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How do I generate a file for IAR/ISA accommodations?

The ISBE requires schools to submit student accommodation data for the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) and Illinois Science Assessment (ISA) tests. These accommodations are reported to Pearson through the Illinois Administration Platform. SchoolInsight enables admins to validate student accommodation records for the IAR/ISA tests and then download a file formatted properly to upload to the Illinois Administration Platform.

First, admins will generate a preview the report at the school level to fix any errors:

  1. Go to School Main > Import/Export > Export ISBE File
  2. Set File Type to IAR/ISA Accommodations
  3. (Optional) Uncheck Show only invalid records to view all correct and incorrect rows of data
  4. Preview
  5. (Optional) If any rows have errors, select edit to make updates

Next, once all errors are cleared, generate the report at the district level to download:

  1. Go to District Main > Import/Export > ISBE Files > Export ISBE File
  2. (Optional) Set a specific School
  3. Set File Type to IAR/ISA Accommodations
  4. Preview
  5. Select Download File to save the file to your computer

The resulting file is formatted in accordance with Pearson’s requirements, and you can login to the Illinois Administration Platform to submit it.

Note: It is important to avoid opening the file in spreadsheet processors such as MS Excel, because such software may reformat the data and break the file. Most commonly, MS Excel removes leading zeros from numbers. For example: Pearson may require a code “02”, but MS Excel will change that number to “2” instead.

For more information on managing IAR/ISA data in SchoolInsight, read the following KBs: