State prepares to spend $75 million to expand college-admissions-related testing
In a groundbreaking move 17 years ago, the state paid for all public high school juniors to take a college entrance exam at school, a way to give 11th-graders of...
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PARCC pushback prompts Illinois to remake controversial test for 3rd-8th graders
Math and reading exams known as PARCC spawned angst and outright rebellion when the tests launched in 2015, ushering in a new era of state testing in Illinois public schools....
‘What am I going to do with … scores from two years ago?’ State finally releases 2016 science test results
The Illinois State Board of Education on Wednesday released long-delayed scores for the 2016 state science exam for schools and districts, raising questions about what those results will mean for...
Illinois high schools test different, often controversial, approach to education
For years, west suburban Proviso East High School was known for dismal test scores and struggling students with elusive college dreams. It badly needed an academic overhaul — though the...
With daily physical education no longer the law, schools revising PE plans
Illinois has long been viewed as a leader in public school physical education and is considered the first state in the nation to require daily PE, dating back 60 years....
End of an era for CPS science fair at Museum of Science and Industry
Since 1950, hundreds of Chicago Public Schools students each year have entered the grand Museum of Science and Industry on Chicago’s lakefront with science projects in tow, proudly showing their...
High costs, low benefits in rescue efforts for troubled Chicago schools
Chicago Public Schools tried a "school-within-a-school" plan in the 1990s, creating small schools within the massive red-brick building. Then came intervention teams to guide educators, and a "redesign" that closed...
Teaching time in math on the rise, while English declines
For some third-graders, 100 minutes of math instruction might get tiring — but not in teacher Sahar Shehaiber’s classroom at Hometown Elementary School in the south suburbs. On a recent...
SAT scores show vast disparity among Illinois high schools
About two-thirds of Illinois public high schools posted below-average to rock-bottom scores on the SAT college entrance exam, given for free for the first time to 11th-graders last spring at...
New Illinois high school testing benchmarks prompt concern and confusion
Illinois is taking the unusual step of using scores on a single college entrance exam to judge whether students and high schools are meeting the state's standards for math, reading...