Our students take federally required assessments every spring. These assessments help us understand how our students are growing academically, compared to their peers across the state. This year, the English language arts and math assessment for grades 3-8 is called the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR).
The IAR is almost exactly the same this year as the PARCC assessment that students took last year, only slightly shorter. The Illinois Assessment of Readiness measures the same Illinois Learning Standards and includes the same high-quality test questions that teachers and students have become familiar with over the past four years.
IAR is computer-based and students will use Chromebooks to complete the test. Students will answer questions in a variety of ways. On the Math test, students may answer multiple choice questions, write an equation, or type an answer. On the English Language Arts/Literacy test, students will read multiple articles or stories, and sometimes even watch a video, before responding.
In addition, the Illinois Science Assessment (ISA) is slated to be administered to all 5th and 8th grade students this Spring. This one-hour assessment is not affiliated with IAR, but meets another state requirement and will be administered within the same testing window as IAR.
The Illinois Assessment of Readiness will change over the next few years, as the state works to make it more useful to schools and families. Next year, we will have the results back from the test much more quickly. The year after that, the test will adapt to each student, so we gain a better understanding of where each individual student is in their learning. We will continue to be able to measure students’ growth from year to year throughout these improvements.
Districtwide, the testing windows for IAR and ISA are:
- Middle schools: March 13-22
- Elementary schools: April 2-17
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