Champaign Unit 4 School District

Due to the cancelation of assessments for the 2019-20 school year, Summative Designations will not be calculated for 2020. Districts’ Summative Designation from School Year 2019 will be assigned for School Year 2020. Learn more by visiting: www.illinoisreportcard.com/

Background info

No Child Left Behind was re-authorized by President Obama in December 2015. NCLB was replaced with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). ESSA creates a long-term policy designed to give states additional flexibility and more state and local control over the accountability process. It is the main federal law governing P-12 education in the United States.

Every Student Succeeds Act provides states significant leeway in a wide range of areas:

• accountability systems differentiated for elementary, middle and high schools and addressing the needs of English-language learners and students in special education
•  accountability goals including weighting of indicators
• how to identify low performing schools and the scope of services and interventions to those low performing schools
• establishing standards and assessments
• determining how to transition from No Child Left Behind

Unit 4 Context
Champaign Unit 4 has one exemplary school (Carrie Busey), nine commendable schools (Centennial, Central, Bottenfield, International Prep Academy, Kenwood, Stratton, South Side, Jefferson, and Barkstall), seven underperforming schools (Edison, Franklin, Garden Hills, Washington, Westview, Robeson, and Dr. Howard), and zero lowest performing schools.

ISBE provides funding through the Title I School Improvement Grant, authorized under section 1003(a) of Title I of ESSA, for schools that were designated as either underperforming or lowest performing last year as well as any newly identified schools. These grant funds provide resources to help improve the learning environment and outcomes for the targeted student groups from each school’s designation. Nine Champaign Unit 4 schools (Dr Howard, Edison, Franklin, Garden Hills, Jefferson, Robeson, South Side, BT Washington, and Westview) will receive approximately $30,000 each for FY21 to support implementation of the continuous school improvement process.

Schools designated as underperforming must complete a needs assessment and write a School Improvement Plan indicating action steps to support school improvement. The School Improvement Plans must be approved by ISBE and the LEA local Board of Education.