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91_HB0506
LRB9100167NTsb
1 AN ACT to amend the School Code by changing Section
2 2-3.64.
3 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
4 represented in the General Assembly:
5 Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing
6 Section 2-3.64 as follows:
7 (105 ILCS 5/2-3.64) (from Ch. 122, par. 2-3.64)
8 Sec. 2-3.64. State goals and assessment.
9 (a) Beginning in the 1992-93 school year, the State
10 Board of Education shall establish standards and annually,
11 through the 1997-1998 school year, assess the performance
12 of: (i) all pupils enrolled in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, and 10th
13 grades in language arts (reading and writing) and
14 mathematics; and (ii) all pupils enrolled in the 4th, 7th,
15 and 11th grades in the biological, physical, and social
16 sciences. Beginning in the 1998-1999 school year, the State
17 Board of Education shall establish standards and
18 periodically, in collaboration with local school districts,
19 conduct studies of student performance in the learning areas
20 of fine arts and physical development/health. Beginning with
21 the 1998-1999 school year, the State Board of Education shall
22 annually test: (i) all pupils enrolled in the 3rd, 5th, 8th,
23 and 10th grades in English language arts (reading, writing,
24 and English grammar) and mathematics; and (ii) all pupils
25 enrolled in the 4th, 7th, and 11th grades in the biological
26 and physical sciences and the social sciences (history,
27 geography, civics, economics, and government). The State
28 Board of Education shall establish, in final form and within
29 one year after the effective date of this amendatory Act of
30 1996, the academic standards that are to be applicable to
31 pupils who are subject to State tests under this Section
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1 beginning with the 1998-1999 school year. However, the State
2 Board of Education shall not establish any such standards in
3 final form without first providing opportunities for public
4 participation and local input in the development of the final
5 academic standards. Those opportunities shall include a
6 well-publicized period of public comment, public hearings
7 throughout the State, and opportunities to file written
8 comments. Beginning with the 1998-99 school year and
9 thereafter, the State tests will identify pupils in the 3rd
10 grade or 5th grade who do not meet the State standards. If,
11 by performance on the State tests or local assessments or by
12 teacher judgment, a student's performance is determined to be
13 2 or more grades below current placement, the student shall
14 be provided a remediation program developed by the district
15 in consultation with a parent or guardian. Such remediation
16 programs may include, but shall not be limited to, increased
17 or concentrated instructional time, a remedial summer school
18 program of not less than 90 hours, improved instructional
19 approaches, tutorial sessions, retention in grade, and
20 modifications to instructional materials. Each pupil for whom
21 a remediation program is developed under this subsection
22 shall be required to enroll in and attend whatever program
23 the district determines is appropriate for the pupil.
24 Districts may combine students in remediation programs where
25 appropriate and may cooperate with other districts in the
26 design and delivery of those programs. The parent or
27 guardian of a student required to attend a remediation
28 program under this Section shall be given written notice of
29 that requirement by the school district at least 10 days a
30 reasonable time prior to commencement of the remediation
31 program that the student is to attend. The State shall be
32 responsible for providing school districts with the new and
33 additional funding, under Section 2-3.51.5 or by other or
34 additional means, that is required to enable the districts to
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1 operate remediation programs for the pupils who are required
2 to enroll in and attend those programs under this Section.
3 Every individualized educational program as described in
4 Article 14 shall identify if the State test or components
5 thereof are appropriate for that student. For those pupils
6 for whom the State test or components thereof are not
7 appropriate, the State Board of Education shall develop rules
8 and regulations governing the administration of alternative
9 tests prescribed within each student's individualized
10 educational program which are appropriate to the disability
11 of each student. All pupils who are in a State approved
12 transitional bilingual education program or transitional
13 program of instruction shall participate in the State tests.
