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Facts You Didn't Know

“Rock Island is serving as a Lighthouse for schools in the State of Illinois” stated State Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Randy Dunn at the opening day for the Rock Island Academies on 8/3/05.

Innovative, trendsetting, year-round schools, and real-world education are the most common words used to describe the Rock Island Schools.

Academic

Four Rock Island High School students are National Merit Scholar Finalists, more than all of the other Illinois Quad City High Schools combined. Last year, Rocky had four Finalists as well. Each of these award winners are offered full-ride scholarships.
For the second year, test scores are at a record high at the elementary and junior high schools, and six schools showed improvements in reading and math of 20% or more.
Rock Island High School offers Advanced Placement and dual-credit classes (earn high school and college credit at the same time).
Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Northwestern, Stanford, Duke, Dartmouth, University of Illinois, MIT, University of Chicago, University of Iowa, Augustana College, Air Force Academy, and West Point are just some of the colleges and universities our students attend to pursue degrees.
Graduating seniors from Rock Island High School annually earn nearly $700,000 in college scholarships.

Schools

Thomas Jefferson Elementary School was honored in 2003 with the National Magna Carta Award, one of twenty-four schools nationwide.
Denkmann School received a $2,500 Best Buy Teach Award.
Congratulations to these schools for winning the Academic Improvement award for meeting federal benchmarks on standardized tests and had a combined increase of 20 percentage points in math and reading scores over the previous year: Audubon Elementary, Denkmann Elementary, Primary Acadmeny, Intermediate Academy, Edison Junior High, and Washington Junior High (second year).
Congratulations to our Spotlight School Award winners for meeting federal benchmarks on standardized tests: Audubon Elementary, Frances Willard Elementary (second year), Longfellow Elementary (third year), Thomas Jefferson Elementary (second year), Edison Junior High (second year), and Washington Junior High second year. To earn the award schools have 50% low-income students with 60% of their students meeting standards in reading and math OR have 75% low-income students with 50% of their students meeting standards in reading and math.

Extracurricular Activities & Sports

Rock Island High School has eight All-State Musicians in 2007.
Over the past twelve months, Rock Island High School has had six All-State Athletes.
Edison Junior High took second place at the regional MathCounts competition in 2007.
The 31-student Rocky choir, directed by Dorothy McNamer, performed Sping 2005 at Carnegie Hall in New York City to a standing ovation.
In 2007, Rocky hosted the Illinois State Speech Tournament, and a Rocky senior took 4th place in the Dramatic Interpretation and Verse Reading.
Members of the Rock Island High School Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering team had the highest scores in these subjects at a recent competition: computer science, engineering graphics, English, and math.
Rocky’s Environmental Action Club took first place over-all in the 2007 Regional Envirothon Competition. They competed in testing in these five areas: soil, aquatics, wildlife, forestery, and alternative energy.
Thurgood Marshall Youthbuild students built their second home at 728 15th Street in Rock Island.
The Air Force Junior ROTC at Rocky rated excellent by the United States Air Force and we have the only program of its kind in the area.
The Science-Engineering-Communication-Mathematics-Enhancement (SECME) Partnership Program with Deere & Co. emphasizes the involvement of under-represented populations of students in science and mathematics at Edison and Washington Junior Highs.
Two Rock Island High School students will compete in the state swimming meet in 2007.
Two Rocky wrestlers won sectional championships and will advance to the State meet.

Teachers

Rock Island-Milan School District has more Master Teachers (91) than any other school district in the area. The Rock Island Argus and The Dispatch honored eight teachers with the Master Teacher Award in 2006.
There are six National Board Certified teachers in the district - Sylvia Elliott, Deb Feddersen, Lynn Keck, Susan Neece, Tara Niemeier, and Connie Snell.
The Minority Teacher Incentive Program involves over 200 students, developing new teachers.

District-Wide

Fifteen years ago, Rock Island opened the first year-round school in the Midwest. Since that time, dozens of other districts have followed our lead. Rock Island-Milan Schools is the only school district in the Midwest to utilize a modified year-round calendar for its students.
Rock Island-Milan schools have a 20 student to 1 teacher ratio.
All schools and classrooms are wired for voice, data, video, and state-of-the-art modular technology labs in our junior high and high schools.
No other district in the area has a Guiding Influence for Tomorrow (GIFT) mentoring program.
Rock Island-Milan School District has received the national "What Parents Want Award" ten times since 1992.
The school district was won the Business Excellence Award from the Lincoln Baldridge Foundation.
For six consecutive years the Rock Island-Milan School District has received the American Society of Business Officials Association of Excellence in Financing Reporting award.
Every District #41 elementary school has a business partner through the Adopt-A-School program. Employees volunteer at their partner school during their workday. They act as classroom assistants, after-school program instructors, reading tutors, and pen pals.
In 2006, most schools experienced record numbers of parent involvement in school activities and workshops.