Deer Creek-Mackinaw Community Unit School District #701

Steve Yarnall, Superintendent Kathy Wurster, Secretary Pam Gardner, Bookkeeper

401 East Fifth Street, Mackinaw, IL 61755

Voice: 309-359-8965 Fax: 309-359-5291

Dee-Mack Primary & Junior High	Dee-Mack Intermediate School	Dee-Mack High School
Christina Lammers, Principal	Frank Reliford, Principal	Bill Lamb, Principal
102 East Fifth Street	506 North Logan Street	401 East Fifth Street
Mackinaw, IL 61755	Deer Creek, IL 61733	Mackinaw, IL 61755
Voice: 359-4321 Fax: 359-4015	Voice: 447-6226 Fax: 447-5201	Voice: 359-4421 Fax: 359-3125

For Immediate Release…

MACKINAW, IL

Deer Creek-Mackinaw District 701 Named “Academic Outperformer” by Standard & Poor’s

Deer Creek-Mackinaw District 701 has been selected by Standard and Poor’s as being one of 69 (out of 778) Illinois School districts that serve student populations with economically disadvantaged students, while achieving proficiency rates in reading in math that range from 56.3 to 94.7%. This places Dee-Mack in the top 8.9% in the state in this area. Dee-Mack had 16.7% of our students in the economically disadvantaged area, and averaged 79.6% proficiency in reading and math. Deer Creek-Mackinaw District 701 was one of thirty-four unit or pre-kindergarten through 12^th grade districts to be recognized.

To be identified as an outperformer by Standard & Poor’s, school districts, over the course of two consecutive school years (2003-04 and 2004-05), must show a significantly higher percentage of students that scored proficient or above on the state’s reading and math tests when compared to other school districts with similar levels of economically disadvantaged students. Academic achievement levels are compared with the percentage of economically disadvantaged students because educators and researchers have found that there is often a strong correlation between the two indicators.

The 69 outperforming districts include 34 unified or K-12 districts, 23 elementary or K-8 districts and 12 high school districts. Only districts that test the same grades were compared to one another.

Standard & Poor’s developed the analysis used to identify outperforming school districts as a way to highlight outstanding academic performance, and to help educators in school districts with similar characteristics identify appropriate benchmarks to guide their own improvements.

“Congratulations to these outstanding school districts,” said Thomas Sheridan, vice president of Standard & Poor’s School Evaluation Services. “The data reveal that improvements are occurring in these Illinois classrooms. We hope that the effective strategies these districts are employing can be replicated or adapted elsewhere.”

Achieving proficiency in reading and math for all students by 2014 is one of the goals of the federal No Child Left Behind law. Linking school districts in need of improvement with outperforming school districts that have similar student demographics so that effective practices can be shared, replicated or adapted is one method that can help educators reach that target.

Standard & Poor’s conducted its analysis using state-reported data and used the state department of education’s definition of economically disadvantaged students. Analysts determined academic performance by using the aggregate percentages of students scoring proficient or better on the state’s reading and math tests.

The analysis used to identify the outperforming districts can be found on the Illinois homepage of www.schoolmatters.com. SchoolMatters.com is a free public service sponsored by the National Education Data Partnership, a collaboration among the Council of Chief State School Officers, Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services and the CELT Corporation. The National Education Data Partnership is generously funded by The Broad Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.