About the ILTS LBS I (290) Exam
Key Takeaways
- The ILTS Learning Behavior Specialist I test (Field 290) is a computer-based test of 100 multiple-choice questions: 80 scored items and 20 non-scorable field-test items that do not affect your score.
- Total appointment time is 3 hours 30 minutes — 15 minutes for the CBT tutorial and nondisclosure agreement plus 3 hours 15 minutes of testing — and the fee is $98 with no reference materials provided.
- Scores are reported on a 100-300 scale and 240 is the passing score; subarea scores use the same scale but are descriptive only, and the total is not an average of the subarea scores.
- The five subareas are weighted 16%, 23%, 31%, 15%, and 15%, spread across 13 objectives and 88 descriptive statements, so Subareas 2 and 3 together are 54% of the test.
- Field 290 replaced Field 155, which retired June 4, 2023; candidates who passed the old route needed both 155 and the Special Education General Curriculum Test (163), while 290 alone now satisfies the LBS I content requirement.
What the Field 290 Test Is
The Illinois Licensure Testing System (ILTS) is the testing program the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) uses to license educators; it is developed, administered, and scored by the Evaluation Systems group of Pearson. The Learning Behavior Specialist I (LBS I) content-area test is Field 290, and passing it is the content-knowledge requirement for the LBS I special education endorsement.
Field 290 is a redeveloped test. The older LBS I test, Field 155, was a 125-question, 3-hour-45-minute test that retired on June 4, 2023; the redeveloped Field 290 became available on June 6, 2022. Under the old route, candidates had to pass both Field 155 and the Special Education General Curriculum Test (Field 163). Field 290 alone now covers that ground, which is why its content sweeps from developmental milestones through Illinois special education rule and professional ethics in a single 100-item test.
Current Test Design
| Detail | Current specification |
|---|---|
| Format | Computer-based test (CBT), 100% multiple choice |
| Number of questions | 100 — 80 scored, 20 non-scorable field-test items |
| Total appointment time | 3 hours 30 minutes |
| CBT tutorial + nondisclosure agreement | 15 minutes |
| Actual testing time | 3 hours 15 minutes |
| Passing score | 240 (scale of 100-300) |
| Test fee | $98 |
| Reference materials provided | None |
| Test dates | By appointment year-round, Monday through Saturday (excluding some holidays) |
| Test sites | Pearson centers in Illinois and nationwide |
| Preliminary results | Provided at the test center at the end of the session |
Three hours 15 minutes for 100 questions is just under two minutes per item — generous by licensure-exam standards. The pacing risk on this test is not running out of time; it is over-reading long classroom scenarios. Most Field 290 items are vignettes in which several options are professionally defensible and one is best for the specific student, setting, and stage of the process described.
The Five Subareas and Their Weights
| Subarea | Objectives | Scored items | Non-scorable | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 — Understanding Students with Disabilities | 2 | 13 | 3 | 16% |
| 2 — Assessing Students and Developing Individualized Programs | 3 | 18 | 5 | 23% |
| 3 — Supporting Development and Learning | 4 | 25 | 6 | 31% |
| 4 — Working in a Collaborative Learning Community | 2 | 12 | 3 | 15% |
| 5 — Foundations and Professional Practice | 2 | 12 | 3 | 15% |
| Total | 13 | 80 | 20 | 100% |
Beneath the 13 objectives sit 88 descriptive statements — the sentence-level list of what each objective actually asks for. Those statements, not the subarea titles, are the real syllabus, and this guide is built section-by-section against them.
What the weights mean for your time. Subarea 3 alone is 31% of the score and Subareas 2 and 3 together are 54%. Assessment, IEP development, instructional design, and behavior intervention are where the test lives. Subarea 1 is the smallest at 16%, so exhaustively memorizing every disability category at the expense of assessment and instruction is the classic misallocation on this exam.
How Field 290 Is Scored
Scaled scores, not percentages. ILTS content-area tests are reported on a scale of 100 to 300, and a total test scaled score of 240 or above is required to pass. A scaled score is not a percentage and not a raw count; raw performance is converted onto the common scale so that scores mean the same thing across different forms of the test.
Every question counts the same, and there is no wrong-answer penalty. Your total score is based on the number of questions you answer correctly, so never leave an item blank. On a 100-item test with no guessing penalty, an eliminated-to-two guess is worth taking every time.
The 20 non-scorable items are invisible. Field-test items being evaluated for future administrations are mixed into the form and do not affect your score. You cannot identify them, so treat every question as if it counts.
Subarea scores are diagnostic only. Subarea scores are reported on the same 100-300 scale, and a subarea score at or above 240 generally indicates satisfactory performance there — but there is no passing score for an individual subarea. You do not have to "pass" each one. Because subareas contain different numbers of items, your total score is not the average of your subarea scores, and you cannot reconstruct the total by averaging them.
| Score report element | What it means | What it does not mean |
|---|---|---|
| Total test scaled score | 100-300; 240 passes | Not a percentage correct |
| Pass / Did Not Pass status | The licensure decision | — |
| Subarea scaled scores | Descriptive feedback on relative strengths | Not separately passed or failed; not averageable into the total |
| Preliminary result at the center | Your unofficial outcome the same day | Not the official score report |
Where scores go. Results are reported to you, to ISBE, and to the educator preparation program(s) you name at registration, and results are posted to the Educator Licensure Information System (ELIS), where approved Illinois preparation programs can access them whether you passed or did not pass. Preliminary results appear at the test center at the end of the session; official score reports are released on published score-report dates.
How the Test Is Built (and Why That Matters to You)
ILTS test development runs through five stages: frameworks are written and reviewed by committees of Illinois educators; items are drafted by content and item specialists; content is validated through surveys of Illinois school personnel and faculty and reviewed by a Bias Review Committee and a Content Advisory Committee; items are field tested; and finally panels of Illinois educators recommend a minimum passing score that ISBE formally sets.
Two practical consequences:
- The standard is entry-level Illinois practice. Items are validated as job-related for a beginning educator, not for an expert. When two options are both correct in the literature, the one describing what a first-year LBS I in an Illinois district would actually do next is the answer.
- The published framework is authoritative and stable. Because items are written to descriptive statements, everything the test can ask you is bounded by that list. Third-party outlines that paraphrase or reorder the subareas are secondary; the framework on the ILTS site is the source.
A candidate finishes the ILTS LBS I (290) test and receives a preliminary result at the test center. Her later score report shows a total test scaled score of 238, with subarea scores of 245, 250, 236, 242, and 239. What is her status?
A candidate has roughly 40 hours of study time before the Field 290 test and wants to allocate it by how heavily each subarea is weighted. Which allocation best matches the published test design?