SR0301 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0301 LRB098 11952 NHT 45333 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate recognize the critical importance of reading proficiency for children to prepare for college and careers in the 21st century workplace; and

WHEREAS, The most important period for development of reading proficiency is kindergarten through grade 2; and

WHEREAS, The State of Illinois in 2000 authorized and funded the development of a multifaceted, classroom-based literacy assessment that provides data to design meaningful instruction in order to identify students in need of additional attention and to enable all children to meet the Illinois Learning Standards as measured by the Illinois Standards Achievement Test in grade 3; and

WHEREAS, This assessment, known as the Illinois Snapshot of Early Literacy (ISEL), was developed collaboratively by Illinois institutions of higher education, classroom teachers, and administrators throughout our State; and

WHEREAS, ISEL has been used beneficially to help guide instruction for thousands of Illinois schoolchildren, thus proving its value in literacy development and subsequent advanced reading skills; and

WHEREAS, ISEL is owned by the State Board of Education; and

WHEREAS, ISEL is research-based, valid and reliable, endorsed by national literacy experts, and aligns closely to the Illinois Learning Standards and Common Core State Standards, which have been adopted by Illinois; and

WHEREAS, ISEL is made available by this State to all Illinois schools in paper form free of charge; and

WHEREAS, ISEL is complemented by a sophisticated technology platform that was funded by this State, the Chicago Community Trust, and other charitable foundations and was developed by the Center, Resources for Teaching and Learning, an Illinois 501(c)(3) organization that has worked closely with the State Board of Education and other State agencies for the past 40 years; and

WHEREAS, ISEL can be administered by school districts at a substantially lower cost per student than any other technology-based commercial assessment instrument, thus saving schools a substantial amount of money; and

WHEREAS, ISEL was designed by this State and its collaborators to work effectively with any computer operating system and mobile device, thus further reducing the cost of using this instrument; and

WHEREAS, Illinois has adopted the Common Core State Standards and is a member of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC); and

WHEREAS, Other states have received recognition for the national use of assessments and other diagnostic instruments developed with their own resources; and

WHEREAS, PARCC plans to develop a K-2 formative assessment for early literacy; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we endorse and encourage the use of ISEL by Illinois schools and by the additional 21 states within the PARCC consortium; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the State of Illinois formally encourages ISBE to make ISEL available to the other states within the PARCC consortium so that their students and teachers may benefit from this excellent assessment, developed in Illinois by Illinois early literacy experts, institutions of higher learning, educators, and administrators; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be delivered to the Chairperson of the State Board of Education and the PARCC governing board.