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The Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) is the state assessment and accountability measure for Illinois students enrolled in a public school district. IAR assesses the Illinois Learning Standards incorporating the Common Core and will be administered in English language arts and mathematics to all students in grades 3-8.

​UPDATE: January 30, 2025

THE ILLINOIS ADMINSTRATION PLATFORM IS NOW OPEN!

Pearson sent “Welcome” emails this week to 4,097 district/school test coordinators inviting them to set their password for access to the Illinois Administration Platform via a single sign-in portal referred to as Launchpad. The Illinois Administration Platform is an upgraded administrative platform that will replace the platform formerly known as PAN beginning with the spring administrations of the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) and Illinois Science Assessment (ISA). We have been highlighting some of the features during our weekly webinars. Archived webinars can be accessed on the ISBE Presentations and Webinars Archive webpage.

Training modules also are being made available on the Illinois Support Page webpage. There is a link to trainings along the ribbon at the top of the page. Each module contains a short video that is focused on a particular topic.

The initial invitations were sent to superintendents, principals, IAR coordinators, and ISA coordinators listed in the ISBE Entity Profile System (EPS). District users are able to create other district users and building users, and building users are able to create other building users. A description of the log in process, the available roles, and the process for creating other users manually or via file upload is available via a Getting Started: How to Log In and Create Users video.


IAR TEST COORDINATOR RESOURCES

The new testing platform will require a different process for test management. District/school test coordinators will need to refer to the outline and resources below for guidance on managing the IAR in the new platform.

District School Test Coordinator Test Management Activities in the Illinois Administration PlatformPDF Document

Other tools and resources for the Test Coordinators include:


2025 IAR FIELD TEST PARTICIPATION

Field testing is a critical component in planning for future IAR testing. A small percentage of the Illinois student population is selected each year to participate. Please check the lists below to see if your school(s) is slated to participate. Students participating in the English Language Arts/Literature (ELA/L) field test will have a third unit added. Test administrators should use the same test administrative scripts and allow the same amount of time that they use for the other two ELA/L units.​

Please note: There are multiple schools with the same name, so please verify your participation using the RCDTS code.


PLEASE UPDATE THE ENTITY PROFILE SYSTEM FOR 2024/2025

Please make sure that all assessment contacts in EPS are accurate and updated. Contact information provided in EPS is used for important assessment notifications and to provide access to the all test management platforms. Therefore, it is essential that key personnel, like district/school test coordinators and technology coordinators, be identified. Instructions for updating EPS are below:

Parent & Teacher Resources

Family Portal

The Parent Portal has been renamed the Family Portal. The Illinois Assessment of Readiness Family Portal is for parents/guardians to have online access to their child’s performance on the IAR tests for English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics.

The IAR Family Portal is expected to become available for use at the end of October 2025.

Parent Portal Resources:

Career and College Readiness Resources

The Illinois Assessment of Readiness for English language arts and mathematics for Grades 3-8 has been linked with the Lexile and Quantile Framework to support the development of students and determine if they are on track to graduate college and are career ready. Using the Lexile and Quantile score included on the Individual Student Report, parents and teachers can utilize the enhanced resources, tools, and capabilities through our state partnership with MetaMetrics.  
  • Lexile and Quantile Hub
    This online platform provides you with easy access to more than a dozen new and enhanced reading and mathematics tools.
  • Lexile and Quantile Growth Planner
    This planner helps parents and teachers to identify the reading and math requirements needed for a desired career for students and use them to inform goal-setting.
  • Lexile and Quantile Career Database
    This helps parents and teachers to compare and describe the reading and math requirements of career interests for students.

RESOURCES

VIDEOS

Manuals & Technology

Pearson has updated the TestNav system requirements for the 2023-2024 school year. Please review the technical bulletins and system requirement pages below to ensure your school devices are ready for the fall (if applicable) and spring administrations.

IMPORTANT:The updated TestNav app must be downloaded and installed prior to spring 2024 testing.

These test documents and materials are for the spring 2024 test administration.

IAR Key Dates

Events Date(s)
OnDemand Reporting (Preliminary Machine & Human Scores) Approximately 30 days after the close of the testing window
ISBE Corrections Window May 12-August 22, 2025
Preliminary Summative File Posted in Ill. Admin. Platform (No growth) June 3, 2025
Assessment Enrollment Verification Deadline July 31, 2025​​

Test Design

English Language Arts

The ELA/L summative assessment is available in Grades 3 – 8. Students read and analyze passages from real, authentic texts – both fiction and nonfiction – as well as multimedia. Students then draw upon what they’ve learned from these passages and multimedia, using that knowledge to respond in writing. These skills are critically important for students in college and the workplace.

MATHEMATICS

The mathematics summative assessment is available in Grades 3 – 8. Students solve multi-step math problems that require reasoning and address real-world situations. This requires students to reason mathematically, make sense of quantities and their relationships to solve real-world problems, and show their understanding. Many previous assessments focused mostly on rote procedure only.

IAR Performance Levels

Results on assessments are reported for ELA and Mathematics according to five performance levels that delineate the knowledge, skills and practices students are able to demonstrate:
  • Level 1: Did not yet meet expectations
  • Level 2: Partially met expectations
  • Level 3: Approached expectations
  • Level 4: Met expectations
  • Level 5: Exceeded expectations


Notice: Please be aware that ISBE is engaging in a unified standard-setting across all grade levels and content areas of our general education content assessments (ELA, math, and science). As part of that work, educator committees are currently working to draft new PLDs in each content area. More information is available and being updated regularly on the ISBE Better Systems for Better Outcomes webpage.​

Training Presentations & Webinars

Archived Materials

2024

2023

​​2022

​​2021

​​2020

​​2019

* * * This page has been archived. The content on this page may no longer be in effect. * * *

Contact Information