If your kid's school is 'comprehensive,' is that good? (Nope)

A "comprehensive" school is one that serves all students? Teaches all subjects? Under Illinois' proposed accountability redesign, "comprehensive" means the school is failing in every possible way and needs urgent improvement.

Parents may also be baffled by "approaching." On report cards, it means "approaching standards" or grade-level performance but not quite there. For an Illinois school, the rating designates "typical" or "average" performance.

"Below average" is called "Developing." That's common on report cards, where "developing" means "not developing very fast."

"Exemplary" (excellent) and "commendable" (above average) are the top ratings.

In the state's current ratings system, the categories are: Exemplary, Commendable, Comprehensive, Targeted, and Intensive. Ten percent of schools are automatically "exemplary" and 70 percent are "commendable," regardless of performance, notes State Superintendent Tony Sanders.

Illinois already has lowered "the cut scores used on annual standardized tests to determine whether students are considered proficient," writes Becky Vevea in Chalkbeat.

The Illinois Board of Education is also proposing to "eliminate the use of the 9th-grade On-Track metric, which measures the percentage of freshmen likely to graduate based on their attendance and grades," and dropping the measure of chronic absenteeism, the percentage of students absent for 10 percent or more of the school year, she writes. Instead, the state would measure how many students are present for 90 percent or more of the year. It's the same thing, but sounds better.