Section 1.30  State Assessment

The State Superintendent of Education shall develop and administer assessment instruments and other procedures in accordance with Section 2-3.64 of the School Code [105 ILCS 5/2-3.64].  In addition, school districts shall collaborate with the State Superintendent in the design and implementation of special studies.

a)         Development and Participation

1)         Assessment instruments and procedures shall meet generally accepted standards of validity and reliability as stated in "Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing" (1999), published by the American Educational Research Association, 1230 17^th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.  (No later amendments to or editions of these standards are incorporated.)

2)         Districts shall participate in special studies, tryouts, and/or pilot testing of these assessment procedures and instruments when one or more schools in the district are selected to do so by the State Superintendent.

3)         A school shall generally be selected for participation in these special studies, tryouts, and/or pilot testing no more than once every four years, except that participation may be required twice every four years in the case of the Illinois Alternate Assessment.

4)         All pupils enrolled in a public or State-operated elementary school, secondary school, or cooperative or joint agreement with a governing body or board of control, a charter school operating in compliance with the Charter Schools Law [105 ILCS 5/Art. 27A], a school operated by a regional office of education under Section 13A-3 of the School Code [105 ILCS 5/13A-3], or a public school administered by a local public agency or the Department of Human Services shall be required to participate in the State assessment, whether by taking the regular assessment, with or without accommodations, or by participating in an alternate form of the assessment (Sections 2-3.25a and 2-3.64 of the School Code).

A)        Students who are served in any locked facility that has a State-assigned RCDTS (region/county/district/type/school) code, students who attend public university laboratory schools under Section 18-8.05(K) of the School Code, and students beyond the age of compulsory attendance (other than students with IEPs) whose programs do not culminate in the issuance of regular high school diplomas are not required to participate in the State assessment.

B)        It is the responsibility of each district or other affected entity to ensure that all students required to participate in the State assessment do so.  See also Section 1.50 of this Part.

5)         Each district or other affected entity shall ensure the availability of reasonable accommodations for participation in the State assessment by students with disabilities, as reflected in those students' IEPs or plans developed under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 USC 794), or limited English proficiency.

b)         Assessment Procedures

1)         All assessment procedures and practices shall be based on fair testing practice, as described in "Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education" (2004), published by the Joint Committee on Testing Practices of the American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education, 750 First Avenue, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002-4242.  (No later amendments to or editions of this code are incorporated.)

2)         Districts and other affected entities shall protect the security and confidentiality of all assessment questions and other materials that are considered part of the approved State assessment, including but not necessarily limited to test items, reading passages, charts, graphs, and tables.

3)         Districts shall promptly report to the State Superintendent all complaints received by the district of testing irregularities.  A district shall fully investigate the validity of any such complaint and shall report to the State Superintendent the results of its investigation.

c)         Accommodations

Students who have been identified at the local level as having limited proficiency in English as provided in 23 Ill. Adm. Code 228.15, including students not enrolled in programs of bilingual education, may participate in an accommodated State assessment, subject to the limitations set forth in Section 2-3.64 of the School Code.  A student with limited proficiency in English shall be afforded extra time for completion of the State assessment when, in the judgment of the student's teacher, extra time is necessary in order for the student's performance to reflect his or her level of achievement more accurately, provided that each test must be completed in one session.  See also Section 1.60(b) of this Part.

d)         Illinois Alternate Assessment

Students with the most significant cognitive disabilities whose Individualized Education Programs identify the regular State assessment as inappropriate for them even with accommodations shall participate in the Illinois Alternate Assessment (IAA), based on alternate achievement standards, for all subjects tested.  See also Section 1.60(c) of this Part.

e)         Review and Verification of Information

Each school district and each charter school shall have an opportunity to review and, if necessary, correct the preliminary data generated from the administration of the State assessment, including information about the participating students as well as the scores achieved.

1)         Within 10 days after the preliminary data for a particular assessment are made available, each district or charter school shall make any necessary corrections to its demographic and score data and then use a means prescribed by the State Board to indicate either:

A)        that both its demographic and preliminary data are correct; or

B)        that it is requesting rescoring of some or all portions of the assessment for specific students.

2)         When districts request rescoring, staff of the State Board and/or its contractor shall have an additional period of 21 days within which to work with the affected district or charter school to make any resulting corrections.

3)         At the end of the 21-day period discussed in subsection (e)(2) of this Section, all districts' and charter schools' data shall stand as the basis for the applicable school report cards and determination of status.  Any inaccuracies that are believed to persist at that time shall be subject to the appeal procedure set forth in Section 1.95 of this Part.

f)          Reports of State Assessment Results

1)         Following verification of the data under subsection (e) of this Section, the State Board shall send each school and district a report containing final information from the results of each administration of the State assessment.

A)        The scores of students who are served by cooperatives or joint agreements, in Alternative Learning Opportunities Programs established under Article 13B of the School Code, by regional offices of education under Section 13A-3 of the School Code, by local agencies, or in schools operated by the Department of Human Services, scores of students who are served in any other program or school not operated by a school district and who are scheduled to receive regular high school diplomas, all scores of students who are wards of the State, and all scores of students who have IEPs, shall be reported to the students' respective districts of residence and to the schools within those districts that they would otherwise attend.

B)        The scores of students enrolled in charter schools shall be reported to the chief administrator of the charter school and to any school district serving as a chartering entity for the charter school.

2)         Each report shall include, as applicable to the receiving entity:

A)        results for each student to whom the State assessment was administered (excluding any scores deemed by the State Board to be invalid due to testing irregularities); and

B)        summary data for the school and/or district and the State, including but not limited to raw scores, scale scores, comparison scores, including national comparisons when available, and distributions of students' scores among the applicable proficiency classifications (see subsection (h) of this Section).

g)         Each school district and each charter school shall receive notification from the State Board of Education as to the status of each affected school and the district based on the attainment or non-attainment of adequate yearly progress as reflected in the final data.  These determinations shall be subject to the appeal process set forth in Section 1.95 of this Part.

h)         Classification of Scores

Each score achieved by a student on a regular or alternate State assessment shall be classified among a set of performance levels, as reflected in score ranges that the State Board shall disseminate at the time of testing, for the purpose of identifying scores that "demonstrate proficiency".

1)         Each score achieved by a student on a regular State assessment (i.e., the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) or the Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE)) shall be classified as "academic warning", "below standards", "meets standards", or "exceeds standards".  Among these scores, those identified as either meeting or exceeding standards shall be considered as demonstrating proficiency.

2)         Each score achieved by a student on the Illinois Alternate Assessment shall be classified as "entry", "foundational", "satisfactory", or "mastery".  Among these scores, those identified as "satisfactory" or "mastery" shall be considered as demonstrating proficiency.

i)          Scores Relevant to Adequate Yearly Progress

For purposes of determining whether a district or a school has made adequate yearly progress, scores achieved on a State assessment in reading or mathematics shall be "relevant scores".  For schools without grades higher than 2 (that is, for schools where no State assessment is administered), scores achieved by students in Grade 2 on the Terra Nova examination (CTB McGraw-Hill, 20 Ryan Ranch Road, Monterey CA 93940 (2001)) shall also be considered "relevant scores" for school years from 2002-03 through 2005-06.  Beginning with the 2006-07 school year, the determination as to whether a school in this group has made adequate yearly progress shall be the determination applicable to the school where the largest number of students go on into the third grade.

(Source:  Amended at 33 Ill. Reg. 15193, effective October 20, 2009)