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1		SENATE RESOLUTION
2		WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate recognize the
3		critical importance of reading proficiency for children to
4		prepare for college and careers in the 21st century workplace;
5		and
6		WHEREAS, The most important period for development of
7		reading proficiency is kindergarten through grade 2; and
8		WHEREAS, The State of Illinois in 2000 authorized and
9		funded the development of a multifaceted, classroom-based
10		literacy assessment that provides data to design meaningful
11		instruction in order to identify students in need of additional
12		attention and to enable all children to meet the Illinois
13		Learning Standards as measured by the Illinois Standards
14		Achievement Test in grade 3; and
15		WHEREAS, This assessment, known as the Illinois Snapshot of
16		Early Literacy (ISEL), was developed collaboratively by
17		Illinois institutions of higher education, classroom teachers,
18		and administrators throughout our State; and
19		WHEREAS, ISEL has been used beneficially to help guide
20		instruction for thousands of Illinois schoolchildren, thus
21		proving its value in literacy development and subsequent

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1		advanced reading skills; and
2		WHEREAS, ISEL is owned by the State Board of Education; and
3		WHEREAS, ISEL is research-based, valid and reliable,
4		endorsed by national literacy experts, and aligns closely to
5		the Illinois Learning Standards and Common Core State
6		Standards, which have been adopted by Illinois; and
7		WHEREAS, ISEL is made available by this State to all
8		Illinois schools in paper form free of charge; and
9		WHEREAS, ISEL is complemented by a sophisticated
10		technology platform that was funded by this State, the Chicago
11		Community Trust, and other charitable foundations and was
12		developed by the Center, Resources for Teaching and Learning,
13		an Illinois 501(c)(3) organization that has worked closely with
14		the State Board of Education and other State agencies for the
15		past 40 years; and
16		WHEREAS, ISEL can be administered by school districts at a
17		substantially lower cost per student than any other
18		technology-based commercial assessment instrument, thus saving
19		schools a substantial amount of money; and
20		WHEREAS, ISEL was designed by this State and its

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1		collaborators to work effectively with any computer operating
2		system and mobile device, thus further reducing the cost of
3		using this instrument; and
4		WHEREAS, Illinois has adopted the Common Core State
5		Standards and is a member of the Partnership for Assessment of
6		Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC); and
7		WHEREAS, Other states have received recognition for the
8		national use of assessments and other diagnostic instruments
9		developed with their own resources; and
10		WHEREAS, PARCC plans to develop a K-2 formative assessment
11		for early literacy; therefore, be it
12		RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL
13		ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we endorse and
14		encourage the use of ISEL by Illinois schools and by the
15		additional 21 states within the PARCC consortium; and be it
16		further
17		RESOLVED, That the State of Illinois formally encourages
18		ISBE to make ISEL available to the other states within the
19		PARCC consortium so that their students and teachers may
20		benefit from this excellent assessment, developed in Illinois
21		by Illinois early literacy experts, institutions of higher

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1		learning, educators, and administrators; and be it further
2		RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
3		delivered to the Chairperson of the State Board of Education
4		and the PARCC governing board.