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Chicago Tribune
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Indian Prairie District 204 board OKs applications to state board of education for funding waivers for three schools
Following school board approval on Monday, Indian Prairie School District 204 is applying to the Illinois State Board of Education to have three of its schools — Brookdale, Gombert and McCarty elementary schools — designated as Title I schoolwide, a designation for schools with high percentages of low-income students, next school year. Title I funding helps schools pay for resources meant to improve students' education and help ensure they meet state academic standards, according to the state board. Brookdale, Gombert and McCarty all have percentages of low-income students between 20% and 39%, per a memo from the district's Deputy Superintendent Louis Lee that was part of Monday's meeting agenda, so the district is going through a waiver process with the state to allow the schools to obtain schoolwide status, which allows them to use the funding they receive for all students in the building, regardless of income level. Schools with low-income student populations above 40% qualify for the schoolwide designation automatically. But schools with at least 20% but less than 40% low-income students can also operate as schoolwide Title I programs if they apply for and receive a waiver from their state educational agency, in this case the Illinois State Board of Education, according to the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Two other elementary schools in the district, Georgetown and Longwood, have had the schoolwide designation, meaning their low-income student population was at or above 40%, since the 2018-19 school year, a district spokesperson said, and are being designated as such for the 2025-26 school year as well. Title I, Part A is part of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. It provides additional financial assistance to school districts for children coming from low-income families, with the goal of closing 'educational achievement gaps by allocating federal funds for education programs and services.' Title I allocations are based primarily on local education agencies' poverty estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, and then are allocated within each local agency to schools based on their poverty rates, commonly measured by the number of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Title I funding is provided by the federal government to the state, which then disburses it to the schools, Lee said. But which schools qualify for Title I funding can change from year to year based on enrollment. Gombert and McCarty have received Title I funding since the 2018-19 school year, according to a district spokesperson. McCarty's percentage of low-income students used to be over 40%, but has recently decreased, Lee said. And the district is applying for a waiver for Brookdale for the first time this year. In their applications, school districts need to provide rationale for why a school needs a schoolwide waiver. For Brookdale, for example, the district noted that the school now qualifies for Title I funding because it is seeing rising numbers of low-income students. Gombert was previously supported by targeted funds, but has had schoolwide status for several years, and the district said in its application that, since receiving Title funding, 'the growth of students has been significant due to the added layers of intervention across the school and support provided to families.' McCarty previously had a schoolwide designation, and the district wrote that continued schoolwide status is still needed to improve academic achievement and support social-emotional learning. Lee said there are a number of reasons low-income student populations in schools vary from year to year and are part of overall changes in the student body, like slight declines in district enrollment and increasing ethnic diversity. But he sees supporting a diverse student body as part of the district's strength. According to ISBE, last year Indian Prairie received just over $2.2 million districtwide in Title I, Part A funding and funding for neglected and delinquent children, which goes toward schools with high percentages of children from low-income families and to educational programs for children in state-operated institutions or community day programs, respectively. The Title I funding is reimbursement-based, and the district files expense reports quarterly, according to a district spokesperson. Title I funding provides the schools that receive it with additional funding on top of what they'd receive already, which can go toward things like arts and social-emotional learning programs or to pay for additional staff in a school to work with students in smaller groups, Lee said. And they have flexibility in how they spend it, he said. A school's leadership can determine how they use the Title I funding, though Lee said at Indian Prairie all the Title I schools meet regularly to share ideas about what kind of programming is and isn't working. Now, after obtaining board approval on Monday, the applications for the three schools' waivers will be submitted to the Illinois State Board of Education. The United States Department of Education released Title I, Part A funding on May 14, according to a state board spokesperson, and the state agency is in the process of releasing its allocations.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Illinois Considers Lowering Scores Students Need to be Considered Proficient on State Exams
