Local Assessments
The Illinois Snapshot
of Early Literacy is a classroom-based assessment administered to all
Kindergarten-2nd grade students twice a year. It is administered in the fall and the
spring. It is a formative assessment
used to monitor student progress, help guide teachers' instruction, and
identify students who may benefit from early reading intervention. The ISEL assesses the following reading
skills: alphabet recognition, letter sounds, story listening, developmental
spelling, phonemic awareness, word recognition, matching, word naming, and
passage reading or fluency.
STAR
The STAR Reading Assessment
is administered to all students in grades 2-8 three times annually (fall,
winter, and spring). It helps determine
the reading level of a student and it measure individual and class growth.
The
Otis-Lennon is administered in the fall to students
in grades 4 and 8. It assesses
a student's thinking/reasoning skills using verbal, quantitative, and
non-verbal communication/symbols.
State Assessments
The Illinois
Standards Achievement Test is administered to all students in the spring in
grades 3-8 to determine students' academic achievement relative to the Illinois
Learning Standards.
The Prairie State Achievement
Exam is annually administered to all 11th grade students in the
spring. The PSAE includes three
components: (1) an ISBE-developed science assessment; (2) the ACT assessment,
which includes reading, English, mathematics, and science tests; and (3) two
WorkKeys assessments (Reading for Information and Applied Mathematics). The PSAE will be administered on April 23-24, 2008.
ACCESS for English Language
Learners (ACCESS)
The ACCESS for
English Language Learners is an English language proficiency test that measures
English language learners’ social and academic proficiency in
English. It assesses social and
instructional English as well as the language associated with language arts,
mathematics, science, and social studies within the school context across the
four language domains. It is
administered annually to all English Language Learners within the district.
The Illinois
Alternative Assessment (IAA) is annually administered to identified students in
grades 3-8 and 11 for whom participation in the ISAT would not be appropriate
due to significant cognitive disabilities.
All grade levels are assessed in reading and mathematics, with grade 4,
7, and 11 assessed in science, and grade 5, 6, and 11 assessed in writing. Coordination and administration of the
IAA is facilitated by the Special Education Department.