THE RUNDOWN - September 21, 2020 - Report Card Rundown monthly data newsletter

Oct 10, 2026

Monthly data newsletter outlining Report Card information schools and districts need for the 2020 Illinois Report Card. Covers ISBE Illinois Report Card resources, data library items, public datasets, business rules, embargo and release timing, and district communication limits. Explains changes to Summative Designations, introduces data qualifiers for COVID-19 impacts, and defines Not Calculated, Calculated with Concerns, and Statewide Threshold statuses, plus key deadline reminders and upcoming webinars.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Need to Know

Summative Designations

Report Card Data Qualifiers

Deadline Reminders

Dive Deeper - Upcoming Webinars

In Case You Missed It

THE RUNDOWN September 21, 2020 Welcome to the Report Card Rundown--A monthly data newsletter that outlines all of the Report Card information schools and districts need to know, including data system openings and closings, deadline reminders, and key information regarding changes and updates to the 2020 Report Card. Need to Know • ISBE’s Illinois Report Card page contains multiple resources, including: o Access to the Illinois Interactive Report Card ([www.IllinoisReportCard.com](www.IllinoisReportCard.com)) o Report Card Data Library • 2020 Glossary of Terms • 2020 Report Card Public Dataset (available Oct. 30) o Report Card Metrics • Public Business Rules for 2020 Report Card Metrics o Presentations and Webinars o District Communications o All Issues of the 2020 Report Card Rundown • All 2020 Illinois Report Card data is under embargo and subject to change until Oct. 30 ISBE will communicate in early October an exact time that the embargo will be lifted on Oct. 30. Districts may share their 2020 Illinois Report Card data only with individuals whom they determine to have legitimate educational interests with the express understanding that the data are not to be shared publicly until after the official statewide release on Oct. 30. Publicly available discussions, presentations, and reports based upon embargoed data may not occur during the embargo period. • Summative Designations Due to the cancelation of assessments for the 2019-20 school year, Summative Designations will not be calculated for 2020. Districts’Summative Designation from School Year 2019 will be assigned for School Year 2020. Official letters with this information will be issued in early October. Additionally, based on feedback from the field, ISBE has changed the titles of two summative designations. Underperforming will now be referred to as Targeted Support; and Lowest Performing will now be referred to as Comprehensive Support. This change is reflected in the 2019 Report Card and will be displayed in the same manner in the 2020 Report Card. • Report Card Data Qualifiers ISBE will add "data qualifiers" to the 2020 Report Card. Due to the suspension of in-person instruction during the 2019-20 school year resulting from COVID-19, normal data collection from districts has been affected. In some cases, no data has been (or will be) collected for the 2019-20 school year (e.g. Assessment data) . In other cases, the data collection may have been affected. And in several cases, the data collection has been completely unaffected as collection efforts concluded prior to March (e.g. ACCESS, enrollment) . ISBE developed data qualifiers to visually indicate a potential anomaly in order to communicate what data may have been affected. Data qualifiers will indicate one of three statuses for metrics affected by the suspension of in-person instruction: 1. Not Calculated: Due to the suspension of in-person instruction during the 2019-20 school year, the data for this metric is unavailable for use in the School Year 2020 Report Card. 2. Calculated with Concerns: Users of this report should note that this data may have been affected by the suspension of in-person instruction during the 2019-20 school year. It was collected in accordance with ISBE data policy and validated through normal procedures, but the state environment and policy changes resulting from the suspension of in-person instruction may have affected the results. Please use caution when interpreting results and trends. 3. Statewide Threshold: Users of this report should note this data may have been affected by the suspension of in-person instruction during the 2019-20 school year. HOWEVER, based on the data collected and comparisons to historical data, the data collected for this collection cycle does not, in aggregate, exhibit any more variation than is normally observed from year to year. Qualified metrics will be indicated with this icon and text displayin

FAQs

When will the embargo on 2020 Illinois Report Card data be lifted?

The embargo is lifted on Oct. 30. ISBE will communicate the exact time in early October, and districts may share data only with people who have legitimate educational interests until the official release date.

Why are data qualifiers added to the 2020 Report Card?

Because COVID-19 led to suspension of in-person instruction during 2019-20, affecting normal district data collection. Data qualifiers visually indicate potential anomalies and help users understand possible impacts on metrics.

What do the three data qualifier statuses mean?

Not Calculated means the metric data is unavailable for 2020; Calculated with Concerns indicates the data may be affected by suspension-related policy and state changes; Statewide Threshold means the data may be affected, but in aggregate shows variation no more than normal year-to-year.

Oct 10, 2026

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