Guest Column: What's Driving Education Change in Illinois?
What’s Driving Education Change in Illinois?
By Linda L.Tomlinson
Author Biography
Linda L.Tomlinson, PhD, is Assistant Superintendent, School Support Services for All Schools, Illinois State Board of Education.
Column
“Race to the Top” is certainly attracting national attention to educational opportunities for children today. Illinois’ ranking of fifth in the first round of “Race to the Top” applications speaks well of initiatives underway in Illinois and our state's continuing efforts to improve educational opportunities for all children. However, Illinois began making changes long before “Race to the Top support” was even a possibility. While funding from “Race to the Top” could have helped Illinois move faster to make changes, it is not what is driving change. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), through its mission and goals, is driving change to support having “highly prepared and effective teachers and school leaders in every school.” With more than 860 school Illinois districts, change is not an easy task. Inequities exist in our school systems that we must find ways to eliminate.
To ensure that Illinois has effective teachers and school leaders in all schools, we must emphasize preparation of the most effective teachers and leaders possible; provide adequate supports through induction, mentoring and professional development for the continuing growth of teachers and leaders; and evaluate teachers and leaders to ensure that we retain the best and remove those who are unsuccessful. Superintendent Christopher Koch keeps the agency focused on the children and what is needed to help improve learning. Some decisions have been more helpful than others in improving learning, but all have been made for the right reasons. Initiatives that do not support the agency’s mission and goals do not move forward. If initiatives do support what is best for children in Illinois, we do our best to make them successful.
So, how does Illinois prepare teachers and leaders who understand and promote student growth? Through initiatives such as the American Diploma Project and adoption of new Learning Standards for K-12 students, Illinois began making changes long before “Race to the Top.” In August 2010, ISBE adopted common core content standards for student learning. Illinois also received a federal grant of more than $9 million to develop a longitudinal data system that will track students’ academic transcripts, as well as link teacher to student data. This new system is imperative to the development of additional systems for linking teacher and leader effectiveness back to preparation programs and collecting data related to student growth.
In efforts to ensure that Illinois prepares the best principals to lead schools to success, ISBE has been working collaboratively with the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IHBE) to redefine principal preparation. New programs will focus on preparing principals to be instructional leaders able to drive instruction in their schools and ensure that teachers have the support systems they need to enhance student growth in learning. Emphasis will be placed on preparing principals who understand that hiring and retaining the best teachers is instrumental to their schools’ learning success.
The agency found gaps in learning at all levels. The learning needs for special education and English Language Learners are not always being met. Additionally, we found that reading scores declined as students progressed through high school and that we were not addressing these issues in educator preparation programs. A group of stakeholders were brought together to review and redesign the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards, the Language Arts Standards for All Teachers, and the Technology Standards for All Teachers. The group reviewed current standards and research, as well as standards from other states, in order to rewrite the standards with a focus on the individual child and differentiated instruction.
In looking for what is best for students and understanding that it is essential to have teachers and administrators at all levels with basic skills and content knowledge, ISBE considered how state tests were being used as one measure of the competency of those seeking certificates and endorsements. Rules were rewritten and approved to limit the number of times an individual could take any certification test to a maximum of five times. This change has been established with the expectation that candidates should understand the importance of being prepared to take a test and seek remediation if one fails a test prior to retesting. Additionally, concerns were raised about how successful an educator might be if that teacher or administrator could take a test multiple times without passing. Multiple testing raises questions as to whether an educator has mastered the content or, perhaps, simply passed by chance.
All teachers and administrators should possess a minimum level of knowledge and skills to demonstrate adequate competency. Today’s schools depend on using data to inform instruction. Teachers and administrators must know and be able to interpret and use data to drive instruction. Therefore, excellent math skills are essential for all educators, and it is imperative that every educator have requisite skills in reading, writing, and grammar to be able to work effectively with students, parents, and community members. ISBE reset the passing scores for the state basic skills test in March to demonstrate increased competency in basic skills, along with new rules that permit individuals to bank passing scores to underscore the importance of having educators who meet a higher level of knowledge related to mathematics, grammar, reading, and writing.
As part of its continuing efforts to upgrade the effectiveness of teachers and school leaders, ISBE worked with stakeholders this past winter to pass legislation that will lead to a new evaluation system for teachers and principals. In the future, teachers and principals will be required to be evaluated on both performance and student growth. In addition, a new rating system will be implemented to rate teachers and leaders as “unsatisfactory,” “needs improvement,” “proficient,” or “excellent.” Combining this new rating system with the Longitudinal Data System being developed will enable the effectiveness of teachers and leaders to be linked back to their preparation programs.
When ISBE and IBHE began their reviews of principal preparation, they soon realized that the State Teacher Certification Board also needed to carefully review and monitor preparation programs. Rules were changed to enable the Certification Board to receive annual report data from all preparation programs and provide the Certification Board with authority to act on programs that they deem to have areas of concern. At its April 2010 meeting, Board members were provided information on the first annual review of all educator preparation programs. Staff reviewed and provided areas of concern to the Board on more than 900 programs. Rules are now in place, and the Board may take action which could result in programs being discontinued or put on probation. This new review process encourages preparation programs to review their own data on a regular basis and to make changes as needed to support program growth.
ISBE is also working with stakeholders on other initiatives. A group of educators finalized a “Code of Ethics for Educators.” The code will guide higher education institutions in their decisions about dispositions required for their candidates and assist future educators to understand the professionalism expected of all educators. Research supports that in-depth content knowledge is critical for effective teaching. Rules have been approved to help ensure that teachers have more depth of understanding in their content areas. For example, future teachers at the high school level will be required to have upper division level course work in their content areas; course work less than a “C” grade will not count toward program requirements and endorsements. Endorsements in the sciences and social sciences will require additional course work to add additional designations in specific areas.
These initiatives are some of the changes that the agency has undertaken. In its efforts to improve educational opportunities for all Illinois children, ISBE will continue to work with stakeholders to update and review requirements. During the 2010-2011 school year, additional stakeholders were asked to review elementary and middle grade teacher requirements. Once these groups have completed their review, other groups will begin to work with content area standards for secondary teachers. The agency is focused on what is best for students and assuring that all students have access to the “best” teachers and leaders. The one way to ensure that each student has access to the “best” teachers and school leaders is to prepare and certify the best teachers and school leaders, keeping in mind that it is the children’s welfare that drives the changes ISBE supports.