Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE)

Learn about the PSAE assessment from these ISBE presentations.

• The 2012-13 PSAE Training Webinar Presentation will be available in December 2012.

IIRC presents the Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE) test results for all public high schools and districts in Illinois for the years 2001-2011 in easy-to-understand graphs and tables.

PSAE measures individual achievement for high school students in grade 11 relative to the Illinois Learning Standards. Curriculum experts and Illinois teachers developed these standards in collaboration with the Illinois State Board of Education. Results are reported by subject according to four performance levels: exceeds standards, meets standards, below standards, and academic warning. On the IIRC web site the bar graphs displaying the PSAE results are color-coded to show at a glance the percent and number of students at each performance level. The results give parents, teachers, and schools one measure of student learning and school performance.

The PSAE assessment includes reading, mathematics, and science. The writing assessment will not be administered in 2013 as part of the PSAE.

The graphs on this site also present PSAE results for specific student demographic groups whose performance is tracked for purposes of assessing adequate year progress (AYP) of schools. The specific student subgroups are race/ethnicity (six groups), low income status, students with disabilities, and limited-English proficient.

The PSAE includes three components that, taken together, cover the Illinois Learning Standards: 1. The ACT Assessment in reading, English, mathematics, science, and writing; 2. a science assessment developed by Illinois teachers and curriculum experts working with the Illinois State Board of Education; 3. Three ACT WorkKeys assessments (Reading for Information, Applied Mathematics, and Locating Information).

Note: the score a student makes on the ACT Reading test combined with the score on the WorkKeys for Reading for Information test constitutes the PSAE Reading score. The score a student makes on the ACT mathematics test combined with the score on the WorkKeys Applied Mathematics test constitutes the PSAE mathematics score. The science score is also based on the combined ACT science score and the ISBE science score. Data from the Work Keys Locating Information will be reported separately. Students who score high enough on the three Work Keys tests are eligible for ACT's National Career Readiness Certificate.

Students may designate colleges to receive scores for the ACT portion of the test as part of their college application process. This no-cost service is part of the state testing program.