The African-American Population at Thornton Fractional South High School

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Recommended: Importance of promoting diversity in schools

Thornton Fractional South High School represents a diverse school building in the South Suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. We consist of a traditional 9th through 12th grade building with the exception of busing students to the District 215 Tech Center for vocational classes. We share these resources with our sister school TF North. Although we consistently outperform TFN, we are behind the state averages on both the ACT and the PSAE. On the ACT, we are below the state average on the composite score as well as on all three recorded sub-categories. We were closest to the state average in Science and the furthest in Reading. As for the PSAE test to measure those students meeting and exceeding standards, we are again behind the state average. TFS averaged 40.5% of students tested to meet or exceed standards. Meanwhile, the State of Illinois average was 53%. Currently, we are on the Academic Watch Status year 2. We were unable to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) or the Safe Harbor Target Goal for Reading and Mathematics which are the two target areas. Our goal as a school is to reach the AYP and attempt to reach and exceed the state averages on the ACT and PSAE.

Numbers can be deceiving and at the same time provide a close analysis of the data which can yield valuable information. As identified in the chart above Thornton Fractional South High School is performing below average as compared to the Illinois State averages for both the ACT and PSAE. However, when broken down by demographics there is another story that becomes abundantly clear. Some of our students are performing well on the state tests while others are fairing very poorly. The White demographic in our building is performing significantly better than either the Black...

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...archBySchool.aspx?searchby=schoolNa me&language=english&year=2010&keyword=thornton&type=card.

Murray, O. (2011, January). A Call for K-12 Schools to Invest in Social Justice Education. The Education Digest, 76(5), 60-64.

News and Views: After Many Years of Repair, the Test Content of the SAT Now Appears Fair; The Way the Results Are Used Is the Problem. (1997). The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 28. Retrieved May 8, 2011, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 494196011).

Northern Illinois University with support from the Illinois state Board of Education. (Friday April 29, 2011 updated). School: Thornton Fractnl So High School. In Illinois Interactive Report Card. Retrieved April 30, 2011, from http://iirc.niu.edu/School.aspx?schoolid=070162150170002.

Sheets, R. (2009). What Is Diversity Pedagogy? Multicultural Education, 16(3), 11-17.

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