Why Johnny can’t test in Illinois

Imagine asking your teacher to keep giving you different tests until you finally found one on which you could achieve an A.

It sure seems like that is what Illinois’ high school students are getting. Educators didn’t like the Illinois Goal Assessment Program, then they didn’t like the Prairie State Achievement Exam and now they don’t like the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.

The Illinois State Board of Education this week dumped the PARCC test and announced the SAT is the new standard by which we will measure high school students’ achievement. Conveniently, the change comes after we also just stopped giving all the kids the ACT, so there will be no data to compare the current crop of high schoolers to their predecessors.

Clean slate.

PARCC was designed to measure how well students were learning the Common Core school subjects, which established a national benchmark based on what students should know to be a success in college and the working world. After two years Illinois decided it no longer cares about college and career readiness because too many schools were doing too poorly.

This change is not simply swapping one test sheet for another. It means entire curriculums will be reshaped to teach to the new test, that certain math or history or language arts courses may come earlier or later to maximize test results.

Standardized testing is intended to give the community a measuring stick. Taxpayers should know how effectively their public schools are accomplishing their missions. Parents should know which schools deliver the best education. Educators should know how they are doing compared with other states or with the jobs they did five years ago. Lawmakers should know where to target revenue or regulation.

Keep changing the ruler, and no one figures out just how short you are of the mark.

This story was originally published July 14, 2016 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Why Johnny can’t test in Illinois."