The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) announced it will end the controversial PARCC assessment test for high school students during the upcoming 2016-17 school year.
ISBE said it will replace PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) with the College Board’s SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), at no cost to students. ISBE said the decision to replace PARCC and return to the SAT came after a statewide listening tour of students, parents, teachers, administrators and other interested parties.
The State Board said, “Stakeholders overwhelmingly emphasized the need for equitable access to a college entrance exam for all students. They also stressed that the amount of testing time and the number of assessments administered to students need to be reduced.”
Elementary school students in grades 3 through 8 will continue to take the PARCC assessment.