Three years after Illinois made a bold change in how science would be taught and tested, little is known about how students have performed because neither schools nor families have seen state science-exam scores since 2013-14.
The delay—blamed largely on state budget woes—is unusual and problematic, given that federal law requires states to administer science exams at least three times from grade school through high school and make the results public.
Illinois adopted the Next Generation Science Standards in 2014, but a new state exam had not been created by 2015 testing time, and the state argued it shouldn’t give an old exam based on outdated standards. In spring 2016, the state administered a new exam, but scores have yet to be released. Students have taken the spring 2017 science exam.
State officials acknowledged science testing and scoring has not gone smoothly.
