IL Drops PARCC for High School Students | 7.12.16

In a surprise announcement yesterday, the IL State Board of Education said it would replace PARCC with the SAT, which would be given to high-school juniors. The state still plans to use PARCC for 3-8th grades.

This is good news and shows that organizing can make a difference. High-school students opted out in large numbers across IL after parents, teachers, and school administrators pushed back heavily against the use of PARCC. Colleges that require standardized tests for admissions use the SAT or ACT, not PARCC.

We still have a lot of work ahead to reform the way our state and district are misusing standardized tests to punish schools and students rather than to inform instruction and resource schools accordingly. CPS announced recently that they will use the PARCC in 2017-2018 instead of the NWEA MAP to rate schools and teachers. These tests were not designed to be used as the basis for decisions like school closings and performance evaluations.

We hope you join us this school year in continuing to push back against the misuse of standardized testing.

HB 306, the opt-out bill, is still on life support in Springfield. If you want to get involved in working on this and other testing campaigns in the fall, fill out this form: http://bit.ly/Fall2016StdTestForm

Tribune: IL ends much debated PARCC test for HS students
State Journal-Register: SAT will replace PARCC exam in IL high schools

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