Illinois education officials want to lower the benchmarks for students to be considered proficient in math and reading on state tests, arguing their hardest-in-the-nation standards have led high schoolers to inaccurately think they aren’t ready for college.
But State Supt. of Education Tony Sanders insists his administration isn’t trying to lower any classroom academic standards for Illinois students.
He said the proficiency test scores are too high — among the most difficult in the nation — and don’t accurately measure a student’s academic progress or readiness for higher education. Each state can decide for itself how to determine whether a student is on track for their grade level. That includes setting its own test benchmarks or cut scores.
“As currently designed, our proficiency rates do not reflect the reality of student progress. They’re misaligned with what it actually means to succeed in college and career,” Sanders said Tuesday. “Students are being denied opportunities for acceleration, misidentified as needing intervention or believing that they’re not ready to go into college.”
The Illinois State Board of Education is scheduled to vote on new performance levels and proficiency cut scores at its monthly meeting on Wednesday. If approved, the new benchmarks will be used to grade exams students took last spring and are reported this fall.
The three standardized tests in question are the Illinois Assessment of Readiness for grades 3-8, the Illinois Science Assessment for grades 5, 8 and 11 and the ACT for high school students.
State officials want the scores to demonstrate English language arts and math proficiency to be lowered. Alternatively, science proficiency benchmarks will be raised because officials said the bar had been too low for years.
Sanders cited an analysis that compared benchmarks in all states on math and English language arts exams against a rigorous set of national tests known as the “Nation’s Report Card.“ Illinois fourth grade math proficiency score ranks as the most challenging in the country, Sanders said, citing data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Fourth grade English and eighth grade reading and math scores rank among the country’s top four most challenging.
This “misalignment” in Illinois, Sanders said, has had “real world consequences.”
How the scoring ‘misalignment’ plays out
In the presentation to reporters, Sanders gave an example of a suburban Naperville high school student who had a 3.9 GPA, took seven Advanced Placement classes, received two industry certifications and participated in basketball, marching band and volunteering.
“Unfortunately, our cut scores told them they were not ready for college,” Sanders said.
If the student had listened, they might have missed their higher education opportunities. The proposed benchmarks are aligned with the score a student needs to pass college coursework. For example, a student who earns an ACT math score of 19 out of 36 has a 63% chance of getting a C or higher in a college class.
Sanders said the new standards come after an 18-month process led by experts and educators that included a statewide listening tour.
Comfort Agboola, a Chicago Public Schools middle school ELA teacher on the Far South Side, said assessments and expectations can “shape the way students see themselves.
“I’ve had hard-working students, especially from historically under-served communities, who showed tremendous growth and strong skills yet didn’t meet the proficient label,” Agboola said. “That can be discouraging and make them feel like proficiency is out of reach.”
The changes mean a higher percentage of Illinois students will now be classified as proficient in reading and math, and a lower share in science. That’ll also make it more difficult to compare proficiency rates to prior years.
Asked Tuesday if lowering the benchmarks would mask post-pandemic challenges, Sanders denied that was the case.
“I don’t have a fear of misleading anybody with this,” he said.
Robin Steans, president of Advance Illinois, an education policy and advocacy organization, said state officials reviews of cut scores are normal every decade or so, but they’re always bound to be “fraught.”
“You want to get it right,” Steans said. “You don’t want those cut scores to be artificially high so that we’re telling parents and kids they’re not ready if they really are. You don’t want them so low that parents and students think everything’s fine when it may not be.”
She said the state’s robust process for coming up with the new benchmarks should mean the result is a helpful change.
“We want to challenge our kids, but I worry if we are sending kids and families inaccurate information” by having scores too high to mean anything, she said.
The changes won’t affect funding for districts, teacher evaluations, grade promotion, graduation requirements or information sent to colleges and universities. The tests themselves also won’t change.
CPS officials declined comment: “We are deferring to ISBE but hope to share more in the coming weeks,” a spokeswoman said.