On October 30, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) rated MCHS as “Commendable,” the second highest rating that measures the progress towards preparing students for their years in college.

ISBE started a new system in the 2017-2018 year called “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA). This measures how well the student body is performing in a multitude of areas and skills. ISBE will give out a score that shows the proficiency of the school by looking at many different factors. The score is based off of 4 levels; Exemplary, Commendable, Underperforming, and Lowest-performing. 

Dr. Ryan McTague, the Superintendent of District 156 explains, “We performed [at] a level where we were commendable, not just in one area, but in a multitude of different areas. Maybe some areas we were weaker on because maybe we were strong in other areas and it was able to pull us to that commendable status.” 

Although MCHS was rated commendable, it hasn’t been easy. After being assigned to Tier 1, the lowest level for financial support given by the state, the school has found it more difficult to have more programs and teachers around. This makes the school at 66% below adequacy, while being 100% is fully funded. Keeping up more programs and retaining good teachers will allow the students to grow in a vast amount of areas, which will lead to scoring high on the ESSA. 

Even with the low financial rating, MCHS found themselves in a unique situation. The school was able to get a referendum passed that allows the school to build and add more to MCHS. 

“A big impact is the changes we make to the school structure. [It] will give the students more programs and no travel between buildings,” explains McTague. 

These changes are being made possible through the referendum. The school’s extensions will be finished next January, but shifting of the grades into different schools will not happen until the fall of 2021.  

Reaching the commendable status has been achieved through the staff and the students at MCHS. Each factor takes certain skills gained by the student body as a whole.

McTague expressed, “In order to be commendable, everyone has to move and everyone has to grow together, which is how it should be.”