This June, the state’s contract with the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) will expire, which had created a question on which federally required standardized accountability assessment exam Illinois high school students will take next year. That question was announced after the Illinois State Board of Education announced that it had awarded the American College Testing (ACT) with a $53 million contract for a three-year commitment. Students can still take the SAT after this year but will be required to pay for it themselves.
One possible reason for the state’s decision to change exams may be due to plans for the SAT to become a digital test. The digital version of the SAT will adjust question difficulty based on previous answers and was shortened from a three-hour exam to a two-hour exam.
The SAT has been in use in the state since 2016, but the ACT was the state test for the 15 years prior to that.