A student walks into their math class feeling anxious for their test. Even though they studied and tried different methods to prepare, they start to feel as if they are not going to pass. Once the teacher put the grades in the grade book, they saw that they got a 64%. Some of the other students in the same course didn’t do well either. After all that studying, they feel like they are no longer prepared for the next unit.

McHenry Community High School’s test scores have recently taken a drop. According to the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, the school’s reading and math scores have gone down about 25%.

McHenry High School Upper Campus principal Jeff Prickett said, “When we have early release on Wednesdays, the teachers meet to look at data and scores to try to meet kids where they are at and provide extra support.”

Math and reading scores have been unpredictable for the past couple years.

“There’s pockets of where scores went up,” says Prickett, “And there’s pockets of when scores went down. We’ve been stagnant the last few years. I still think that scores are not where they were pre-pandemic.”

The scores may be down more than before, but it only gives room to improve and to see what’s going on.

“I’m not happy with the scores but it drives me to want to do better. To dig deeper and it’s obviously not going to be an overnight fix, and we’re taking action right now,” said Prickett.

Seeing these test scores can worry the public and can give MCHS a bad name for their scores.

“This can be construed as a negative to the public. It doesn’t mean that the kids can’t do math or read at grade level for a varying number of reasons,” said Prickett.

A student walks into a tutoring session for math. Later into the session, they have a better understanding about math and feel more confident going into their next test. New methods of learning and taking in the information helped them get a higher test grade than ever.