A controversial high school exam is being dropped in Illinois starting next school year.
The Illinois Board of Education is replacing Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers test, or PARCC, with the state-funded SAT exam.
Jacksonville District 117 Superintendent Steve Ptacek knew a change was coming and received the news on Monday.
Ptacek says there won’t be too much change when students, expected to be high school juniors, transition from PARCC to SAT.
“We are hoping the SAT might be an easier test to administer, so we might save some time. The logistics behind the test have not been fully determined yet,” says Ptacek.
Ptacek says the PARRC exam was great in theory, but never really worked at Jacksonville High School.
“The ability to assess students that were in algebra, based on an algebra assessment, is great in theory. The actual application of it was somewhat of a nightmare,” says Ptacek.
According to multiple reports, the PARCC test produced poor results over the last two summers, which led to many students opting not to take it.
The PARCC exams will still be given to third through eighth graders in reading and math.