Dec. 28--Illinois's move to begin offering high school juniors the SAT college entrance exam after more than a decade using the ACT added an extra layer of uncertainty for high schools trying to prepare students for spring exams, local education officials said.
The decision isn't final, however, as the ACT filed a formal protest after the state awarded a bid to the nonprofit College Board, which provides the SAT.
According to minutes from a November State Board of Education meeting, the College Board's three-year, $14.3 million contract was nearly $1.4 million less than the cost of using the ACT.
Local high school officials said testing was already more complicated this year since the state has not set aside a budget for statewide college entrance exams in 2016. Both exams can be taken for a fee outside school hours.
But before Illinois switched to the new PARCC exams, the ACT was part of the state's required standardized testing at the high school level, meaning all Illinois 11th-graders had the chance to take a college entrance exam at no cost.
College Board officials said in a statement that they are working with the state Board of Education to help districts that want to start administering the SAT as early as this spring.
ACT spokesman Ed Colby said he couldn't comment on the state's procurement process, but said the ACT is working with more than 90 districts that have independently decided to provide the ACT to all 11th-graders.
Among those districts are Warren Township High School District 121 and Round Lake Area Schools Community Unit School District 116.
Officials at both districts said they would foot the bill for free school-wide exams locally if the state did not provide funding. That's $39.50 per student for an ACT that doesn't assess writing skills, and $56.50 per student for an exam with the optional writing section, said Donn Mendoza, District 116's assistant superintendent of secondary education.
Waukegan School District 60 is not administering a school-wide exam as in past years, but the high school is encouraging students to sign up for national testing dates, said district spokesman Nick Alajakis. Most students would qualify for an exam fee waiver based on economic need, Alajakis said.
"Administering a high-stakes college entrance exam to all your students is in alignment with placing an emphasis on ensuring kids are thinking about the future," Mendoza said. "We feel there's value in that."
When all students have to take a college exam, those who initially felt college wasn't for them and wouldn't have sought out the test, have the chance to change their minds, said District 121 Superintendent John Ahlgrim. "Some do end up going to college because it sparks conversations that might not have occurred before."
Though Ahlgrim said he backs any statewide, state-funded college exam, he prefers the state would stick with the ACT.
Since that test has been the standard for 15 years, schools put a lot of time into understanding the test and helping students and families prepare, he said.
"Our systems are built around [the ACT] and we want to take advantage of that. There will be time and energy and money spent trying to refocus around the SAT," said Ahlgrim, who estimated fewer than 10 percent of his students take the SAT.
In Illinois's class of 2015, only 5,728 students across the state took the SAT, said College Board spokesman Zach Goldberg.
The ACT has been more popular in the Midwest than the SAT, though many Illinois students already take other College Board tests including Advanced Placement exams, Goldberg said.
Both Mendoza and Alajakis said it's too soon to say whether they have a preference between the tests, particularly since the College Board is debuting a new version of the SAT in March.
Round Lake offers an after-school ACT prep class and embeds ACT-type questions in classroom work, but Mendoza said the district would be able to provide similar programming for the SAT if it became the new standard.
"We will await the final decision from the State of Illinois. If it is determined that we are to administer the SAT, we will support students, parents, and staff with this transition. Our focus will remain on college and career readiness for all students," Bethel Cager, District 60's associate superintendent of school leadership and development, said in a statement.
If the state does provide funding for a statewide SAT exam in future years, Mendoza and Ahlgrim said their districts' current testing program would likely flip. All students would get a free in-school SAT, while those who wanted the ACT could pay to take the exam on national testing dates.
"This is impacting every high school in Illinois that has in the past given a college entrance exam," Mendoza said. "I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but the decision being delayed at the state level impacts us at the district level."
lzumbach@tribpub.com
