I am very pleased to announce a new resource to help you
better prepare students to meet the assessment requirements of No Child Left
Behind. The Illinois Assessment
Frameworks focus on math, reading, writing, science, and social science and
provide greater detail for educators regarding what material students must
master and when.
The frameworks will be fully aligned with state
assessments beginning with the 2005-06 school year, but they constitute a
valuable tool right now.
The Framework for each subject consists of a set of
Assessment Objectives at each grade level, linked directly to the Illinois
Learning Standards and providing clear, concise statements of what students will
be expected to know and do on
Many of you may have attended the recent drive-in
conferences we held to introduce the Frameworks, and I hope you have shared the
information you received with your staff.
We will be anxious to hear your thoughts and comments about this new
resource.
Frameworks for grades 3-8 can be accessed at www.isbe.net/assessment beginning
today,
Also in today’s message:
·
School Report Card
Status Update
·
Deciding Which Students
Should Take the IMAGE Assessment
·
Policy options for
issuing “subsequent” teaching certificates
·
Newsclips
School
Report Card Status Update
For reasons due to circumstances beyond our control, the
school report cards are not yet available. Although we are not yet able to give
you a specific date as to when district superintendents will be able to access
the cards on the secure website, we are optimistically targeting the week of
October 20th. Once the
cards are available for release district superintendents will receive an email
message informing them that they have a specific number of days to go to the
secure site and download the school report cards, the district report card, and
district summary. We will not be
providing hard copies of the cards.
The Illinois State Board of Education does not have the
authority to grant extensions to the October 31st dissemination
deadline. However, we encourage you to take every reasonable step to disseminate
the report cards either via your district website or in paper form at your
earliest convenience. We will release the public report card site four weeks
after we close the secure site.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may
cause.
Deciding
Which Students Should Take the Image
Assessment
Regarding statewide
assessment of English Language Learners, there are three relevant legal
references. Following are a synopsis of the relevant legislation and
regulations, along with guidance on determining who should take the IMAGE
assessments in the spring of 2004 and instructions on how to modify your order
if you have already submitted your request for 2004 IMAGE test booklets and
materials.
NCLB legislation
requires “the inclusion of limited English proficient students, who shall be
assessed in a valid and reliable manner and provided with reasonable
accommodations on assessments administered to such students . . . including to
the extent practicable, assessments in the language and form most likely to
yield accurate data on what such students know and can do in academic content
areas, until such students have achieved English language proficiency.”
State legislation enacted this summer (P.A.93-0426) states that ELL students “may take an accommodated State test (IMAGE) . . . if the student's lack of English as determined by an English language proficiency test would keep the student from understanding the regular State test.” If the school district determines, on a case-by-case individual basis, that IMAGE would likely yield more accurate this law extends the period of time that an ELL student can participate in the IMAGE assessment to up to 5 years.
23 Illinois
Administrative Code Part 228.15(g) (1) (2) further specifies the
following:
a. Students scoring
below the 50th percentile on a nationally normed English language proficiency test are by definition
limited English proficient and therefore entitled to
services.
b. Furthermore,
those who score at or above the 50th percentile must be further
assessed to determine whether the students are in need of bilingual education
services.
Based on the above
requirements and regulations, ISBE is providing school districts with the
following guidance on how to determine the eligibility of students to
participate in IMAGE testing.
All students must be
given a state assessment annually. Achievement scores for students enrolled
after September
30 of each year will be counted for participation rates only in reporting
Adequate
Yearly Progress.
Exemptions from testing are not allowed.
The IMAGE test is
the appropriate assessment instrument for all limited
English proficient (LEP) students during their first three years in a state
approved TBE/TPI program. For
4th and 5th year LEP students enrolled in a TBE/TPI
program, the IMAGE test may also be appropriate if the local school
district determines that the student meets one or more of the following
criteria:
1. The student
scored below the 50th percentile in any of the four domains (listening,
speaking, reading, writing) on a standardized English language proficiency test
such as the Language Assessment Scales (LAS), MAC II, IDEA (IPT), or Language
Proficiency Testing Series (LPTS); or
2. The student was
first enrolled in a TBE/TPI program after August 1999 and demonstrates a level of English
proficiency such that ISAT/PSAE would be unlikely to yield valid and reliable
information on what the student knows and can do in the academic content areas;
or
3. The student had
scored below the "Transitioning" category in either
4. The student had
scored in the "Does Not Meet or Academic Warning" categories on the prior year’s
ISAT administration.
Please
review the above information carefully in making your determination of who will
be taking the IMAGE in the spring of 2004.
For districts who have already submitted their
IMAGE test orders for 2004, but now need to change these orders, please go
directly to the SchoolHouse site at
http://ncsschoolhouse.com/ and enter your corrected order numbers there.
The final amounts you have entered on this site on October 30 will supersede any
forms you have mailed to Pearson previously.
A flowchart to further assist you in making your
determinations for each 4th and 5th year ELL student on a
case-by-case basis is included at the following website: www.isbe.net/assessment. If you have questions regarding any of
the above information, please contact Student Assessment at
217-782-4823.
Policy
Options for Issuing “Subsequent” Teaching
Certificates
Within the next few months, the State Board of
Education, in consultation with the State Teacher
We would therefore like to request that you read the
policy options paper on the ISBE Web site at
http://www.isbe.net/teachers/pdf/policy_options.pdf
and respond to us by email (rules@isbe.net) by the close of business on
Wednesday, October 22. We plan to
use the responses to shape a rule proposal for consideration by the two boards
in November. Thank you for your
assistance.
Newsclips
http://www.isbe.net/news/2003/newsclips/100903.htm
Robert Schiller
State Superintendent
of Education
statesup@isbe.net