Brooks Elementary School Principal Shahran Spears watches the education growth of students at Brooks Elementary School – and not how they tested on one particular day.

“I think what we’re most proud of at Brooks are the gains our students have made overall,” Spears said. “We continue to show gains in areas, and that’s what we focus on. We focus on where our students are in September, and where they are in June.”

Brooks Elementary was the only school in DeKalb School District 428 that made Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, as defined by the federal No Child Left Behind act. Those statistics were released by the Illinois State Board of Education today.