The Illinois State Board of Education released the statewide averages of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test and the Prairie State Achievement Exam last week. The ISAT, taken by students in third through eighth grades, showed an overall improvement. However, the PSAE scores, taken by high school juniors, dropped to a new low.

Public schools in Champaign and Urbana produced similar results to the state averages.

“Our goal is to ensure that students are improving,” said Matt Vanover, director of public information at the Illinois State Board of Education. “We improved across the board on the ISAT. However, we saw a drop on the PSAE, which concerns us.”

The testing is mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act to determine student academic achievement.

In Urbana, all public elementary schools made adequate yearly progress according to the act’s standards. Spencer Landsman, principal of Leal Elementary School in Urbana, believes the help the school provides its students, including additional instruction, contributed to its success on the exam.

“The key to doing well is knowing your students well,” Landsman said. “Then we know when our students are struggling, and we’re able to provide the boost they need to get them over any obstacle they may face.”

Urbana public middle and high schools did not improve their scores. According to the No Child Left Behind Act, there were 56 categories the schools needed to achieve adequate yearly progress. The Urbana upper-level schools only passed 49 of them.

Don Owen, the district’s assistantÿsuperintendent for curriculum and instruction, said that Urbana High School has been implementing major curriculum shifts in recent years to motivate students and improve test scores.

“True reform takes three to seven years to make an impact,” Owen said. “My guess is that we’ll be seeing benefits in the years to come. Unfortunately, because of the sanctions required (by No Child Left Behind) … we might not get there as fast as they require of us.”

The Champaign school district also received mixed results.

The district’s middle schools and all but one elementary school made adequate yearly progress, said George Stanhope, director of elementary curriculum and gifted science.

“This positive growth is largely because the district aligned its curriculum to the state’s standards,” Stanhope said. “We’ve also developed a consistent program throughout the district.”

In addition, Stanhope said the achievement gap is closing between different ethnicities.

“In 2002, we had only 33 percent of African-American students meeting or exceeding standards in reading,” he said. “In 2007, we now have 58 percent meeting or exceeding it.”

Both of Champaign’s public high schools did not improve their scores like their crosstown counterparts.

“The high schools are the least quick to change in terms of courses and how we provide instruction,” Stanhope said. “The high schools don’t have a common planning time, and it’s critical to get everyone working in the same direction.”

To raise test scores statewide, Vanover said the state board of education has entered into a partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, an organization that seeks to improve education among other projects. The board has begun reviewing how curricula in Illinois differ from other parts of the nation and has placed an emphasis on early childhood education to increase access to quality education at an early age.

“We want to work with local schools to see how students can be better motivated and try to ensure they are doing their hardest,” Vanover said.