Adequate Yearly Progress and Accountability in Illinois
In 2003, state policymakers approved a new school accountability system that integrates the federal
"Adequate Yearly Progress" standards with the State of Illinois' existing laws. The new system, called
the Illinois Single Accountability System, is the State of Illinois' response to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001,
which requires all states to adopt a single assessment system to measure each public school's and district's progress
and to establish uniform annual achievement targets that apply throughout the state for all students. Illinois' law
continues to include the early warning and watch lists of low-performing schools, which are issued annually by the
Illinois State Board of Education.
The fundamental goal of the new accountability system is to assist schools so that all students will meet or exceed state
standards in reading and mathematics by 2014. Each year through 2014, following the federal NCLB mandates, the state will
calculate each school's or district's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) to determine if students are improving their
performance in conformity with the established annual targets. Illinois will continue to test the same five subject
areas of the Illinois Learning Standards as have been tested since 1999; however, only reading and mathematics
scores count for determining AYP. The assessments currently used to measure progress are as follows:
- Reading and mathematics portions of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) in grades 3, 5, 8.
- The reading and mathematics portions of the Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE) in grade 11.
- The reading and mathematics portions of the Illinois Measure of Annual Growth in English (IMAGE) in grades 3, 5, 8, and 11.
- The Grade 2 Assessment of Reading and Mathematics in Title I schools.
Current accountability legislation provides for a more extensive set of tests to be implemented starting in 2006.
For information, click on the "About the Tests" tab on the navigation bar and scroll down the page for a plan
of the new assessment system.
IIRC provides users with extensive explanations of AYP and Accountability, including links to external web sites so you
can review federation law and regulations regarding No Child Left Behind. Just select from the sub-links on the
navigation bar above pertaining to Accountability or click on the links below: