SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois State Board of Education recently voted to adopt new performance levels and proficiency benchmarks for state assessments.
The move will affect how Illinois measures whether students are achieving grade-level proficiency in English, mathematics and science and whether they are ready for college.
The change means a significantly higher number of students will be considered “proficient” in subjects like reading and math.
Currently, a third grader must score 750 out of 850 on the math assessment to be deemed proficient, while the new standard will drop the score to meet that standard to 732.
The new scores would place 53 percent of students in the proficient category for English language arts up from 41, and 38 percent for math up from 28 percent, respectively, last year.
Republican officials around the state, though, disagree with the change and say lowering standards is not the right move for our state.