepresentative? Are Lake Forest students really growing throughout their scholastic careers? And should objective measures of success really be replaced with subjective, albeit beautifully marketed, idea boards?

First, a word about Portrait of a Learner; let’s review the website[3]. At top, high-minded goals like “Empathy”, “Citizenship” and “Confidence” give way to ironically ambiguous bullet points like, “Work effectively in an environment of ambiguity and changing priorities.” This pseudo-profundity is followed by a glossy marketing video, an inspirational phrase slideshow with cartoon roads that, tellingly, lead nowhere and an explanation of the 2022 timeline for its creation.  All this frivolous triviality would be beyond mention were it not the focus of so much time on the podcast. Perhaps its popularity among administrators is the utter inability to quantify it. Despite their shortcomings, standardized tests are ascertainable measures with which to assess current performance against both past performance and peer institutions. With that said, let’s look at the data.[4]

Are Lake Forest students “growing” or experiencing a “constant state of improvement”? Focusing exclusively on the crucial 4th and 8th grade PARCC/IAR proficiency rates, the results are discouraging. Proficiency scores during the 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023 school years for 4th and 8th graders dropped in all but one year, 2017, with an average learning loss of 13%. Measuring the same class performance four-years down the line, 2015 4th grades & 2019 8th graders and 2019 4th graders & 2023 8th graders, the learning loss was 17% and 24% respectively. Although all scores recovered between 2022 and 2023, no score meets or exceeds its 2017 peak. Eighth grade ELA scores in 2023 were a whopping 30% lower than the class of 2017. “Growth” is not present between grades in the same year, among the same students over time or between classes over time.

High school students are assessed with an 11th grade PSAT as opposed to the IAR used to assess grades three-through-eight, making comparisons elusive between 8th and 11th grade scores. Noteworthy, however, is the profound post-pandemic learning loss at D115 in ELA (21%) and Math (17%) between 2019 and 2023. Compare that with District 125, Dr. Montgomery’s cogent example, which experienced a learning loss in ELA and Math of only 3% and 4.5% respectively. D115’s scores exceeded D125 in both ELA and Math in 2019; now, in 2023, proficiency rates at D115 are roughly 10% lower than D125 on both subjects.

Are differences in PSAT proficiency rates simply a matter of test preparation methodology as Dr. Montgomery postulated? The numbers tell a more complicated story. As it turns out, Lake Forest proficiency rates begin flagging years before students embark on their Junior year. The weighted average scores at D125 feeder schools[5]consistently outperformed the D115 feeder schools[6] in ELA and Math in 2019, 2022 and 2023. In fact, the average learning deficit during those years was 2.5 points or four percent.  A broader review of north shore elementary school performance affirms the above findings. When compared with 2023 test results from 17 neighboring districts[7], District 67 ranked 15th on ELA and 11th on Math. As with the comparison above, those rankings have declined since 2017 when District 67 was ranked 11th and 9th respectively in ELA and Math. The unavoidable conclusion is that students entering LFHS are less proficient in ELA and Math than their peers at neighboring districts and, therefore, less equipped to take the PSAT three years later.

What about District 115’s esteemed ranking among Illinois test takers? Despite protestations by Dr. Montgomery, using the Illinois average proficiency scores is wrong headed. The above referenced north shore communities are the appropriate academic benchmarks for Lake Forest District 115 and 67; not Chicago, Aurora, Joliet or the many rural districts across Illinois. Those communities, which comprise the bulk of Illinois’ population, do not belong to the same socio-economic class and do not compete for the same taxpayer base. Arguments to the contrary are misleading and insincere. Compared with our peers, we are failing to provide the same level of scholastic achievement and the trend is headed in the wrong direction.

So, you say, what is the solution, Erik? I don’t know. What I do know is talk of “Portrait of a Learner” and other marketing initiatives is a distraction from the inconvenient truths hidden in the Illinois Report Card numbers and a costly indulgence by administrators and board members. The sooner District 115 & 67 leadership admits that there is a problem with education in Lake Forest and residents engage in an honest conversation about how to fix it, the sooner we can begin our journey back to academic excellence. 

[1] D115 Administration, Shared District Office, and School Board - Part 2: Test Scores and Student Achievement

[2] https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/District.aspx?source=trends&Districtid=34049115016

[3] https://www.lakeforestschools.org/domain/1293

[4] This essay relies on the results of the state-mandated Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) administered annually to third-through-eighth grade students and the Practice Scholastic Assessment Test (PSAT) on which Illinois assesses 11th grade student proficiency in Math and English Language Arts (ELA). I also reference pre-2019 data from the retired state test, Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). Results are publicly available at www.IllinoisReportCard.com. According to that website, “The use of the term proficiency in educational data generally refers to students demonstrating or not demonstrating that they are “well advanced in … a branch of knowledge” (from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary).” The term is generally accepted as the baseline acquired grade-level math and reading skills needed to advance.

[5] D76, D79, D96, D102 & D103

[6] D65 & D67

[7] Lake Forest, Bannockburn, Northfield, Wilmette, Northbrook, Libertyville, Lincolnshire, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Roundout, Glencoe, Deerfield, Lake Bluff, Buffalo Grove, Glenview, Highland Park and Vernon Hills