Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Department of Education has placed Illinois on “high-risk status” for failure to give out a statewide science assessment this year, a violation of state law. 
• To comply with a letter from the department, the state is formulating a plan and timeline by the end of June that addresses how it plans to give a science exam in the 2015-16 school year. 
• According to federal law, students must take a science exam once between grades 3-5, once between grades 6-8, and once between grades 9-12. 

Dive Insight:

In Illinois, students have traditionally been tested in science in the fourth, seventh, and eleventh grades. This year, however, it did not happen — and education officials are blaming the transition to the Next Generation Science Standards. Ed officials told the Chicago Tribune that the old science exam, which was aligned to the old standards, is inappropriate and not aligned to the new science standards.  

While the state planned to do some small scale science testing this year, it never planned on giving a new test to all students. The state moved forward with a plan for pilot testing without hearing from the Department of Education whether permission had been granted. 

"High risk" isn't just a label; schools that don't remedy their errors can lose grant funding, which could be problematic for the state with already cash strapped education systems (such as Chicago).