Illinois schools Superintendent Tony Smith is warning school districts to be prepared for dismal statewide test scores.

In a letter to school administrators, Smith describes the first PARCC results as "simply a new baseline from which we can move forward. He added he didn't want anyone to use the results to "shame teachers or schools."

The Illinois State Board of Education is scheduled on Wednesday to release what Smith called "initial, and still incomplete" test results.

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers tests math and English language arts literacy. It replaced the ISAT tests for grade school students and the Prairie State Achievement Examination for 11th-graders.

In 2013 and 2014, more than 40 percent of students statewide in those grades flunked the old exams.