More Illinois students are opting out of the state's standardized exam, though the participation rate remains high. New state data indicates that about 44-thousand students didn't take the English portion of the new PARCC exams and 42-thousand didn't take the math portion in the last school year.
That's an increase over those who didn't take the older tests given in the previous year, but overall, at least 95-percent of Illinois students did take the PARCC tests.
