In a historic election, Lori Lightfoot was elected mayor on April 2. For now, the mayor still controls the school system. On September 5, 2018, we released this statement: Rahm’s not running- What does that mean for the public schools? In it, we reflect on our time with Rahm and we list the ed policies we have deep concerns about. We stand by this list and look forward to Mayor Lightfoot using it as she works with all stakeholders - students, parents, educators, and community members -- to reimagine Chicago Public Schools. More on what parents want from our new mayor, here.

Chalkbeat Chicago: Lori Lightfoot is Chicago’s next mayor — which means big changes are coming to schools and check this out: Letters to Lori Lightfoot: Tell Chicago’s mayor-elect about your school

Earlier in 2019 we shared the exciting news about staffing transitions in RYH and RYHA as both organizations grow. Earlier this week Raise Your Hand began the search for our next Executive Director. Now we need your help.

We joined with the Chicago Teachers Union on Tuesday, March 12, for an opt out of IAR press conference at Hernandez Middle School: “CPS test undercuts newly arrived immigrant children, charge teachers.” 

Here is our 2019 Standardized Testing and Opt Out Toolkit which contains an explanation of the "new" IL state test, IL Assessment of Readiness or IAR, as well as opt out resources in both English and Spanish.

The window for the IL Assessment of Readiness (IAR) opens Monday, March 11. Use this weekend to review our 2019 Toolkit for Standardized Testing and Opt Out to learn more about this “new” assessment and how you can #ChooseToRefuse #ZombiePARCC! 🧟 The three main resources are now translated into Spanish: Q & A, Notification Letter of Refusal (scroll to p. 2), and Refusal Cards- all three can be found in the Toolkit.

Be an informed voter! Chicago’s Municipal Election is Tuesday, February 26.

For the March 2020 administration of IAR, please see OPT OUT: REFUSING STATE TESTS from Illinois Families for Public Schools (IL-FPS).

All of the below was published Feb 22, 2019 for the 2018-19 school year administration of IAR.

The “new” IL state standardized test for 3rd - 8th graders is officially named Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR). IAR testing starts in CPS and around the state on March 11th.

The original four-year contract IL had with Pearson for PARCC tests ended last year. In January, the IL State Board of Education (ISBE) approved a one-year contract with Pearson to administer what is essentially PARCC. ISBE had tried to hire another testing vendor, DRC, to produce a multi-year hybrid assessment of new content & PARCC content, but Pearson successfully protested the way ISBE calculated its pricing versus DRC's.

To have the IAR test ready for this spring, ISBE has basically adopted PARCC for one more year. ISBE isn't calling it PARCC, but ISBE will be using the same test. #ZombiePARCC

In this ISBE PowerPoint presentation,starting on p.57, you can find the chain of events laid out in the paragraph above. See p.58: "[ISBE] will continue to use 100% PARCC content and forms built to the standard of the PARCC assessments for the next two years." What is “changing” is that Pearson will do it again this year, not DRC. In other words, PARCC is back for this year and for 2020. ISBE one pager on IAR here.

No matter what the vendor or the name of the test, in a state that is $7 Billion below funding all schools adequately, every penny spent on experimental, expensive testing, potentially used for high-stakes decisions is a penny that’s not going to actual high-quality education. We encourage parents to have their child refuse state testing. If you need assistance above and beyond the resources below, contact us: [email protected] or 413-3OPTOUT.

Q&A: Standardized Testing in CPS 2019 

[Download this Q&A in English here and in Spanish here]

How can I find out what tests my child is taking? State law requires each public school to report to the IL State Board of Ed and to parents what standardized tests are being administered, when, and what the results will be used for. If your school has not yet sent this information home or posted it online, ask your principal to provide it. CPS administers upwards of 20 standardized tests; some students may be taking standardized tests every month or even biweekly. Some testing is required by federal or state law, but much is at the discretion of districts and schools.

What’s IAR and what happened to PARCC? The contract for PARCC was for four years starting in 2015. The consortium of states using PARCC has shrunk to MD, NM, NJ and DC, and all but DC now plan to drop the test. Some other states use some PARCC questions on their test. Illinois is using PARCC questions from one vendor, New Meridian, and has a separate contract to administer and score the test. The state awarded that contract to the testing company DRC, but Pearson protested that award, and this year’s temporary contract went to Pearson. The IAR is slightly shorter than last year’s PARCC, but it will essentially be the same kind of questions and format as PARCC. And the state plans to compare PARCC and IAR scores. By 2021 IAR is supposed to be an adaptive test (like the NWEA MAP) and have results returned in days or weeks instead of in months.   

Why is CPS administering IAR in elementary school? Federal law requires states to test all students in 3rd-8th grade once a year in reading and math. States can choose which test to administer; IL previously used ISAT, then PARCC, and now they’ll give the test they are calling IAR. The state pays for IAR.

