District 88 makes decision in best interest of students after ISBE announces shift in how new PARCC assessment will be administered this spring

District 88 is pleased to announce that on Dec. 1, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) made a dramatic shift in how the new state assessment – called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exam – will be administered for spring 2015. The original mandate was all Illinois students in English 3 and Algebra 2 (primarily juniors) would be tested. For this year only, Illinois will allow districts to determine which group of students will take the PARCC exam this spring.

As District 88 has shared with its stakeholders, Illinois is implementing new state standards (called the Common Core) and the PARCC assessment to continue to increase rigor and ensure all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career and life.

This past May, District 88 hosted a PARCC Symposium for High School Practitioners to discuss problematic aspects of the assessment, which include schedule demands and over testing of juniors, making sure students perform well on the ACT and the PARCC exam, motivating students to want to perform well on the PARCC exam and how the new assessment could impact course-based finals. Those concerns were shared with the state, and District 88 is pleased ISBE has responded.

District 88, along with many high school districts in Illinois, has chosen to test students enrolled in English 1 and Algebra 1 (primarily freshmen) this spring. The district made this decision because it is the most educationally sound choice for District 88 students.

• The shift to testing freshmen instead of juniors will allow for less disruption to juniors and their teachers, which will let them prepare for and focus on course-based final exams, Advanced Placement (AP)/college-level exams and the ACT. Right now, those are the tests that impact students’ futures.
• Testing freshmen will give those students experience with this type of exam, which will most likely be used in the future. The ACT is changing its format to be more Common Core-friendly, and the assessment colleges will require in the years ahead will likely look more like a PARCC exam.
• Testing freshmen will allow for fewer students to be tested. That means fewer students will be impacted by having to take the state assessment and will have more time in the classroom.

The mission of District 88 is to work for the continuous improvement of student achievement, and the decision to test freshmen instead of juniors aligns with that focus. The district will continue to put the needs of students first through preparing them for assessments that will help them build successful futures.