Student Assessments

Assessment Calendar

Each year, D97 publishes an external-facing calendar of district-wide common assessments. The Balanced Assessment System Memo and 2022-2023 Common Assessment Schedule are available online now.

Common Assessment Descriptions

Assessment Reporting for Public Act 099-0590

Illinois Assessment for Readiness (IAR) – The Illinois Assessment for Readiness is the state assessment and accountability measure for Illinois students enrolled in a public school district. The IAR assesses the New Illinois Learning Standards Incorporating the Common Core and will be administered to students in English Language Arts and mathematics. The IAR assessments in English Language Arts and mathematics will be administered to all students in grades 3-8, according to their current grade level.

MAP – The Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), developed by NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association), is a computerized adaptive test, given to students in grades 2-8, that measures a child's academic growth from season to season and year to year in the areas of mathematics, reading, and language usage. In the MAP system, the difficulty of the test is adjusted to the student's performance. The difficulty of each question is based on how well the student has answered all of the questions up to that point. As the student answers correctly, the questions become more difficult. If the student answers incorrectly, the questions become easier.

Illinois State Science Assessment – The Illinois Science Assessment is designed to measure student learning on the new Illinois Science Standards incorporating the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) that were adopted in 2014. For grades 5 and 8, test items are aligned to physical science, life science, earth/space science and engineering.

Dynamic Learning Maps – The Dynamic Learning Maps® (DLM®) is an alternate assessment that offers an innovative way for all students with significant cognitive disabilities in grades 3-8 to demonstrate their learning throughout the school year via the DLM Alternate Assessment System.

Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) – Teachers’ identify each child’s instructional and independent reading levels according to the F&P Text Level Gradient™, A–Z, and document their progress through one-on-one formative and summative assessments. The Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment Systems provide teachers with precise tools and texts to observe and quantify specific reading behaviors, and then interpret and use that data to plan meaningful instruction.

6th Grade Math Placement Test – The 6th grade math placement test was created by a team of D97 teachers and staff to assess mastery of 5th and 6th grade math standards to ensure proper placement in 6th grade math courses. It contains 26 questions, which assess the five domains of the CCSS in math: Geometry, Ratios & Proportions, Number Systems, Statistics & Probability, and Expressions and Equations.

Assessing Comprehension & Communication in English State to State (ACCESS) – is a standards-based, criterion referenced English language proficiency test designed to measure English language learners’ social and academic proficiency in English. It assesses social and instructional English as well as the language associated with language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies within the school context across the four language domains.

Kindergarten Individual Development Survey – The Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS) is an observational tool designed to help teachers, administrators, families and policymakers better understand the developmental readiness of children entering kindergarten.  KIDS is core to the Illinois State Board of Education’s (ISBE) goal that every child in Illinois deserves to attend a school wherein all kindergarteners are assessed for readiness.  Starting in Fall 2017, ISBE will require all kindergarten teachers in Illinois to observe students on 14 Required Measures of Readiness in the first forty days of kindergarten.KIDS focuses on the knowledge, skills, and behaviors across four key domains that most impact long-term student success. The domains are: Approaches to Learning and Self-Regulation; Social and Emotional Development; Language and Literacy Development; and Cognition: Math.