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Illinois State Board of Education revises cut scores; Round Lake CUSD 116 to release parent materials Oct. 30
Summary
District assessment staff summarized statewide changes to proficiency benchmarks and cut scores, the new unified four‑level performance scale across assessments, impacts on cohort tracking and the release schedule for district report cards and student score reports.
District assessment staff briefed the school board on statewide changes from the Illinois State Board of Education that revise proficiency cut scores and introduce four unified performance levels across state assessments.
Staff member (presenting) summarized the ISBE process: multiple educator panels developed performance level descriptors, followed by two rounds of public comment and state standard‑setting panels for each subject and grade. The changes produced new cut scores that vary by grade and assessment; the state also moved to four unified “performance levels” that apply across the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR), Illinois Science Assessment (ISA) and the ACT.
Key points for parents and schools
- The Illinois science assessment now runs only in grades 5 and 8; ACT will cover high‑school science (grade 11). The ISA cut scores were raised; the state said science benchmarks had been too low. - The previous practice of uniform cut scores (for example, a single 750 benchmark) across grades and assessments has been replaced by grade‑level cut scores designed to be more equitable. - Because cut scores vary by grade and content, the district can no longer report proficiency as a simple cohort‑tracking metric across years in the same way it did previously. Instead, the district will rely more on student growth percentiles to measure year‑to‑year change.
Timing and parent communications
Assessment staff said the district received embargoed fall data in September; the Illinois School Report Card will be available to the public on Oct. 30 and individual student score reports for IAR and ISA are scheduled to be sent home Oct. 31. The district plans a four‑page parent‑friendly summary of the changes to accompany the public release; staff also said the district will translate the parent materials into Spanish.
Staff noted that the intent of the state effort was not to lower expectations but to make cut scores equitable and aligned across assessments and with college‑readiness measures. District staff will present school‑level designations and benchmark data at the board’s Nov. 3 meeting after the data are publicly released.
Speakers quoted or paraphrased in this article are identified below.
