Illinois Students Continue to Make Steady Progress on State Tests (IL)

November 1, 2010

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) announced today that students are showing incremental improvement on tests administered by the state and that 211 schools and 56 districts made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) this year that did not make it last year. However, despite the improvements students are making, more schools and districts are failing to meet performance targets that continue to increase under the federal No Child Left Behind law (NCLB). The results were announced as part of the State Board’s statewide analysis of the 2010 State Report Card.

“Schools and districts are making improvement, even as the required testing performance benchmark increased by another 7.5 points since last year,” said Christopher A. Koch, State Superintendent o f Education. “Overall, our statewide averages continue to increase incrementally or hold steady. But the number of schools making AYP continues to decline – now outnumbering those districts that do make AYP. We need to modify No Child Left Behind to take into account student growth and improvements in learning, rather than just penalizing schools for not meeting artificial performance targets.”

Analysis of the statewide data for 2010 shows that one district and nine schools have been removed from improvement status by meeting standards for NCLB, also known as AYP, for two consecutive years. In addition, the data also shows that 55 schools and 9 districts in improvement status will not advance to further sanctions because they made AYP this year.

The tests were given in March and April. Students in third through eighth grades took the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) in reading and mathematics while students in fourth and seventh grades were also tested in science and third, fifth, sixth and eighth grade students were also tested in writing. Students in 11th grade take the Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE), which tests students in math, reading, science and writing. Only reading and mathematics results are used in calculating AYP.

Overall, results show the number of schools and districts that made AYP decreased under NCLB performance targets. During 2010, the target for student achievement increased from 70 percent meeting and exceeding state standards to 77.5 percent and the target high school graduation rate increased from 78 percent to 80 percent. Attendance rates for elementary and middle schools increased from 90 percent in 2008-09 to 91 percent in the 2009-10 school year and from 78 percent last year to 80 percent in 2009-10 for high schools.

Results from 2010 show 1,999 or 51 percent of all sch ools failed to make AYP in 2010, an increase from 40 percent in 2009. In addition, 309 districts made AYP in 2010 while 559 or 64 percent failed to make AYP, an increase from 49 percent in 2009.

In June, the State Board of Education adopted the new Illinois Learning Standards in math and English based on the internationally-benchmarked Common Core State Standards. Illinois is a governing member of the 26 state Partnership for Assessment for College and Careers (PARCC) that will develop a new generation of tests aligned to the new standards to measure students’ knowledge and skills. The new state tests are expected to be available by the 2014-15 school year.

Student Demographics & Performance

    * Total enrollment in Illinois public schools decreased from 2,070,125 in 2009 to 2,064,312 in 2010.
    * Since 1999, the percentage of low-income students has increased from 36.1 percent to 45.4 percent in 2010.
    * Minority enrollment increased to 47.2 percent in 2010 from 38 percent in 1999. The increase is accounted for mainly by Hispanic students who have increased from 13.9 percent in 1999 to 21.1 percent in 2010.
    * The composite score for all state tests increased from 75.5 in 2009 to 76.4 percent in 2010.
    * The statewide ISAT composite score increased from 79.8 in 2009 to 80.9 in 2010 and the statewide PSAE score remained unchanged at 53.0.

ISBE has produced the School Report Card since 1986 for every public school and district in Illinois. State report cards have been produced since 2002 and are required by the federal No Child Left Behind law.


Schools and districts are placed into improvement status when they do not make AYP for two consecutive state testing cycles. After two years, schools and districts enter academic early warning status. Failing to make AYP for four consecutive years in the same subject area, schools and districts are in academic watch status. After a fifth calculation, a school enters restructuring planning and will implement that plan should it fail to make AYP for the sixth time. Federal sanctions can include offering school choice and its supplemental education services for schools in improvement and corrective action which receive Title I funds. State and federal requirements merge for schools in restructuring. Districts are charged with developing a restructuring plan for schools after not making AYP for the fifth calculations.