IIRC has posted the February 7, 2013, ISBE release of new ISAT Cut Score Reports, showing results by grade, subject, and subgroup. The reports are both school- and district-level, and are accessible through the MyIIRC web portal. The reports compare performance levels for the three years 2009-10, 2010-2011, and 2011-12 using both the old and new scoring formulas. Be aware this is a demonstration exercise in anticipation of the 2012-2013 ISAT. Actual prior year ISAT performance has not been changed.

Once logged in to MyIIRC, Superintendents, Principals, and school administrators can view the re-calculated ISAT results from their MyIIRC dashboard using the link on the lower left corner of the screen. Questions on how to access the reports can be directed to Valerie Lorusso, 815-753-0978, or vlorusso@niu.edu.

More than 600 Illinois schools on the Illinois Honor Roll are being recognized for exemplary performance by the Illinois State Board of Education. Honor Roll icons appear next to school names on the IIRC. Click on these icons to learn more about the Honor Roll or for a list of Honor Roll schools in each category. A link to the Honor Roll website is under the Related Links on the IIRC home page. The Illinois Honor Roll website, www.ilhonorroll.niu.edu provides complete information. Congratulations to the 2012 award-winning schools!

2012 ACCESS for ELLs ® test data will be posted on IIRC soon. ACCESS for ELLs®, an English language proficiency assessment, is administered annually to all identified English Language learners (ELLs)/Limited English Proficient (LEP) students in grades K-12. ELLs take the ACCESS for ELLs® each year until they attain the criteria to be considered English language proficient (an overall composite proficiency level of 4.8 as well as a 4.2 composite literacy (reading/writing) proficiency level on ACCCESS for ELLs®).

Northern Illinois University winter closure begins on December 22, 2012, and ends on January 2, 2013. However, the Illinois Interactive Report Card website remains open and functioning during this time. Please report any usage issues to iirc@niu.edu.

The Rising Star school and district continuous improvement plans are now open and ready for your use on IIRC. The migration of plans from the CII site is now complete. Happy Holidays!

REMINDER - Rising Star continuous improvement plans on MyIIRC will be closed from Monday, December 17, until around 9:00 a.m. on Friday, December 24, to allow updating Rising Star school improvement plans on IIRC. Happy holidays!

The migration of Continuous Improvement School Plans, housed in Rising Star on the Center on Innovation and Improvement (CII), to the Illinois Interactive Report Card (IIRC) is on schedule to be completed the week of Dec. 17- 23, 2012. During this timeframe, access to the Rising Star improvement plans (school and district) will be closed on the IIRC system. CII will also suspend all Illinois user capacity to enter data, so that the migration of the Illinois School Plans can occur. Only the Illinois schools that are currently using RS on CII for continuous improvement planning will have their School Plans migrated to the IIRC. Beginning on Dec. 24, all Illinois continuous improvement planning will be conducted using Rising Star on the IIRC.

In order to facilitate the migration for CII users, ISBE will host a series of four live webinars to highlight the most significant shifts in system functionality that new users will notice in RS on IIRC. District and School teams are encouraged to participate in one of the webinars, which are scheduled for Dec. 5-6. To register for one of the informational webinars sponsored by the Midwest Comprehensive Center identified below, go to http://registration.airprojects.org/ISBEWebinar/.

For Rising Star planning questions, contact your Statewide System of Support Coordinator or Coach. For Rising Star on IIRC system access questions, contact Melissa Perez at the IIRC Help Desk at (815) 753-9629. For questions regarding the migration, contact Robin M. Lisboa in the ISBE System of Support and District Intervention Division at (312) 814-2220. For more detailed information regarding the migration, see the memorandum located at http://www.isbe.net/grants/pdf/rising-star-iirc110212.pdf.

Access to all Rising Star E-Plans on IIRC will be closed to users from 1:00 a.m. on Monday, November 19, 2012, until on or about 9:00 a.m., Friday, November 23, 2012, as we migrate all Rising Star district plans hosted by the Center for Innovation and Improvement to IIRC. All Rising Star information and reports contained in district continuous improvement plans on CII will automatically be migrated to their comparable district plans on IIRC during this time. Note that School-level Rising Star plans will migrate in December. We apologize for any inconvenience. For any questions please contact Melissa Perez at 815-753-9629 or MelissaMPerez@niu.edu.