14 Any student who has been enrolled in a State approved
15 bilingual education program less than 3 academic years shall
16 be exempted if the student's lack of English as determined by
17 an English language proficiency test would keep the student
18 from understanding the test, and that student's district
19 shall have an alternative test program in place for that
20 student. The State Board of Education shall appoint a task
21 force of concerned parents, teachers, school administrators
22 and other professionals to assist in identifying such
23 alternative tests. Reasonable accommodations as prescribed by
24 the State Board of Education shall be provided for individual
25 students in the testing procedure. All test procedures
26 prescribed by the State Board of Education shall require: (i)
27 that each test used for State and local student testing under
28 this Section identify by name the pupil taking the test; (ii)
29 that the name of the pupil taking the test be placed on the
30 test at the time the test is taken; (iii) that the results or
31 scores of each test taken under this Section by a pupil of
32 the school district be reported to that district and identify
33 by name the pupil who received the reported results or
34 scores; and (iv) that the results or scores of each test
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1 taken under this Section be made available to the parents of
2 the pupil. In addition, beginning with the 1998-1999 school
3 year and in each school year thereafter, all scores received
4 by a student on the Illinois Goals and Assessment Program
5 tests administered in grades 10 and 11 by the State Board of
6 Education under this Section and, beginning with the
7 1999-2000 school year and in each school year thereafter, the
8 scores received by a student on the Prairie State Achievement
9 Examination administered under subsection (c) of this Section
10 shall become part of the student's permanent record and shall
11 be entered therein pursuant to regulations that the State
12 Board of Education shall promulgate for that purpose in
13 accordance with Section 3 and subsection (e) of Section 2 of
14 the Illinois School Student Records Act. Scores received by
15 students on the Illinois Goals and Assessment Program tests
16 administered in other grades shall be placed into students'
17 temporary records. Except as provided in subsection (c) of
18 this Section, the State Board of Education shall establish a
19 common month in each school year for which State testing
20 shall occur to meet the objectives of this Section. However,
21 if the schools of a district are closed and classes are not
22 scheduled during any week that is established by the State
23 Board of Education as the week of the month when State
24 testing under this Section shall occur, the school district
25 may administer the required State testing at any time up to 2
26 weeks following the week established by the State Board of
27 Education for the testing, so long as the school district
28 gives the State Board of Education written notice of its
29 intention to deviate from the established schedule by January
30 2 of the year in which falls the week established by the
31 State Board of Education for the testing. The maximum time
32 allowed for all actual testing required under this subsection
33 during the school year shall not exceed 25 hours as allocated
34 among the required tests by the State Board of Education.
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1 (a-5) All tests administered pursuant to this Section
2 shall be academically based. For the purposes of this
3 Section "academically based tests" shall mean tests
4 consisting of questions and answers that are measurable and
5 quantifiable to measure the knowledge, skill, and ability of
6 students in the subject matters covered by tests. The scoring
7 of academically based tests shall be reliable, valid,
8 unbiased and shall meet the guidelines for test development
9 and use prescribed by the American Psychological Association,
10 the National Council of Measurement and Evaluation, and the
11 American Educational Research Association. Academically based
12 tests shall not include assessments or evaluations of
13 attitudes, values, or beliefs, or testing of personality,
14 self-esteem, or self-concept. Nothing in this amendatory Act
15 is intended, nor shall it be construed, to nullify,
16 supersede, or contradict the legislative intent on academic
17 testing expressed during the passage of HB 1005/P.A. 90-296.
18 Beginning in the 1998-1999 school year, the State Board
19 of Education may, on a pilot basis, include in the State
20 assessments in reading and math at each grade level tested no
21 more than 2 short answer questions, where students have to
22 respond in brief to questions or prompts or show
23 computations, rather than select from alternatives that are
24 presented. In the first year that such questions are used,
25 scores on the short answer questions shall not be reported on
26 an individual student basis but shall be aggregated for each
27 school building in which the tests are given. State-level,
28 school, and district scores shall be reported both with and
29 without the results of the short answer questions so that the
30 effect of short answer questions is clearly discernible.
31 Beginning in the second year of this pilot program, scores on
32 the short answer questions shall be reported both on an
33 individual student basis and on a school building basis in
34 order to monitor the effects of teacher training and
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1 curriculum improvements on score results.
