Federal law requires the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to administer certain assessments to all students who attend public schools in the state. According to federal law:
- Students must take an achievement exam in reading/language arts and mathematics each year from third through eighth grade. In Illinois, students take the will take a new assessment this year called the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR). This is almost exactly the same assessment that students took last year, only slightly shorter.
- Students must take an achievement exam in reading/language arts and mathematics once in high school. In Illinois, high school juniors take the SAT.
- Students must take an achievement exam in science three times from third through 12th grade. In Illinois, students take the Illinois Science Assessment in fifth grade, eighth grade, and while taking Biology in high school.
Between now and the end of April, students across the district will be taking various assessment.
- The 7th and 8th Grade students will be testing on the IAR assessment April 2 &3.
- Students in Grades 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th will be assessed starting on April 2. The classroom teachers will be sending specific information home to parents with details of their testing sessions.
- The science assessment will occur in 5th grade on April 17. The science assessment for 8th grade will occur during the regular science class period on April 17 and for high school, during Biology classes on April 18. SAT test for high school juniors will occur in April 9. PSAT 9 and PSAT 10 will be taken on April 9 by all 9th and 10th grade students.
As parents, we ask that you:
- Encourage your students to do their best on the assessment.
- Reinforce to them that doing their best is all that their teachers and parents ask for. The assessment is important but we don’t want them to be overly worried about it.
- Make sure they get enough sleep at night so they are well rested and that they eat a healthy breakfast on days of testing.