SB 1945

Amends the Educator License Article of the School Code. Provides that if an assessment is determined to be non-uniform, a provisional in-state educator endorsement on an Educator License with Stipulations may be issued to a candidate who has completed an Illinois-approved educator preparation program at an Illinois institution of higher education and who has not successfully completed an applicable content area test but who meets certain requirements, which is valid for one full fiscal year after the date of issuance and may not be renewed. Provides that the process by which the State Board of Education evaluates content area tests to determine content validity, absence of bias, or scores required to pass shall be public information and is available on the website of the State Board. Requires the State Board to evaluate each content area test after it has been administered for at least 10 months, but not more than 12 months, and shall determine whether a content test is non-uniform. Provides that an assessment first introduced prior to January 1, 2017 shall be considered uniform, and an assessment introduced on or after January 1, 2017 that does not meet specified criteria shall be considered uniform. Provides that if the State Board finds that the content area test forms available as of January 1, 2025 are not uniform in the level of difficulty as compared to previous forms of those exams, any candidate for licensure who attempted any content area test in the form that was available as of January 1, 2025, and whose best scores in each subsection of the same content area exam, taken across multiple attempts on the same form of the exam, equal or exceed the passing score for that content area exam as of January 1, 2025, shall be determined to have passed that content area exam.