ISAT 2008

The annual ISAT testing window is now open and students throughout the state will be taking this state test in the next two weeks as required by the NCLR legislation. Center Cass students in grades 3-8 will be taking tests in the area of reading, writing, mathematics and science beginning next week. These tests are used to determine if local schools are providing students with the educational programming to achieve “grade level” mastery of Illinois State based on the Illinois Learning Standards which consist of 30 goals and 98 standards.
These tests have been developed within Illinois and are used to indicate to the federal government whether or not schools are making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). This program while laudable in intent is doomed to failure since it requires all students regardless of disability, language, and cultural background to take the same test refusing to acknowledge that students with disabilities will be unable to attain “grade level” achievement in many cases. The ISAT focuses on standards developed over ten years ago in 1997 and not updated since that time. Many things have changed in the past ten years.

Nevertheless, I am certain that our students will do well on this test and the great majority of our students will excel in their test performance. While this is a good thing, NCLB focuses on small sub-groups of the student population, such as ethnic and racial groups, as well as students with and without disabilities and looks for deficits in the performance of these groups. It is possible, in this system, to have 80% of students meet AYP and have one subgroup such as special education students not meet standards and have the school labeled as not meeting AYP. Once you fail to meet AYP, NCLB is full of punitive actions that are not helpful for the local school.

We continue to work hard to provide the best programming and instruction for our students at all times. We are also working with schools throughout the country to encourage congress to modify and fix the inequities and problems within this system. NCLB is up for reauthorization and should have been approved last year but the process continues to drag out with a lame duck president and democratic congress fighting to come to consensus on this issue.