Spring state testing season brings changes, unknowns and pushback
e spring state testing season launches this week in Illinois, amid unknowns, dramatic changes for students and continued pushback by parents who don't want their kids tested.
The lengthy PARCC exams that debuted last year will be streamlined, a nod to families concerned about so much testing.
And for the first time since 2000, a new online science exam is scheduled for fifth- and eighth-graders as well as high school students in biology classes — though educators say they don't know all the details and are still absorbing the state's new standards for what kids should know in science.
Meanwhile, all signs point to no free college entrance exam statewide this spring for public high school juniors, who have been taking the state-paid ACT test since 2001.
Illinois is switching to the College Board's SAT exam, but it doesn't have the money yet to administer the test given the state's budget crisis, Illinois State Board of Education officials said.
The College Board is working to give the SAT statewide in 2016-17, but that means a year would go by without the free exam for all juniors, though a new state law requires a college entrance exam be given annually.
For this school year, more than 160 school districts across Illinois have signed on to give the ACT to their juniors in March and April, at district expense, according to ACT spokesman Ed Colby.
Chicago Public Schools in January sent a letter to parents saying the district will administer the ACT to all juniors this spring. And districts from Hinsdale to Winnetka will be testing their juniors.
But that leaves out more than 300 districts that include high schools which haven't arranged to give their juniors the exam. The test has been popular because students can use the scores for college admissions applications.
The Glenbrook high schools in north Cook County's Township High School District 225 won't be covering the cost of the ACT, saying the vast majority of their students already take the exam at their own expense. The district is getting the word out to low-income students to make sure they apply for testing fee waivers, said assistant superintendent Rosanne Williamson.
In downstate districts, schools are letting parents know that the ACT won't be free this spring.
"We are continuing to support the ACT as far as encouraging students to take it ... but as far as the district paying for it globally, we are not," said Debbie Ballard, a guidance counselor at Southwestern High School, about 50 miles north of St. Louis. The school set aside money to help students who don't qualify for fee waivers but would still struggle to Spring state testing season brings changes, unknowns and pushback - Chicago Tribune:
