Commendable

"Commendable: Deserving of High Regard or Great Approval"

-Webster's Dictionary

The Illinois State Board of Education has officially recognized our efforts here at Sullivan Middle School as "Commendable". This is the second highest rating available, which is a good thing. While I believe that our work here is much more than "Commendable", I have no qualms with the designation. There is nothing shameful about the definition of Commendable, so I am actually quite proud to earn the title, but it is human nature to look at what the next highest designation would be. I am sure that if we really decided to put our minds to it, we could achieve "Exemplary". In case you are curious, here are the descriptors of the designations.

Exemplary

• Performance in the top 10% of all schools

• High schools with graduation rate higher than 67%

• No underperforming student groups at or below the "all students" group in the lowest-performing 5% of all schools

Commendable

• Performance NOT in the top 10% of all schools

• High schools with graduation rate higher than 67%

• No underperforming student groups at or below the "all students" group in the lowest-performing 5% of all schools

Since we are not a high school, what it really comes down to is this: Are we in the top 10% of all schools. Here is how that is measured:

• Measure of Academic Performance and Growth (75%)

• ELA Proficiency (10%)

• Math Proficiency (10%)

• Academic Growth (50%)

• ELL Progress (5%)

• Additional Measures of School Quality/Student Success (25%)

• Chronic Absenteeism (20%)

• Climate Survey (5%)

Sooooooo..... Do I think we could really put effort into making sure our students perform better on PARCC or whatever we will be taking now by "teaching to the test" and a lot of other things that we know will lead to higher scores? Sure, but I am not sure that necessarily leads to greater, more meaningful learning for our kids. ISBE designations are fine, but they aren't a representation of who we are and how important we are to our community. There is no indicator for multiple teachers expressing heartfelt concern about a kid who is always in trouble that we all know is simply a product of his environment because we are able to see the child beyond the behavior. There is no indicator for building relationships with our community through service days. There is no indicator for the Griswald Gift Shop or The Great Banana Race. Pretty much anything amazing that I see when I walk our hallways is absolutely non-existent when I look at these indicators. 

Other principals and other schools can chase the designations that make for a good newspaper article once a year, but my vote is to keep putting students first and doing what we know is in their best interest, especially as long as we are "commendable". Our improvement efforts should be geared toward doing what we know is best for the people in this building, in this community. When those efforts line up with the ISBE report card, great, but we are so much more than a once a year snapshot of our successes. Much like I encourage all of you to look at your practice and not the designations on the evaluation tool, so should we look at our goals and aspirations as a school when it comes to these designations. We will always put Students over Designations.