Educational Acronyms

Educational Acronyms

1:1
One computer per student initiative.

AASA
American Association of School Administrators

AASPA
American Association for School Personnel Administrators

ACT
American College Testing

ADA
Americans with Disabilities Act

ADA
Average Daily Attendance; the average attendance for the district, used as a factor in the calculation of General State Aid that the district receives.

AFR
Annual Financial Report; a standardized document that meets independent auditing and reporting requirements for public school districts

AP
Advanced Placement APR Accreditation in Public Relations; a national certification for persons working in the field of public relations.

AR
Annual Review (of an individualized education plan)

Blended
Classes that combine of days spent in a traditional classroom setting & days spent learning independently outside the classroom.

BOE
Board of Education; seven District 115 residents elected by the community to govern the school district.

BPAC
Bilingual Parents Advisory Council; a council whose members advocate for programs that serve English learners.

CAC
Citizens Advisory Council; a District 115 council of community representatives who advise the superintendent on educational issues facing the district.

CCC
Curriculum Coordinating Council (a group of teachers, administrators, and community members that makes decisions regarding, curriculum, instruction, and assessment).

COW
Board of Education: Committee of the Whole meetings are called when there needs to be a larger discussion or an action needs to be taken around a topic. This is run in place of the Committee Meetings that normally occur at the first meeting of each month.

CPI
Consumer Price Index; describes changes in the price paid by consumers for goods, and helps the district to estimate cost increases for future years.

CPI
A certification of de-escalation and response techniques.

CPPRT
Corporate Personal Property Replacement Tax; revenues collected by the state of Illinois and paid to local governments to replace money that was lost when those local governments lose their ability to impose personal property taxes on corporations.

CUSD
Community Unit School District

Dashboard
Visual representations (charts, graphs) of school district data used to help the public monitor the status of the district.

DIP
District Improvement Plan

EC
Early Childhood

EL
English Learners (formally ELL, English Language Learners)

ELO
Extended Learning Opportunities; learning outside of the school day including summer school and business partnerships that provide students with experiences in various employment fields.

ER
Eligibility Review (a student becoming eligible for Special Education)

ESEA
Elementary and Secondary Education Act; federal legislation to protect educational equity enacted in 1965 and reauthorized eight times, including as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2002 and Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015.

ESSA
Every Student Succeeds Act; ESEA reauthorization bill enacted in 2015.

FAPE
Free and Appropriate Education

FMLA
Family Medical Leave Act

FOIA
Freedom of Information Act; the right of the public to access information from governmental organizations.

FTE
Full-Time Equivalency; a conversion of the hours worked by one employee to a full-time basis (8 hours per day * 5 days per week).

GAAP
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles; a collection of commonly-followed accounting rules and standards for financial reporting.

GASB
Governmental Accounting Standards Board; the source of the GAAP, and the organization that works to improve standards of state and local governmental accounting.

GSA
General State Aid; one of the revenue sources for school districts, and is meant to provide unrestricted grants to Illinois public school districts in an equitable manner.

HR
Human Resources

HSA
Health Savings Account

IAA
Illinois Alternative Assessment

IASA
Illinois Association of School Administrators

IASBO
Illinois Association of School Business Officials; professional organization for district employees in school business management IASSE Illinois Association of Supervisors of Special Education.

IDEA
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act IEA Illinois Education Association

IEP
Individualized Education Plan (for special education)

IMRF
Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund; pension system for public employees.

IRC
Illinois Report Cards ISBE Illinois State Board of Education; administers public education in the state of Illinois by setting educational policies and guidelines for public and private schools, preschool through grade 12, as well as vocational education.

LASP
Life and Academic Skills Program LEA Local Education Agency LUDA Large Unit District Association.

MAP
Measures of Academic Progress; a test designed to assess students’ strengths and weaknesses in reading, language, and mathematics.

MD&A
Management’s Discussion and Analysis; the section of a school district’s annual report in which management provides an overview of the previous year’s operations and how the district performed financially.

MOE
Maintenance of Effort; the requirement placed on many federal grants that school districts must keep their level of funding for that grant program at least equal to the previous year’s funding level.

Naviance
Naviance is an online tool to assist Yorkville High School students with college and career planning NEA National Education Association.

NSLP
National School Lunch Program; federally assisted meal program operating in public schools, providing nutritionally balanced, low-cost lunches to children each school day NSPRA National School Public Relations Association; a national organization that provides school communication training and services to school leaders (INSPRA-Illinois chapter of NSPRA).

OEPP
Operating Expense per Pupil; the gross operating cost of the combined schools divided by the average daily attendance (ADA) for the regular school term.

OSHA
Occupational Safety and Health Act

OSSP
Organization Study Skills Program

OT
Occupational Therapy

Paraprofessional
Classroom/Building Aide

PARCC
Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers; a test that measures a student’s achievement relative to the Common Core State Standards.

PASEC
Plano Area Special Education Cooperative

P-Card
Purchasing Card; a form of company charge card that allows goods and services to be procured without using a traditional purchasing process.

PSAT/NMSQT
The Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test is a standardized test used to establish a baseline, determine future success in AP courses, and to determine eligibility and qualification for the National Merit Scholarship Program.

PT
Physical Therapy

PT3
Parents & Teachers Talking Together; a District 115 organization whose members have a specific interest in Special Education programming and services.

PTELL
Property Tax Extension Limitation Law; designed to limit the increases in property tax extensions (total taxes billed) for non-home rule taxing districts.

PTOC
Parent-Teacher Organization Council; a District 115 council whose members represent each of the District 115 schools’ Parent-Teacher Organizations.

RAM
Board of Education: Regular Action Meetings are meetings in which action (voting) is taken on topics.

RAMP
Recognized ASCA Model Program; a certification level for school counseling programs that are proven to be comprehensive and data-driven.

RFP
Request for Proposal; a proposal made by a school district to potential suppliers for a good or service, often made through a bidding process.

ROE
Regional Offices of Education

RtI
Response to Intervention

SAC
Subject-Area Committee (a group of teachers and administrators that writes curriculum in each content area).

SAT
Scholastic Assessment Test; the SAT measures students' college and career readiness in the areas of reading, mathematics, and writing.

SEL
Social Emotional Learning; SEL helps children understand emotions, empathy, and responsible decision-making, to develop positive goals and relationships.

SIP
School Improvement Plan

SPED
Special Education

SSS
Student Support Services (group)

Stakeholders
Individuals with a vested interest in District 115 (Internal: parents, students, employees; External: taxpayers, businesses, partners, alumni).

STARS
Skills Training And Related Services

Tax Levy
The amount of property tax dollars a school district requests to operate the district for the subsequent fiscal year.

TIF
Tax Incremental Financing; a public financing method used as a subsidy for redevelopment, infrastructure, and other community-improvement projects.

TRS
Teachers’ Retirement System; pension system for educators.

YEA
Yorkville Education Association (Teachers’ Union)

YEF
Yorkville Educational Foundation; a privately operated, nonprofit organization established to assist District 115.