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Policy driven. Content anchored. Data informed.​

The Illinois State Board of Education is engaging stakeholders in the redesign of its system of assessment, accountability and statewide support.

  • Step 1: Make assessment data more accurate by developing new proficiency definitions people understand and support.
  • Step 2: Make the accountability system more actionable by using clearer criteria to define each designation category for schools (criterion-defined instead of normed).
  • Step 3: Use new, more accurate data to channel investments toward improving student outcomes.

Explore these initiatives, find opportunities for engagement and offer feedback below.​​

HIghlights 

Want to know more about the redesign work and missed the 2024-2025 Listening Tours?
Watch the Virtual Road Show 2024-2025!​YouTube Video Link

Opportunities to Engage

About this Work
​
State Superintendent of Education Dr. Tony Sanders met with educators, administrators, parents, students, and other stakeholders as a part of his first 100 days in office. Three problems of practice emerged as barriers to sustainable improvements in student outcomes:

  1.  Restrictive cut scores mislabel students who on track for college or career as “not proficient,” which gives inaccurate information to educators and makes assessment data less useful.
  2. The accountability system lacks clear performance criteria for each designation. The goal posts move every year, making it harder for districts to set improvement goals and track their progress. A district might actually improve its academic performance from one year to the next, but drop in its accountability designation, disincentivizing the pursuit of excellence and continuous improvement.
  3. The accountability system labels 70% of schools as Commendable, including schools with vastly different academic outcomes. Misleading data prevents our Statewide System of Support from effectively engaging all schools in continuous improvement.
ISBE will pursue three independent but interrelated improvements to our assessment and accountability system with the goal of building on the positives in the current system while addressing these problems of practice:
  1. Realigning our definition of proficiency to improve coherence across grades and subjects and take into account the relationship of proficiency to other important measures of student academic success.
  2. Making adjustments to our accountability system to provide more accurate and more actionable information to districts and schools in support of continuous school improvement.
  3. Connecting data on school performance to pillars in the Statewide System of Support to provide support to all districts and schools, regardless of designation.
The Illinois State Board of Education is engaging stakeholders in the redesign of the assessment and accountability system with the goal of implementing new proficiency benchmarks on the 2025 Report Card and updating the accountability framework and Statewide System of Support on the 2026 Report Card. Find more information on the assessment and accountability processes and stakeholder engagement opportunities below.

Right-Sizing Profiency Benchmarks

The Illinois State Board of Education led a year-long process to set new performance levels for state assessments. The process included three key phases:

  1. Phase I: Performance Level Definitions and Guidance (Spring – Summer 2024)
  2. Phase II: Performance Level Descriptors (Fall-Spring 2024-2025)
  3. Phase III: Standard Setting (Summer 2025)

The work applies to the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) in English language arts and math, the Illinois Science Assessment (ISA), and the state’s high school accountability assessments, including the ACT.​

Performance Level Definitions and Guidance

Level Assessment Performance within this range
About Proficient … demonstrates knowledge and application of the assessed Illinois Learning Standards that is above proficient for this subject and grade. Performance in this range is strong evidence that students are prepared for the academic demands of the next grade and are progressing toward the academic expectations of the next grade, which serve as a foundation for the pursuit of college and/or a career.
Proficient … demonstrates proficient knowledge and application of the assessed Illinois Learning Standards for this subject and grade. Performance in this range is evidence that students are prepared for the academic demands of the next grade and are progressing toward the academic expectations of the next grade, which serve as a foundation for the pursuit of college and/or a career.
Approaching Proficient … demonstrates knowledge and application of the assessed Illinois Learning Standards for this subject and grade that is approaching proficient. Performance in this range is evidence that students may need additional support (the nature and manner of which must be informed by multiple sources of information) to demonstrate success with the academic demands of the next grade, which serve as a foundation for the pursuit of college and/or a career.
Below Proficient … demonstrates knowledge and application of the assessed Illinois Learning Standards that is below proficient for this subject and grade. Performance in the Level 1 range is strong evidence that students may need additional support (the nature and manner of which must be informed by multiple sources of information) to demonstrate success with the academic demands of the next grade, which serve as a foundation for the pursuit of college and/or a career.​


PERFORMANCE LEVEL DESCRIPTORS AND SAMPLES TO SUCCESS

Performance level descriptors are grade and content specific rubrics that describe the range of performance within each performance level. Samples to Success help to bring meaning to these descriptors by providing examples of items that represent the range of skills and knowledge likely to be demonstrated by students within a particular range of performance.

See the full set of Performance Level Descriptors and Samples to Success​.

STANDARD SETTING

Standard setting is the formal process by which recommendations for cut scores, which are the specific scale scores that differentiate one performance level from another, are made.

Adjusting the Assessment System

Based on the identified problems of practice, ISBE is exploring potential adjustments to the accountability system to establish clear, transparent criteria that are easily communicated and actionable. The goal is to simplify the process for schools to understand the performance profiles associated with each designation category. Additionally, these adjustments aim to provide schools with actionable insights that can directly inform and guide their improvement efforts.

IL BALANCED ACCOUNTABILITY MEASURES COMMITTEE MEETINGS

The Illinois Balanced Accountability Measures Committee (IBAM) is tasked in School Code [105 ILCS 5/2-3/25a(b-5)] with making recommendations to ISBE on its system of accountability.

TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETINGS

The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) is a panel of national experts on large scale standardized assessments and federal accountability systems. The TAC is presented with system priorities and goals identified by IBAM and suggests ways of operationalizing and implementing those priorities and goals that are most technically sound.

2024 Event Dates

  • September 18, 2024: Title 1 Director's Conference
  • September 26, 2024: IL Association of School Administrators Fall Conference
  • September 27, 2024: Bilingual Director's Conference
  • October 22. 2024: IL Principals Association Fall Conference
  • November 19, 2024: ISC4 Assessment and Accountability SY2024-25 and Beyond
  • November 22, 2024: IASB*IASA*IASBO Joint Annual Conference​

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