The following article was selected from the Internet Edition of the Chicago Tribune. To visit the site, point your browser to http://chicagotribune.com/. ----------- Chicago Tribune Article Forwarding---------------- Article forwarded by: Michael Lach Return e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Article URL: http://chicagotribune.com/news/local/article/0,1051,SAV-0102220377,00.html ---Forwarded article---------------- LEGISLATOR SEEKING ANNUAL STATE TESTS IN MOST GRADES By Stephanie Banchero, Tribune Staff Writer. Tribune staff writer Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report. A bill introduced Wednesday in the state legislature calls for testing all public school students in reading, writing and arithmetic every year from 3rd grade through 11th grade. The proposal by Sen. Dan Cronin (R-Elmhurst) would make Illinois one of only 10 states that assess elementary and high school students annually. If approved, the testing would not begin until the 2004-2005 school year. In the meantime, the bill calls for creating a committee that would investigate whether the state should expand the oft-maligned Illinois Standards Assessment Test (ISAT) or come up with a new exam. The state now tests 3rd, 5th and 8th graders in the three R's. Beginning this year, 11th graders will take a combination state and ACT exam. Under state law, Illinois' 2 million public school pupils can spend only 25 hours of their educational career sitting for state-mandated exams. Cronin's bill would double the allowable testing time. The proposal comes as state and national politicians are demanding more accountability from schools and proposing grade-by-grade assessments as the ultimate measure. Last month, President Bush called for annual testing of 3rd through 8th graders, and Gov. George Ryan promoted yearly standardized tests during his budget address Wednesday. "As we continue to put more money into our education system, I think it's not inappropriate for taxpayers to see what they are getting for their money," Cronin said. "Annual testing promotes the notion of school accountability by allowing us to track students from year to year. More important, annual testing gives us a chance to identify schools that are not performing well and get them the help they need." The proposal is sure to face turbulence. Within hours of the bill's introduction into the General Assembly, legislators, local school district officials, the state's largest teachers union and the Illinois PTA voiced concerns. House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) said he is leery of the bill, pointing out that children learn differently and a battery of standardized tests may not be the best indicator of educational progress. "You should test. We will test," Madigan said. "But don't think testing is an end-all. It's not." Officials in local school districts complained that they already give students nationally normed tests every year and do not want to add a state test on top of it. Paul Vallas, chief of the Chicago Public Schools, said he supports annual testing, but he is cautious about state officials' ability to develop a reliable assessment. "For us, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills is one of the most important measures of student achievement, and I'm not ready to abandon it for the ISAT," Vallas said. "Now I would be willing to go with the state test once it's proven to be reliable, and if the state can guarantee that they won't change it every year." The ISAT has had a bumpy introduction into Illinois classrooms, including typos in test questions, changes in the dates of testing, delays in returning test scores and tests that some say don't match up to standards set by the state. The Illinois State Board of Education, which first proposed annual testing in October but has been silent about the issue since, is looking into whether the ISAT should be altered. One possibility would be piggybacking it onto other national tests, such as the Iowa. Richard Laine of the Illinois Business Education Roundtable, a major backer of the bill, said the group wants a 16-member testing committee to develop a rigorous state system that will allow schools to scrap their local testing plans. "We're not trying to add more testing, we're trying to create better testing," Laine said. "We want a system that helps us identify where our students are performing based on the state standards, and where they are nationally." But George King, a spokesman for the Illinois Education Association, called the bill "flawed" and a "knee-jerk scheme" in response to Bush and Ryan's support of annual testing. He said it is a mistake to create a new testing system when the current one is only a few years old and still full of kinks. "It's time for refining and aligning, not changing horse in midstream simply because some elements of the business community do not think we are moving fast enough," he said. -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
