Superintendent Message

Dr. Michael J. Byrne

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has changed the scoring for this year's ISAT tests. Below is an explanation from ISBE regarding these changes.

The Illinois State Board of Education is raising the bar on the ISAT performance expectations in Math and English Language Arts for elementary and middle school students to bring them into line with the Common Core's more rigorous standards.

These higher expectations will cause the number of students who meet and exceed standards to drop significantly. Some students who previously met or exceeded standards will be classified as needing improvement. However, these new expectations do not mean that our students know less than they did before or are less capable than they were in previous years. Instead, ISBE is simply expecting more of students going forward to show their progress toward college and career-readiness benchmarks.

The new expectations also pave the way for the state to replace ISAT tests in Math and English Language Arts in 2014-15 with the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments. The PARCC exams will align to the Common Core State Standards and provide better information about students' abilities to master the appropriate skills and content benchmarks for college and careers. Though more difficult, these higher standards will better position students to tackle the challenges of college and careers. We are confident that our students will rise to the occasion.

If you have any questions please contact your child's principal. As always, we appreciate your support and encouragement.

Dr. Michael J. Byrne, Superintendent
Kirby School District 140