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, pilot testing, field testing, and/or norm 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, pilot testing, and/or field 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 or by participating in an accommodated or 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 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)         Accommodated Assessment

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 form of the State assessment, subject to the limitations set forth in Section 2-3.64 of the School Code.  A student of limited proficiency in English may, however, participate in the regular assessment for his or her grade if, in the judgment of the district or the student's parent, the regular State assessment is more appropriate for that student.  See also Section 1.60(b) of this Part.

d)         Alternate Assessment

Students whose Individualized Education Programs identify the regular State assessment as inappropriate for them even with accommodations shall participate in the Illinois Alternate Assessment (IAA) 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 30 days after the preliminary data are made available, each district or charter school shall use a means prescribed by the State Board to indicate either:

A)        that its preliminary data are correct; or

B)        that unresolved problems still exist within its data.

2)         In cases where unresolved problems still exist, staff of the State Board and/or its contractor shall have an additional period of 15 days within which to work with the affected district or charter school to make the necessary corrections.

3)         At the end of the 15-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, 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, accommodated, 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)), as well as each score achieved on the accommodated State assessment, 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 "attempting", "emerging", "progressing", or "attaining".  Among these scores, those identified as "progressing" or "attaining" 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 31 Ill. Reg. 9897, effective June 26, 2007)