District 88 shares exciting news regarding college entrance exams for students

At District 88, our mission is to work for the continuous improvement of student achievement.

As part of that mission, we are dedicated to making sure students have access to a college admissions exam. This past school year, we hosted a National Test Date at Addison Trail and at Willowbrook to ensure our students were able to receive a college-reportable test score. We’re excited to share the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has announced it will provide the College Board’s SAT exam, including a writing component, at no cost to all public high school juniors during the 2016-17 school year.

In 2014-15, Illinois implemented the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessment as the state test to evaluate students. District 88, as well as other high school districts throughout Illinois, expressed concerns with using that exam, including the issue it’s not a college entrance test. In May 2014, District 88 hosted a PARCC Symposium for High School Practitioners, where school administrators, board members, legislators and state officials from throughout Illinois met to discuss problematic aspects of the PARCC assessment.

On July 11, ISBE announced the SAT will replace the PARCC assessment as the high school accountability exam in Illinois. We are thrilled with this decision, and we appreciate the state acknowledging our concerns with the PARCC assessment and making a positive change for our students. The SAT aligns with the Illinois Learning Standards and provides a college-reportable score for admissions purposes. It also will continue to empower educators to measure college and career readiness, as well as individual student growth.

According to a press release from ISBE, “Access to a quality college entrance exam is essential in providing future opportunities to all students. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), a bipartisan measure signed into law … on Dec. 10, 2015, focuses on the goal of fully preparing students for success in college and careers. In the course of developing a state plan for ESSA, ISBE has conducted listening tours to obtain insight from stakeholders, including students, parents, schools, districts, educators, administrators, exclusive bargaining representatives, advocacy groups and other interested parties. Stakeholders overwhelmingly emphasized the need for equitable access to a college entrance exam for all students. They also stressed the amount of testing time and the number of assessments administered to students needs to be reduced.”

We look forward to continuing to work with ISBE to build futures for our students. Thank you for your continued support of District 88.