Prairie State Wire

Illinois State Board of Education Assessment and Accountability Technical Advisory Committee met Jan. 22 & 23.

Here is the agenda provided by the committee:

Wednesday, January 22, 2025 

8:15 Coffee and light breakfast available

8:30 - 8:45 1. Welcome, September Meeting Recap, and Agenda for Current Meeting 

Following welcome and introductions, we will review the September meeting summary and agenda for the current meeting.

01. ISBE TAC Agenda (this document)

02. September Meeting Minutes (confidential document)

8:45 – 9:15 2. ISBE Updates 

ISBE will provide relevant updates that affect TAC work.

9:15 - 10:30 3. Accountability Review 

ISBE will begin by providing a high-level review of accountability results from 2023-24. Then, the Center will review analyses that address performance patterns by indicator and group, effective weights, and correlations.

Focus questions for TAC:

• What insights or questions do the analyses raise regarding the technical properties of the school accountability system and/or school support initiatives.

• What are the implications of these analyses on future design decisions?

• What additional steps should ISBE prioritize to further monitor, document, and evaluate the accountability system?

03. Accountability Monitoring Analyses

10:30- 10:45 BREAK 

10:45 – 12:00 4. Accountability: Academic Achievement Indicator 

The Center will review and discuss alternative approaches to the current academic achievement indicator.

Focus Questions for TAC

• What are productive framings for this work that are most likely to yield empirical insight? If it were more valuable to pivot slightly, what would that look like?

• Which descriptive and analytic methods would you recommend? • Which effect sizes or ways of understanding effects would seem most helpful to make meaningful and informed decisions about impact?

• What kinds of qualitative information could ISBE provide to shore up the empirical patterns?

• What are some potential pitfalls that need to be watched out for? Are there risks to replicating problematic, well-known scientific relationships or trends in this space?

• What is the expected “lift” for this work and how can ISBE meaningfully tackle the required set of analyses given in-house capacity and operational demands?

04. Achievement Computations Extended

12:00 - 1:00 LUNCH 

1:00 - 2:15 5. Accountability: Summative Ratings 

ISBE is interested in exploring alternatives to the current composite score approach for determining school ratings. We will review a potential ‘decision tree’ approach, discuss the pros and cons of this method, and solicit the TAC’s advice regarding next steps.

• 05. Decision Tree Modeling

2:15- 2:30 Public Comment 

2:30 – 2:45 Break 

2:45 – 4:15 6. Updated Standard Setting Plan 

** CLOSED SESSION ** 

Pearson will provide an overview of the updated standard setting plan for summer 2025 revised based on recommendations at the September TAC meeting.

Focus questions for TAC:

1. What feedback does the TAC have related to standard setting methods, analyses, or reporting?

2. Does the plan support ISBE’s priorities and meet standards for professional practice (e.g., peer review)?

• 06. IAR.ISA.ACT.Updated_SS.Plan.v1.January.2025

4:30 Adjourn Day 1 

Thursday, January 23, 2025 

8:15 Coffee and light breakfast available

8:30 - 10:15 7. High School Growth 

The Center will discuss potential approaches for producing growth estimates for high school. TAC is asked to provide advice to inform design, reporting, and support.

10:15 – 10:30 Break

10:30– 11:15 8. TAC Planning Session 

ISBE and the TAC will identify action items from the meeting and priorities for follow-up.

11:15 - 11:30 Public Comment 

11:30 Adjourn Day 2

https://www.isbe.net/Documents_TAC/0122-2325-Agenda.pdf