Kankakee Times

State Representative Jackie Haas shared information for parents and students following the legislature's decision to require the ACT for high school graduation, stating that the switch to the ACT exam will occur "next spring in Illinois schools." She made this announcement in a July 22 Facebook post.

"Here's what you should know about the upcoming switch to the ACT exam next spring in Illinois schools," said Haas, according to Facebook.

In her Facebook post, Haas shared a link to the Illinois House Republicans’ Caucus Blog, which discussed the exam requirement starting in Spring 2025. According to the caucus blog post, Illinois uses the ACT or SAT as part of efforts to meet federal requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), signed into law by then-President Barack Obama in 2015. The ESSA required "for the first time, that all students in America be taught to high academic standards that will prepare them to succeed in college and careers. It also ensures that vital information is provided to educators, families, students, and communities through annual statewide assessments that measure students’ progress toward those high standards," according to the U.S. Department of Education’s website on the Every Student Succeeds Act, which was linked in the House Republican Caucus Blog.

Screenshot of Rep. Jackie Haas' July 22 Facebook post | State Representative Jackie Haas Facebook page

The move to the ACT exam as part of high school graduation requirements comes after the Illinois State Board of Education awarded a $53 million contract to ACT Inc. in May 2024. According to a WTTW report, students had taken SAT exams for much of the past decade. The state switched from using the ACT exam to the SAT exam in 2016 after using it for the previous 15 years.

ABC7 reported that in Spring 2017, Illinois used the SAT with essay for 11th-grade students and employed the PSAT 8/9 exam for freshmen and PSAT 10 for sophomores starting in 2019.

Rep. Jackie Haas was elected to represent Illinois’ 79th House District in December 2020. She serves as CEO of the Helen Wheeler Center for Community Health and has previously worked as a social worker at Riverside Medical Center. Haas holds a Bachelor of Social Work from Valparaiso University and a Master of Social Work from the University of Illinois-Chicago, according to her biography from the Illinois General Assembly.