Why does CPS administer SAT and PSAT in high school? The federal government also requires a math and reading test for juniors. After many years of administering ACT, and then briefly PARCC, IL now requires schools to administer the SAT to all 11th graders to comply with the federal requirement for annual testing in high school. IL is now also requiring districts to administer PSAT in 9th and 10th grade to use for state school accountability ratings.

Why is CPS still administering NWEA MAP in elementary school? There is no state or federal requirement for CPS to administer NWEA MAP. When the state switched to PARCC  back in 2015, CPS decided to use MAP as an interim high-stakes test for elementary schools, i.e. to rate schools, evaluate teachers and promote students in 3rd, 6th and 8th grades. CPS said that 2016-2017 would be the last year for MAP in elementary schools, but, in fact, they have continued to use MAP for high-stakes purposes.

Can my child refuse IAR this year? Yes, all students may refuse to participate in IAR. IAR scores from Spring 2019 will not be used for any high-stakes decisions for any CPS students (promotion, graduation or selective enrollment admissions.) Private schools do not use the IAR, and the IAR lacks national percentiles used in the selective admissions formula. We recommend notifying the school ahead of time that your child will be refusing IAR and requesting info on how the school is planning for students who refuse to test. Even though their scores won’t count for school ratings, students new to the US will also be required to test no matter their English fluency.

Will low participation on IAR hurt our school or district? Refusal/opt out affects your school’s state rating in two ways. Schools that do not have at least 95% participation will not be able to receive the top rating (“Exemplary”) from the state, and after three years in a row under <95%, schools may be assigned a Tier 3 rating (“Underperforming”) Also, students who refuse are counted as not having met expectations. Crucially though, a low rating is not tied to punitive policies but to additional funding for things like improving curriculum or climate. (See p. 84 here.) Note that after years of mass opt out across the country, the federal government has still never penalized any state or district for low participation rates.

Are IAR scores a reliable and/or useful measure of what my child is learning? All answers on IAR tests will be scored by computers, including essays and extended responses. Computers rely on superficial features and statistical patterns to score answers and cannot meaningfully evaluate high-level thinking skills. Score reports provide canned descriptions of a child’s performance level. Teachers can only see a tiny portion of the actual test questions and not their students’ answers. Standardized tests are primarily a measure of the wealth of the population a school community draws from.

Will CPS ever adopt IAR as a high-stakes district test? State law requires CPS to “monitor the performance” of its schools, but the Board of Ed has great leeway to decide how to do that and what criteria to include. PARCC scores were set so that the majority of students are labeled as not meeting expectations, and we expect IAR to be scored similarly. For English-language learners and students with disabilities, it is likely <1 in 10 students will be labeled as proficient. If high-stakes decisions like school closings, teacher ratings and student promotion were to be based on IAR, these policies would become even more damaging to the students being served at the most under-resourced schools.  

Additional Resources 

• CPS' assessment list for 2017-2018 

• Sample letter for LSCs on supporting opt out from the Drummond LSC (2017)

• Research comparing PARCC to ISAT and NWEA MAP from the Center for Urban Ed Leadership at UIC: "Once cut scores are removed from the mix, achievement patterns on the ISAT, NAEP, ACT and most other standardized tests look remarkably similar. The same is true for recently published results from the 2015 PARCC exam. All of these tests predict each other’s results with high levels of accuracy."

• National Education Policy Center piece on the problems with computer/machine scoring of written/essay responses 

• Detailed explanation of the testing transparency law from More Than A Score.

• Universal standardized testing opt out letter

• Unit testing times Spring 2019 IAR administrations

• CPS told principals on March 2, 2017 via this FAQ that students themselves could refuse PARCC verbally or in writing. 

• Explanation of how schools and districts will not lose funding no matter how many students opt out from Fair Test: "Why You Can Boycott Standardized Tests Without Fear of Federal Penalties to Your School"

For the March 2020 administration of IAR, please see OPT OUT: REFUSING STATE TESTS from Illinois Families for Public Schools (IL-FPS).

As we go through our exciting new RYH changes, we plan to send an email newsletter every other week. Please sign up to receive these newsletters here. You can read the one sent Friday, February 8, 2019, below. 

On Friday, November 16, 2018, the IL State Board of Education (ISBE) held a meeting in Chicago. You can find a thread of live tweets here and many more tweets on our Twitter page here. 

Below are two statements from parents: one is a Chicago parent speaking about the ISBE inquiry into CPS special education and the other is a Downers Grove mom speaking about the new ISBE school ratings system. 

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Stay up to date on the latest education news. Sign up to receive This Week in Ed delivered to your email inbox every week!

Other ways to stay in touch with us: 

Twitter... @CPSuccessCHI, @ILRaiseYourHand, @RYHAction, @MTAS_Chicago

Facebook... IL Raise Your Hand, Raise Your Hand Action, More Than A Score Chicago

YouTube... http://bit.ly/RYHYouTube