This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2016 describes Illinois' accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Illinois will implement to address those challenges. Illinois' Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) Grant initiatives reflect the State's three…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2015 describes Illinois' accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Illinois will implement to address those challenges. Illinois' Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grant initiatives reflect the State's three…

The Illinois Initiative on Transparency in Learning and Teaching is a grassroots assessment project designed to promote students' conscious understanding of how they learn and to enable faculty to gather, share, and promptly benefit from data about students' learning by coordinating their efforts across disciplines, institutions, and countries.…

The human brain develops rapidly in the first five years of life. High-quality early learning experiences can have a profound and lasting positive effect on young children during these years, setting the stage for success in kindergarten and beyond. This is especially true for young children with high needs who are from low-income families; who…

State prekindergarten initiatives can only succeed if they actually reach at-risk children. This brief summarizes findings from three studies conducted by the Urban Institute. Two studies supported by the McCormick and Joyce Foundations focused on whether smaller immigrant communities in metro Chicago face access barriers to enrolling their…

This report provides initial results of Illinois' Shifting Gears Initiative that operated between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2009. This mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) evaluation sought to accomplish three goals: (1) to assess program and student outcomes for two models (adult education and developmental education) for two target groups…

Goal 5 of "The Illinois Commitment," strategic plan for higher education in Illinois, stipulates that by 2004, all academic programs will systematically assess student learning and use assessment results to improve programs. This paper provides the history and context for the systematic assessment of student learning, including…

This research report points to a "major misalignment" between the standards set by the state ISAT tests in elementary school and the college-readiness standards expected of all juniors in Illinois high schools as measured by the ACT, which is part of the state's PSAE exams. CCSR authors John Easton, Stephen Ponisciak and Stuart Luppescu…

The five sections of this report present information about the evaluation of the Right to Read Project in Illinois for the 1976-77 school year. The first section provides background information about the national Right to Read effort and a history of the project in Illinois. The second section explains the purposes of the project evaluation,…

Implementation of the Illinois Plan for Industrial Technology Education was assessed through interviews with 117 teachers. The assessment model (based on Stufflebeam's Context, Input, Process, Product) blended qualitative and quantitative information. Six key dimensions of change were identified, and the Transition Assessment Inventory proved…

The goal of this paper, and the symposium it represents, is to provide an examination of the perspectives of district personnel from four diverse states. The papers present the current status of legislated student assessment programs in California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Illinois. Similarities and differences in implementation methodology are…

Trends in performance assessments across the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Illinois were explored through the development, administration, and analysis of an interstate survey. These four states were selected to represent the diversity of state-mandated testing programs relative to emphasis placed on performance assessment.…

In this intervention study, training was found to increase the quality and extent of participation and accommodation documentation on the Individualized Education Program (IEP) of students with disabilities in three Illinois school districts. Correlations between what was documented on the IEP and what happened on testing day were highly variable.…

The Illinois Quality School Index (IQSI) is a school survey designed to assist local school personnel in planning for more effective schools. The IQSI provides a structure to determine the existing quality and the expected quality of the school as viewed by administration, staff, parents, and community. This manual is a detailed guide for using…

This manual, which is provided as a resource for Illinois School Districts and which incorporates some of the materials in the Alaska Department of Education's Assessment Handbook, is designed to meet the requirements of Public Act 84-126 and to help practitioners develop student assessment plans of local usefulness. Areas covered in the…