Illinois Schools Still Without Finalized Testing Results

Rockford, Illinois - Illinois is one of only two states that havent yet received results back from last spring`s standardized tests. State law says the report cards are supposed to be made public November 1st. As it stands now, state education officials don`t expect to know how Illinois students did on the ISAT until at least January. "The test was taken in March of ‘06 and we still don`t have the test scores," said Rockford Public School Executive Director of Research, Federal Programs and Grants, Dr. Michael Kuzniewski. "The whole goal was to get the test scores earlier, in fact, they were hoping to have them well before we started to plan for [this] school year and here we are in December." Even without final results from last spring`s ISATs, Rockford education officials needed to make the necessary changes to this school year`s teaching curriculum. "We did move forward to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind act," said Kuzniewski. "One of the things we have done is we`ve been able to use those preliminary results in our school, along with our local assessments, to plan for student instruction." Some Rockford public schools received preliminary scores in July, but haven`t been given a clear answer as to what`s causing the delays. What they do know, is they did everything in their power to prevent it. "We worked very diligently to do our end at the school level here," said Kuzniewski. "We don`t know what`s going on in other parts of the state. Other people weren`t using a student information system, and maybe that`s the problem." Officials from the Illinois State Board of Education say scoring problems and data input errors at the school and district level are to blame. Incorrect or incomplete demographic information was entered for more than 11,000 students statewide. Kuzniewski said, "We`re very fortunate to find out that we are one of the few districts that pretty much had a clean slate." Regardless of who or what`s to blame, the Rockford school district is already looking towards the future and planning for the next round of testing. "Were already planning for this March. Its not that far away," said Kuzniewski. The State Board of Education expects to have the data finalized and approved within one week. It will take another four to five weeks for the student and district printed reports to be delivered.