Illinois Lawmakers just joined the bandwagon of a few other states in playing it fast and loose with educational standards. This is because our low academic standards are still some of the highest in the country.

The Chicago Suntimes explains that this will affect “three standardized tests in question are the Illinois Assessment of Readiness for grades 3-8, the Illinois Science Assessment for grades 5, 8 and 11 and the ACT for high school students.”

Chalkbeat shared that for state testing, 53% of students would now be marked “proficient” in English, 38% in math, and 45% in science—whereas last year it was 41%, 28%, and 53%, respectively.

The kids don’t learn any more, just that more of them will be marked proficient, and it will be then impossible to rack academic losses gains across years, removing accountability.

Preposterous!

Instead of teaching students to reach higher, the state just moved the goalposts. With proficiency already dismal, that’s downright terrifying. It's exactly the opposite of what MAGE stands for—and it’s outrageous that, even with public education underfunded, officials would opt for optics over actual learning.

For the ACT, writes Chalkbeat: “On the ACT, a college entrance exam all Illinois high schoolers must take, juniors would need to score an 18 in English language arts and a 19 in math and a 19 in science to be labeled as proficient. In the past, students needed to score a 540 on the SAT in both math and English languages arts.” A score of 19 out of 36 has a 63% chance of getting a C or higher in a college class, explains the Chicago Suntimes. That’s hardly “proficient”

In a year, this means that Illinois officials might proudly announce that academic proficiency % went up, though Capitol News reports that there still might be some useful data that’s salvageable.