District Assessments

District 181 administers several district level assessments each year. We use these assessments to monitor student progress, inform instructional decisions, determine placement into advanced courses, evaluate program effectiveness, and identify and measure school improvement goals. The following is a current listing of District level assessments.


The IAR is aimed at measuring the achievement of 3rd through 8th grade students in the areas of English language arts and math.


The NWEA MAP Suite is an assessment system that’s all about measuring what matters — so you can support growth and skill mastery for every student.


Fountas & Pinnell is a reading benchmark assessment which is used to identify instructional reading levels.

The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) is a multiple-choice test designed to measure a child's academic aptitude.


All Illinois students enrolled in grades 5 and 8, and 11 will complete the Illinois Science Assessment. This short assessment meets the federal requirement for measuring student proficiency in science.

ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 is a state and federally mandated assessment for students learning the English language in grades K-12. Tracking students over multiple years to measure their progress in acquiring English proficiency.


aimsweb®Plus screens and monitors the reading and math skills of PreK–12 students. With its robust set of standards-aligned measures, aimswebPlus is proven to uncover learning gaps quickly, identify at-risk students, and assess individual and classroom growth.


FitnessGram is an assessment that measures student fitness levels. As the national test of the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, FitnessGram assesses the physical and aerobic fitness of more than 10 million students across the country in over 20,000 schools.


The Placement Writing Assessment (PWA) is designed as a pre-assessment by the College of William & Mary. It is aligned to Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts.


Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) for Infants and Toddlers are tools that provide helpful information about children’s growth toward socially valued outcomes that can guide intervention decisions.


KIDS is an observational assessment tool used with all KG students to measure problem-solving, self-regulation, social-emotional, literacy, and math development.


Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment (DLM-AA) is provided to students who are not elligible to take the Illinois Assessment of Readiness or the SAT in grades 3-12. This assessment meets the federal requirement for measuring the learning of cognitively impaired students.


More Assessment Resources

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Assessment Communications