Rising Star on Center for Innovation and Improvement Data Migration to IIRC Coming Soon. For more details please refer to http://iirc.niu.edu/PDF/Migration Memo - 11-07-12 - Final Draft.PDF

The 2012 school report cards will be posted live on the IIRC website on Wednesday, October 31, 2012. The Illinois Interactive Report Card features performance data for schools and districts as well as the state of Illinois.

Districts who completed a Technology Integration Plan in 2010 and are resubmitting one for 2013 now have access to the technology plan template of the new Rising Star on IIRC system. Please log in to MyIIRC to view your district technology plan. If you do not have access to MyIIRC contact your superintendent. Detailed information and the writing guide can be accessed at http://www.isbe.net/spec-ed/elearning/html/tech_plan.htm . For any questions please contact Melissa Perez at 815-753-9629 or MelissaMPerez@niu.edu.

If you are a district-level user you may view the pre-recorded professional development webinar for the new Rising Star on IIRC system from the following link: http://www.brainshark.com/IllinoisPrincipalsAssoc/rising_star_iirc"

If you are a school-level user you may view the pre-recorded professional development webinar for the new Rising Star on IIRC system from the following link: http://www.brainshark.com/IllinoisPrincipalsAssoc/risingstar_schoollevel

Please note: it typically takes 48 hours after you take the webinar before you will have access to the Rising Star plan for your district or school.

2012 ACCESS for ELLs ® test data will be posted on IIRC soon. ACCESS for ELLs®, an English language proficiency assessment, is administered annually to all identified English Language learners (ELLs)/Limited English Proficient (LEP) students in grades K-12. ELLs take the ACCESS for ELLs® each year until they attain the criteria to be considered English language proficient (an overall composite proficiency level of 4.8 as well as a 4.2 composite literacy (reading/writing) proficiency level on ACCCESS for ELLs®).

School districts receiving Title III grants are held accountable for meeting Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives (AMAOs) under the provisions of NCLB. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) determined the 2012 Title III AMAO status of districts/consortia and sent out notification of this status via U.S. mail. For more information about districts’ Title III AMAO report and its status, go to AMAO's and Determinations at http://www.isbe.net/bilingual/htmls/titleIII.htm.

Districts that did not meet Title III AMAOs for the last two (FY11 and FY12), three (FY10, FY11, and FY12) or four (FY09, FY10, FY11, and FY12) consecutive years are required to submit a District Improvement Plan (DIP) using 20 Smart Start (SS) and Smart Plan (SP) Rising Star indicators in the Continuous Improvement category and an ELL template to address improving outcomes for English language learners (ELLs) via the Illinois Interactive Report Card (IIRC) or the Center on Innovation and Improvement (CII) by October 26, 2012.

• Performance: How are students and schools performing? Results for the state tests, college and career readiness, and AYP reports
• Trends: Is performance improving over time? Look at trends for cohorts, subject areas, and the Achievement Gap
• Environment: What factors impact the learning environment?

• Current password access will remain in place through June 24, 2011 while the new login system is brought to scale.
• To use the current password system for access to student data or e-plans, go to the school or district profile page and click on the grey link buttons in the upper right of the page.
• Roll out of MyIIRC to ROEs, RESPROs, LTCs will be staged in two weeks, beginning November 15.

• MyIIRC MyIIRC is a customized portal to confidential student information and e-plans, and other educator resources. New screens for all state assessments and reports will increase your ability to review performance and design interventions for individuals and groups of students. For ISAT, for example, MyIIRC displays student scores down to the level of content strands and tracks individual students grade-to-grade over at least three years, even when they have attended different schools. Everyone from the novice user to statistical experts will find MyIIRC to be immediately useable.
  
