ILLINOIS ACT TRENDS

THE PSAE ACT TEST FOR ALL ILLINOIS JUNIORS

"No Child Left Behind" laws promised closer scrutiny, higher accountability and resources to assist all children achieve success in America. Districts which fail to reach minimum standards for annual yearly progress may be taken over by the Illinois State Board of Education. Despite promise and threats, Illinois test scores have not changed dramatically since the first adminisration of the high school Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE) in 2001.
Math scores have increased from 20.1 to 20.6 and reading from 20.0 to 20.4, increases of .5 and .4 respectively over the seven year period. Note that the first six years these scores only increased .2 and .2 very small increases until 2008.

Trends in ACT Test Results

Note. All values are average ACT scores of all Illinois public high school junior students.  Data are retrieved from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Data and Analysis 15 year trend data report. (ISBE, 2009)

Additional relevant observations show some small improvement as well as some factors that are not improving, namely attendance and chronic truancy. America's educators have not found the key to success across the nation or even our individual states. Many initiatives have been identified to attack these great challenges, so is the problem the lack of a solution or is it lack of effective execution. Cultural change may be required amongst students, faculty and staff, administration and board, and community.
Table 2

Other Variables Associated with Student Achievement

Note. All values represent average percents for all Illinois public school students. Dropout rate actually shows a modest .8% improvement.