Illinois HS Students Face New Exams in 2025

Next year, Illinois high school students will face a different exam for their annual state assessments. The Illinois State Board of Education has announced that starting next spring, the ACT exam will replace the SAT.

Both the ACT and SAT are standardized tests assessing students' proficiency in core subjects like English language arts and math. They are commonly used for college admissions and scholarship applications, although many colleges and universities no longer require them.

In Illinois, these exams are also part of the suite of tests administered annually to comply with federal mandates under the Every Student Succeeds Act. The results are reported on the Illinois Report Card each year and are used to hold schools and districts accountable for meeting academic standards.

Since spring 2017, Illinois has used the SAT with Essay as the state assessment for 11th graders. In 2019, the state began administering the PSAT 8/9 for 9th graders and the PSAT 10 for sophomores.