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It
comes after several lawmakers called for changes to the
assessment.
State Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala said changes need
to be made to the process, but Illinois can't completely do away
with the testing process.
"The assessment is federally required," Ayala said. "Failing to
give an assessment would put us in jeopardy of losing out on
over $1 billion of federal funding."
The current assessment process in Illinois can take up to two
weeks of class time to complete the tests, but by the time the
data from those tests come back, the student has moved on from
that grade.
Ayala said shorter tests with faster results are needed.
"We need to reduce the amount of time we are spending on these
tests, 2, provide immediate results so they can be used to
inform instruction, and 3, give school districts a state-funded
option for through year assessments," she said.
School districts have to pay for the tests without state
funding, but Ayala said the goal is to change that so districts
can use that money elsewhere.
"We need to look into some changes, so many districts that are
currently spending their local dollars on these assessments,
could utilize those dollars in other areas than testing," Ayala
said.
The Illinois State Board of Education's goal for testing in
Illinois is to develop an Illinois-specific testing system that
runs pre-school through grade 12 that has a quick turnaround to
get results faster.
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