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ISBE Update April/May 2025

  • Date Posted
    May 1, 2025
  • Category
    News
Assessment and Accountability Listening Tour Final Stops
The State Board of Education is closing out its Assessment and Accountability Listening tour with stops at three locations in May. School leaders can join ISBE staff on May 5 in Peoria, May 9 in Joliet, or May 22 in Chicago to share feedback on accountability models and assessment performance level descriptors that will lay the foundation for new proficiency benchmarks.

The State Board of Education has outlined three goals for assessment and accountability reform.
  • Make assessment data more accurate by developing new proficiency definitions people understand and support.
  • Make the accountability system more actionable by using clearer criteria to define each designation category for schools.
  • Use new, more accurate data to channel investments toward improving student outcomes.
At the conclusion of the listening tour and after the data and responses are compiled, ISBE will convene Unified Assessment Standard Setting sessions in Springfield from July 14-18. These sessions will work to establish new performance benchmarks for the Illinois Assessment of Readiness for Grades 3-8, the Illinois Science Assessment, and the ACT suite of assessments.

Resource Allocation Toolkit for Districts
To help support local district leadership teams with resource allocation, ISBE has published the Resource Allocation Self-Guided Toolkit. The toolkit is intended to assist with district-led Resource Allocation Reviews (RARs). The RARs are designed to provide school leaders with tools to explore current resource allocation patterns and practices. The toolkit includes a discussion protocol, rubric, supporting research, and a data dashboard. The toolkit, dashboard, and other RAR resources can be found on the ISBE website.

ISBE Check Your Data Webinars
ISBE is providing a series of webinars to help familiarize users with their various data systems and provide best practices for checking district data and reports in these systems. The webinars will cover how data is organized in the systems and provide resources to assist with utilizing the data available. Registration is available for the “Check Your Data” webinars taking place in May, June, and July.