A change in the Illinois Standards Achievement Test may hinder some students’ ability to do well.

A separate exam, IMAGE, given to English-learning students, was recently pulled by the Illinois Board of Education. The ELL (English Language Learning) students in all Illinois school districts will have to take the same ISAT exam as everyone else.

If ELL students perform badly on the regular ISAT, it could mean a slight drop in schools’ overall performance.

Students in third through eighth grades took the ISAT about two weeks ago and submitted the completed tests last week. They are still awaiting the results.

Sycamore Community Unit School District has a total of 70 ELL students — 65 are Spanish-speaking, with five speaking other languages.

Students take an English proficiency exam before they qualify to become an ELL student.

Although the Illinois School Board allowed ELL students to have certain accommodations while taking the achievement test, they still did not satisfy , said Becky McCabe, assistant superintendent for the DeKalb Community Unit School District.

“We were pretty frustrated,” McCabe said.

Teachers could translate only the instructions. They could read only problems for the math and science sections and nothing in the reading portion of the ISAT. ELL students were able to receive more time and frequent breaks.

The IMAGE exam had more pictures and less text, McCabe said.

“A lot of people are upset and concerned about their kids,” she said.

Craig Bowers, principal of Clinton Rosette Middle School, said there has been a lot of “noise” about the change.

“We made the best of it and hope for changes next year,” Bowers said.

Maureen Cassidy, ELL facilitator for the Sycamore school district, said she is nervous to see the test results. Cassidy said the previous IMAGE test was “awful” and did not show any accurate progress.

In the future, Cassidy hopes there will be a more reliable test that shows progress for ELL students.

There are already about four bids for another test, McCabe said. The new test will have to comply with No Child Left Behind and the needs of ELL students.

However, a new test will not likely be available for a few more years.

“The federal government is still struggling,” McCabe said on how it is dealing with ELL students.

McCabe said she has faith teachers and students will perform their best either way.

“It’s a test problem, not a learning problem,” McCabe said.