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91_HB2188
LRB9103417NTsbA
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 1999-2000 1998-99 school year
9 and thereafter, the State tests shall will identify pupils in
10 the 3rd grade, or 5th grade, 8th grade, and 10th grade who do
11 not meet the State standards. If, by performance on the
12 State tests or local assessments or by teacher judgment, a
13 student's performance is determined to be 2 or more grades
14 below current placement, the student shall be provided a
15 remediation program developed by the district in consultation
16 with a parent or guardian. Such remediation programs may
17 include, but shall not be limited to, increased or
18 concentrated instructional time, a remedial summer school
19 program of not less than 90 hours, improved instructional
20 approaches, tutorial sessions, retention in grade, and
21 modifications to instructional materials. Each pupil for whom
22 a remediation program is developed under this subsection
23 shall be required to enroll in and attend whatever program
24 the district determines is appropriate for the pupil.
25 Districts may combine students in remediation programs where
26 appropriate and may cooperate with other districts in the
27 design and delivery of those programs. The parent or
28 guardian of a student required to attend a remediation
29 program under this Section shall be given written notice of
30 that requirement by the school district a reasonable time
31 prior to commencement of the remediation program that the
32 student is to attend. The State shall be responsible for
33 providing school districts with the new and additional
34 funding, under Section 2-3.51.5 or by other or additional
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1 means, that is required to enable the districts to operate
2 remediation programs for the pupils who are required to
3 enroll in and attend those programs under this Section. Every
4 individualized educational program as described in Article 14
5 shall identify if the State test or components thereof are
6 appropriate for that student. For those pupils for whom the
7 State test or components thereof are not appropriate, the
8 State Board of Education shall develop rules and regulations
9 governing the administration of alternative tests prescribed
10 within each student's individualized educational program
11 which are appropriate to the disability of each student. All
12 pupils who are in a State approved transitional bilingual
13 education program or transitional program of instruction
14 shall participate in the State tests. Any student who has
15 been enrolled in a State approved bilingual education program
16 less than 3 academic years shall be exempted if the student's
17 lack of English as determined by an English language
18 proficiency test would keep the student from understanding
19 the test, and that student's district shall have an
20 alternative test program in place for that student. The State
21 Board of Education shall appoint a task force of concerned
22 parents, teachers, school administrators and other
23 professionals to assist in identifying such alternative
24 tests. Reasonable accommodations as prescribed by the State
25 Board of Education shall be provided for individual students
26 in the testing procedure. All test procedures prescribed by
27 the State Board of Education shall require: (i) that each
28 test used for State and local student testing under this
29 Section identify by name the pupil taking the test; (ii) that
30 the name of the pupil taking the test be placed on the test
31 at the time the test is taken; (iii) that the results or
32 scores of each test taken under this Section by a pupil of
33 the school district be reported to that district and identify
34 by name the pupil who received the reported results or
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1 scores; and (iv) that the results or scores of each test
2 taken under this Section be made available to the parents of
3 the pupil. In addition, beginning with the 1998-1999 school
4 year and in each school year thereafter, all scores received
5 by a student on the Illinois Goals and Assessment Program
6 tests administered in grades 10 and 11 by the State Board of
7 Education under this Section and, beginning with the
8 1999-2000 school year and in each school year thereafter, the
9 scores received by a student on the Prairie State Achievement
10 Examination administered under subsection (c) of this Section
11 shall become part of the student's permanent record and shall
12 be entered therein pursuant to regulations that the State
13 Board of Education shall promulgate for that purpose in
14 accordance with Section 3 and subsection (e) of Section 2 of
15 the Illinois School Student Records Act. Scores received by
16 students on the Illinois Goals and Assessment Program tests
17 administered in other grades shall be placed into students'
18 temporary records. Except as provided in subsection (c) of
19 this Section, the State Board of Education shall establish a
20 common month in each school year for which State testing
21 shall occur to meet the objectives of this Section. However,
22 if the schools of a district are closed and classes are not
23 scheduled during any week that is established by the State
24 Board of Education as the week of the month when State
25 testing under this Section shall occur, the school district
26 may administer the required State testing at any time up to 2
27 weeks following the week established by the State Board of
28 Education for the testing, so long as the school district
29 gives the State Board of Education written notice of its
30 intention to deviate from the established schedule by January
31 2 of the year in which falls the week established by the
32 State Board of Education for the testing. The maximum time
33 allowed for all actual testing required under this subsection
34 during the school year shall not exceed 25 hours as allocated
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1 among the required tests by the State Board of Education.
2 (a-5) All tests administered pursuant to this Section
3 shall be academically based. For the purposes of this
4 Section "academically based tests" shall mean tests
5 consisting of questions and answers that are measurable and
6 quantifiable to measure the knowledge, skill, and ability of
7 students in the subject matters covered by tests. The scoring
8 of academically based tests shall be reliable, valid,
9 unbiased and shall meet the guidelines for test development
10 and use prescribed by the American Psychological Association,
11 the National Council of Measurement and Evaluation, and the
12 American Educational Research Association. Academically based
13 tests shall not include assessments or evaluations of
14 attitudes, values, or beliefs, or testing of personality,
15 self-esteem, or self-concept. Nothing in this amendatory Act
16 is intended, nor shall it be construed, to nullify,
17 supersede, or contradict the legislative intent on academic
18 testing expressed during the passage of HB 1005/P.A. 90-296.