  • Home Page Access to MyIIRC and e-Plans. The MyIIRC icon at the upper right on all IIRC screens will link you directly to the MyIIRC log in page. Unlike the public report card, MyIIRC is password- protected and is available only to educators registered by their district or school administrators.
  • Single Password Log In In response to user requests, MyIIRC introduces a personal login feature. Now district educators need only one password for access to MyIIRC, the portal for both individual student data and e-plans. During the week of November 1, superintendents will receive access codes for their district and each school, along instructions for registering district educators on MyIIRC. The single password system will simplify both registration and security for access to individual student data and school improvement planning.
  • Passwords for ROEs, RESPROs, LTCs In the coming weeks the MyIIRC single password login system will roll out to include ROES, RESPROs, and LTCs. Directors will be receiving an email announcement to explain this easy conversion. Again, the existing IIRC password system will continue to be a functional parallel system that will remain in place until June 24, 2011.
• Users Guide The new guide available on the IIRC Home Page offers screen views and simplified directions to help you maximize the usefulness of the IIRC.
• Test Item Bank An innovation for 2010, the Test Item Bank allows you to search for test items by any of the following criteria - subject, grade level, year, type, learning standard, or assessment objective. Teachers, parents, and students can quickly see actual items and sample student responses. Currently, the Test Item Bank is located in About the Tests on the dark blue navigation bar at the top of your screen.
• Content Strands This popular feature, which allows you to review performance on specific aspects of the reading, math, and science assessments, is accessible via a button above the Test Results graphs. You can now move easily between general Test Results, Content Strands, and Item Analysis.
• Item Analysis Summary Item Analysis displays student performance on items related to each assessment objective. You now have access to two views: (1) a summary of performance at your school compared to the district and the state and (2) a longitudinal view of the trend of performance on each objective over three years. Toggle between these two views by clicking on the links above the table. The Test Item Bank mentioned above allows you to look at specific test items linked to each objective.
• Achievement Gap Graphs for schools, districts, and state are now available under “Test Results.”
• State of Illinois Report Card IIRC information graphs and data display are available for the State of Illinois as a whole. These displays replicate the same information for individual districts and schools and are a great way to get a summary picture of overall trends in student learning. Select "State Report Card" under User Resources on the Home Page.
• Info Screens Look for on-screen question marks in blue circles and "About this Report" to supply mouse-over (hover with your cursor) information and clickable links that offer explanations about the data you are seeing.
• Screen Customization The school or district information banner at the top of a page now displays minimal information. To see more details such as enrollment and AYP status, click on the toggle tab on the right.
• Speed IIRC is averaging 14,000 hits a week and even more at peak times. We continue to upgrade the IIRC servers to help meet your needs for access and speedy response.
• HELP!! IIRC cares about customer service. We need your help in eliminating bugs and glitches. Please email us at iirc@niu.edu, or call 815 753 0978 during business hours if you need help right now.

1. Links for each support entity to the schools and districts which they support.
   From the IIRC homepage, go to “Select from a List,” click on the ROE, ISC, or LTC of interest to you. This will open the listing of all districts and all schools within that entity’s service region.
2. Links to the web pages of any ROE, ISC, or LTC.
   Go to the Resources tab on IIRC and click on the link to the ROE, ISC, or LTC of interest to you. This will open the web page for that support entity.

• Faster Access Click directly into e-Plans and individual student data from the banner across the top of a school or district page. These are password-protected sites for use of educators. No more long series of clicks to reach the password screens!
• Item Analysis Summaries Easy-to-understand analyses of school performance on specific sets of ISAT items organized by Learning Standard are available for each school. Go to the link on the top of the school’s profile page, or to the link on the school’s ISAT Test Results page.
• Percents and Numbers on Test Results A new toggle feature allows you to display EITHER the number OR the percent of students at each performance level on all state assessments (school level only).
• Scatter Plots Completely redesigned scatter plots allow you to customize comparisons of schools and districts. The scatter plots tab is on the Test Results navigation bar.
• PDF Function Now, you can save and print any IIRC screen as a PDF. The PDFs work well for study, presentations and reports. Look for “Print to PDF” in the upper right corner above each graph.
• Long-term Data Test results screens display ISAT data from 2001 to 2009, but you can select prior years with a drop-down menu. This allows you to review ISAT data from 1999 to 2009 and PSAE data from 2001 to 2009.
• Screen Customization You can shrink the school or district information banner at the top of each page to view more information below. Just click the triangle in the bar with the name of the school or district at the top of the page.
• Server Capacity The IIRC receives more than 15,000 hits a week, a number that is going up fast. IIRC has upgraded our servers to help meet your needs for access and speedy response.
• Illinois Honor Roll The new IIRC still features links to the 2008 Honor Roll schools. Dates for the release of 2009 Honor Roll are pending.
• HELP!! The IIRC has installed extensive internal controls to eliminate glitches. Customer service is important to us. Please email us at iirc@niu.edu, or call 815-753-0978 weekdays if you need help right now.