Over the years, No Child Left Behind, and "Common Core" and "teaching to the test" have received a lot of well-deserved criticism here in Geneva, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't celebrate when our kids excel in Illinois School Report Cards.

And, as the clock ticks toward a possible teachers strike on Nov. 9, let's be sure to spread the credit among teachers, school administrators, support staff, students, parents and School Board members.

According to a report in the Daily Herald, Geneva placed at or near the top among five "Tri-Cities Area" school districts—Geneva 304, St. Charles 303, Batavia 101, Kaneland 302 and Central 301 (Burlington).

Of those five districts, and based on the percent of students who "meet or exceed expectations," Geneva ranks first in third-grade reading (94.3%), second in third-grade math (96.7%), first in eighth-grade reading (97.6%) and second in eighth-grade math (94.4%).

For schools in the Daily Herald coverage area (not the full state), Geneva High School students made the top 10 in composite test scores (82.5%), reading (80.9%), math 81.9%) and science (84.6%).

Geneva High School also made the Daily Herald's list of suburban schools that showed the biggest increases year over year in reading, math and science.

The Illinois State Board of Education released its 2012 school report card data last week. It includes information on how students at each school and school district in the state did on standardized tests.

There's a lot to take in, so Patch built this database that shows the percentage of students who met or exceeded state standards on the Illinois Standard Achievement Test (ISAT) and the Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE).

You can search by your community to see how all the schools near you fared, or by specific district or school by using the drop down menus.

The results page also shows ACT scores when applicable, and school enrollment numbers. (Make sure you use the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the results to see the full data set.)

Both the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times analyze the data to produce lists of the top schools in the Chicago area. The Tribune bases its rankings on the percent of students in each school who met or exceeded state standards while the Sun-Times uses the school's average scores.

For more information about a particular school or district, including how it did compared to state averages and its demographic information, visit the Illinois Interactive Report Card site.