19 Beginning in the 1998-1999 school year, the State Board
20 of Education may, on a pilot basis, include in the State
21 assessments in reading and math at each grade level tested no
22 more than 2 short answer questions, where students have to
23 respond in brief to questions or prompts or show
24 computations, rather than select from alternatives that are
25 presented. In the first year that such questions are used,
26 scores on the short answer questions shall not be reported on
27 an individual student basis but shall be aggregated for each
28 school building in which the tests are given. State-level,
29 school, and district scores shall be reported both with and
30 without the results of the short answer questions so that the
31 effect of short answer questions is clearly discernible.
32 Beginning in the second year of this pilot program, scores on
33 the short answer questions shall be reported both on an
34 individual student basis and on a school building basis in
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1 order to monitor the effects of teacher training and
2 curriculum improvements on score results.
3 The State Board of Education shall not continue the use
4 of short answer questions in the math and reading
5 assessments, or extend the use of such questions to other
6 State assessments, unless this pilot project demonstrates
7 that the use of short answer questions results in a
8 statistically significant improvement in student achievement
9 as measured on the State assessments for math and reading and
10 is justifiable in terms of cost and student performance.
11 (b) It shall be the policy of the State to encourage
12 school districts to continuously test pupil proficiency in
13 the fundamental learning areas in order to: (i) provide
14 timely information on individual students' performance
15 relative to State standards that is adequate to guide
16 instructional strategies; (ii) improve future instruction;
17 and (iii) complement the information provided by the State
18 testing system described in this Section. Each district's
19 school improvement plan must address specific activities the
20 district intends to implement to assist pupils who by teacher
21 judgment and test results as prescribed in subsection (a) of
22 this Section demonstrate that they are not meeting State
23 goals or local objectives. Such activities may include, but
24 shall not be limited to, summer school, extended school day,
25 special homework, tutorial sessions, modified instructional
26 materials, other modifications in the instructional program,
27 reduced class size or retention in grade. To assist school
28 districts in testing pupil proficiency in reading in the
29 primary grades, the State Board shall make optional reading
30 inventories for diagnostic purposes available to each school
31 district that requests such assistance. Districts that
32 administer the reading inventories may develop remediation
33 programs for students who perform in the bottom half of the
34 student population. Those remediation programs may be funded
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1 by moneys provided under the School Safety and Educational
2 Improvement Block Grant Program established under Section
3 2-3.51.5. Nothing in this Section shall prevent school
4 districts from implementing testing and remediation policies
5 for grades not required under this Section.
6 (c) Beginning with the 1999-2000 school year, each
7 school district that operates a high school program for
8 students in grades 9 through 12 shall annually administer the
9 Prairie State Achievement Examination established under this
10 subsection to its 12th grade students as set forth below.
11 The Prairie State Achievement Examination shall be developed
12 by the State Board of Education to measure student
13 performance in the 5 fundamental academic areas of reading,
14 writing, mathematics, science, and social sciences. The
15 State Board of Education shall establish the academic
16 standards that are to apply in measuring student performance
17 on the Prairie State Achievement Examination in those 5
18 fundamental academic areas, including the minimum composite
19 examination score and the minimum score in each area that,
20 taken together, will qualify a student to receive the
21 Prairie State Achievement Award from the State in recognition
22 of the student's excellent performance. Each school district
23 that is subject to the requirements of this subsection (c)
24 shall afford a graduating student 2 opportunities to take the
25 Prairie State Achievement Examination during the semester in
26 which the student will graduate. The State Board of
27 Education shall annually notify districts of the weeks during
28 which these test administrations shall be required to occur.
29 Each student, exclusive of a student whose individualized
30 educational program developed under Article 14 identifies the
31 Prairie State Achievement Examination as inappropriate for
32 the student, shall be required to take the examination in the
33 final semester before his or her graduation. Score reports
34 for each fundamental academic area shall indicate the score
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1 that qualifies as an excellent score on that portion of the
2 examination. Any student who attains a satisfactory
3 composite score but who fails to earn a qualifying score in
4 any one or more of the fundamental academic areas on the
5 initial test administration for the semester during which the
6 student will graduate from high school shall be permitted to
7 retake such portion or portions of the examination during the
8 second test of that semester. Districts shall inform their
9 students of the timelines and procedures applicable to their
10 optional participation in such additional administrations of
11 the Prairie State Achievement Examination. Students receiving
12 special education services whose individualized educational
13 programs identify the Prairie State Achievement Examination
14 as inappropriate for them nevertheless shall have the option
15 of taking the examination, which shall be administered to
16 those students in accordance with standards adopted by the
17 State Board of Education to accommodate the respective
18 disabilities of those students. A student who successfully
19 completes all other applicable high school graduation
20 requirements but fails to receive a score on the Prairie
21 State Achievement Examination that qualifies the student for
22 receipt of the Prairie State Achievement Award shall
23 nevertheless qualify for the receipt of a regular high school
24 diploma.
25 (Source: P.A. 89-610, eff. 8-6-96; 90-566, eff. 1-2-98;
26 90-789, eff. 8-14-98.)
27 Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
28 becoming law.