2 The State Board of Education shall not continue the use
3 of short answer questions in the math and reading
4 assessments, or extend the use of such questions to other
5 State assessments, unless this pilot project demonstrates
6 that the use of short answer questions results in a
7 statistically significant improvement in student achievement
8 as measured on the State assessments for math and reading and
9 is justifiable in terms of cost and student performance.
10 (b) It shall be the policy of the State to encourage
11 school districts to continuously test pupil proficiency in
12 the fundamental learning areas in order to: (i) provide
13 timely information on individual students' performance
14 relative to State standards that is adequate to guide
15 instructional strategies; (ii) improve future instruction;
16 and (iii) complement the information provided by the State
17 testing system described in this Section. Each district's
18 school improvement plan must address specific activities the
19 district intends to implement to assist pupils who by teacher
20 judgment and test results as prescribed in subsection (a) of
21 this Section demonstrate that they are not meeting State
22 goals or local objectives. Such activities may include, but
23 shall not be limited to, summer school, extended school day,
24 special homework, tutorial sessions, modified instructional
25 materials, other modifications in the instructional program,
26 reduced class size or retention in grade. To assist school
27 districts in testing pupil proficiency in reading in the
28 primary grades, the State Board shall make optional reading
29 inventories for diagnostic purposes available to each school
30 district that requests such assistance. Districts that
31 administer the reading inventories may develop remediation
32 programs for students who perform in the bottom half of the
33 student population. Those remediation programs may be funded
34 by moneys provided under the School Safety and Educational
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1 Improvement Block Grant Program established under Section
2 2-3.51.5. Nothing in this Section shall prevent school
3 districts from implementing testing and remediation policies
4 for grades not required under this Section.
5 (c) Beginning with the 1999-2000 school year, each
6 school district that operates a high school program for
7 students in grades 9 through 12 shall annually administer the
8 Prairie State Achievement Examination established under this
9 subsection to its 12th grade students as set forth below.
10 The Prairie State Achievement Examination shall be developed
11 by the State Board of Education to measure student
12 performance in the 5 fundamental academic areas of reading,
13 writing, mathematics, science, and social sciences. The
14 State Board of Education shall establish the academic
15 standards that are to apply in measuring student performance
16 on the Prairie State Achievement Examination in those 5
17 fundamental academic areas, including the minimum composite
18 examination score and the minimum score in each area that,
19 taken together, will qualify a student to receive the
20 Prairie State Achievement Award from the State in recognition
21 of the student's excellent performance. Each school district
22 that is subject to the requirements of this subsection (c)
23 shall afford a graduating student 2 opportunities to take the
24 Prairie State Achievement Examination during the semester in
25 which the student will graduate. The State Board of
26 Education shall annually notify districts of the weeks during
27 which these test administrations shall be required to occur.
28 Each student, exclusive of a student whose individualized
29 educational program developed under Article 14 identifies the
30 Prairie State Achievement Examination as inappropriate for
31 the student, shall be required to take the examination in the
32 final semester before his or her graduation. Score reports
33 for each fundamental academic area shall indicate the score
34 that qualifies as an excellent score on that portion of the
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1 examination. Any student who attains a satisfactory
2 composite score but who fails to earn a qualifying score in
3 any one or more of the fundamental academic areas on the
4 initial test administration for the semester during which the
5 student will graduate from high school shall be permitted to
6 retake such portion or portions of the examination during the
7 second test of that semester. Districts shall inform their
8 students of the timelines and procedures applicable to their
9 optional participation in such additional administrations of
10 the Prairie State Achievement Examination. Students receiving
11 special education services whose individualized educational
12 programs identify the Prairie State Achievement Examination
13 as inappropriate for them nevertheless shall have the option
14 of taking the examination, which shall be administered to
15 those students in accordance with standards adopted by the
16 State Board of Education to accommodate the respective
17 disabilities of those students. A student who successfully
18 completes all other applicable high school graduation
19 requirements but fails to receive a score on the Prairie
20 State Achievement Examination that qualifies the student for
21 receipt of the Prairie State Achievement Award shall
22 nevertheless qualify for the receipt of a regular high school
23 diploma.
24 (Source: P.A. 89-610, eff. 8-6-96; 90-566, eff. 1-2-98;
25 90-789, eff. 8-14-98.)