High schools get a test break
April 22, 2001
BY ROSALIND ROSSI EDUCATION REPORTER
Tens of thousands of Chicago area students will get an unexpected one or two
days off from school this week, so public school juniors can take a test in
peace and quiet.
The security requirements of the new Prairie State Achievement Examination
have proved so sticky that 43 Illinois school districts have received
special waivers to change their schedules.
Because the test includes the ACT college admission test, schools must
follow the same test guidelines as those required during national ACT test
days.
That means 120,000 juniors statewide must be isolated from other students,
work 3 feet apart, be supervised by one proctor for every 25 test takers,
and be freed from the disruption of school bells and public address systems
for two days. And the test, costing taxpayers $5 million, will be the most
expensive ever in the state.
"We needed almost half the faculty to run the test," said Wes Baumann,
principal of Winnetka's New Trier High School, which is giving freshmen,
sophomores and seniors two days off this week so it can test its juniors.
"We're not real thrilled."
Chicago is letting its high schools release everyone but juniors--some
76,000 kids--on Wednesday only. Some districts are dismissing all grades
early, or only juniors, for one or both days. The State Board issued special
waivers.
The upside is that, because the Prairie State includes the ACT, it should
open the possibility of college to students who may not have considered it
before, say State Board of Education officials. It also includes an ACT
"Work Keys" test of work-level reading and math skills, and state written
sections.
Some 127 schools statewide were so determined not to lose class time that
they are moving students offsite. That includes Bensenville's Fenton High
School, where juniors will be bused Thursday to the former Elmhurst Country
Club, so they can take their Prairie State in either the Ballroom, the Oak
Room, the Elm Room or the Garden Room of the Oak Meadows Golf and Banquet
Facility.
Fenton is paying $2,700 to rent the banquet hall and 175 six-foot long
tables (to accommodate two kids each), and buy snacks, said director of
curriculum Anne Smith.
"Tables are scarce right now because a lot of high schools have had to rent
tables, which is an additional expense. Crazy, huh?" Smith said.
Even with the off-site testing, Fenton seniors will still get Wednesday off.
Principal Kathie Pierce expects that Wednesday will be "kind of a
nightmare," because freshmen and sophomores will be attending separate
workshops while juniors will be isolated in a second-story wing for testing.
Stevenson High School has been planning its Prairie State test days since
fall, said Assistant Principal Janet Gonzalez, and has created an extremely
complicated "parallel universe" of workshops and other activities for
everyone but test takers. Only seniors will have both days off.
"It's very confusing, and we're not quite sure it's worth all this,"
Gonzalez said. "What value [are the Prairie States] to our kids when more
than 90 percent are taking the ACT anyway?"
At Wheaton-Warrenville South, everyone but juniors will be released for two
days, or else "we'd have no place to educate the rest of the students," said
guidance director William Hinz.
But some teachers aren't happy with the idea because "it takes time away
from classes," Hinz said. "Those students are being tested instead of
taught."
Some parents are "upset and don't want to have their kids free for those
days. All of a sudden, here's an unsupervised teen," Hinz said.
Wheaton-Warrenville South freshman Kathryn Smith, 14, is hoping to sleep in
both days until noon, but her sister, junior Kristen Smith, 17, will be
getting up at 6:30 a.m. for the test.
Juniors are especially miffed because the switch from a 10th- to an
11th-grade state test means they will have to endure two consecutive years
of state testing, said Kristen Smith, junior class president.
"In general, I think the junior class is a little annoyed," Kristen Smith
said. Meanwhile, "the rest of the school--and my sister--are making fun of
the juniors because they have to be in school for two days and they are
making plans and telling us what they are doing."
At New Trier, some kids are considering turning their two-day holiday into a
five-day one, said senior Mark Thoma, 18.
"I know a lot of people who are planning to take Friday off," Thoma said.
"If you take it off, you get a five-day weekend."
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