This article was originally published in Chalkbeat. Illinois education officials are considering lowering the scores students need to get to be classified as proficient in a subject on a state standardized test. They say the current benchmarks are too high and the results often don't accurately reflect whether high school students are college and career ready. 'Our system unfairly mislabels students as 'not proficient' when other data — such as success in advanced coursework and enrollment in college — tell a very different story,' state schools chief Tony Sanders wrote in a message to school leaders this week. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The Illinois State Board of Education agreed Wednesday to move ahead with a process to change the state's testing system, though the exact details still are being worked out. That process will include creating new 'cut scores,' or the lowest score needed for a student to be sorted into broad categories of achievement on state assessments. If approved in August, the new cut scores would be applied to the tests taken by students this spring and reported publicly in October. The changes are likely to send the public a very different message about how students are doing on reading and math tests. Proposed changes to the state's testing system come at a time when schools in Illinois and around the country are still dealing with the academic fallout of the COVID pandemic. Other states, including Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Alaska, and New York, have made similar changes to their testing systems, according to The 74. Related Third to eighth graders in Illinois saw progress in reading last year — even exceeding proficiency levels pre-pandemic — but math scores still lagged behind past years, according to the state's 2024 report card. Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, remained stagnant. State officials acknowledged Wednesday that it would be difficult to compare proficiency rates on the October 2025 report card to previous years if the benchmarks are lowered. The move would likely result in more students across the state being considered proficient on state standardized exams. For instance, if a test has 1,000 possible points a student can score and last year a student needed to score 700 or above to be considered proficient and they scored 680, but the following year the cut score moved to 650 that student would be considered proficient. Sanders argued, however, that changes to the state's testing system are long overdue. In his message to school leaders this week, he said the state's current benchmarks are some of the highest in the nation. He pointed to a 2022 study by the National Center for Education Statistics that looked at how state accountability systems match up to NAEP, a national exam given periodically to a representative sample of American students in fourth and eighth grade. Illinois was among the states whose cut scores aligned with higher levels of performance on the national exam. Sanders said in an interview with Chalkbeat that the cut scores for the college entrance exam have been higher than what the College Board, an organization that created and administers the SAT and Advanced Placement courses and exams, recommended as 'college ready' on the SAT test in previous years — and that 'it just does not make sense.' 'When we look at how actual students are performing, we have so many examples of kids who have graduated, gone on to college, and persisted and been successful in college, yet, if they made decisions in their life based on the data that we gave them, they would never have gone to college,' said Sanders. Given that Illinois switched the high school test to the ACT, Sanders said the state board wants to ensure scores on the October 2025 report card accurately reflect where students are. In changing the state's testing system, state officials said they are aiming for greater 'coherence' between assessments. Currently, there are different proficiency levels for the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, an exam taken by students in third to eighth grade in reading and math, the Illinois Science Assessment, taken by students in fifth, eighth, and 11th grades, and the high school college entrance exam, taken by students in 11th grade. State officials also noted in documents from Wednesday's board meeting that the state's academic standards, or what students are expected to learn, would not change. Jennifer Kirmes, director of policy at Advance Illinois, a nonprofit statewide advocacy organization, said that she believes there was a real call for change from school leaders, especially those teaching high school students, because some students were excelling in advanced classes but were classified as not proficient on state standardized tests. 'But in fact, those students have lots of other indicators that they are, in fact, college and career ready, which is ultimately what we're trying to measure at the high school level,' said Kirmes. 'They might have taken and passed several AP courses and exams, they might have dual credit.' Kirmes said getting proficiency levels right matters because schools are judged based on the results of standardized exams. In Illinois, schools can be labeled as Exemplary, Commendable, Targeted, Comprehensive, and Intensive. Based on what a school is labeled can determine what resources and support they will receive from the state. Federal law requires states to provide summative designations to schools based on students' test scores since the early 2000s. Sanders also told Chalkbeat that the state is working on changing the school accountability system for 2026. Educators, testing experts, and advocates have mixed feelings about changing the state's assessment standards. Some worry the new changes will not have any significant effect on teaching and students' learning. Monique Redeaux-Smith, from the Illinois Federation of Teachers, one of the state's largest teacher unions, said the union is not opposed to changing the cut scores, but they are concerned about the weight placed on state standardized assessments. The tests don't provide enough information for teachers about where students might need a helping hand, she said. 'What teachers do in the classroom is more valuable because they're actually seeing students explain. They're actually seeing students show their work. They're actually able to see where students might be getting stuck in their understanding,' said Redeaux-Smith. Paul Zavitkovsky, instructor and leadership coach at the University of Illinois-Chicago, said he doesn't think the changes will affect student learning if teachers are not given good information from the tests. 'Until we start reporting information from whatever kind of testing we do in a way that teachers, school level people look at and go, … 'This is much more useful in terms of helping me better understand what I am and am not doing well,'' said Zavitkovsky. In response to the criticism, Sanders said in an interview with Chalkbeat that state assessments are meant to generate the state report card and show how Illinois is performing. But he agrees that state assessments 'will likely never be a useful tool to teachers to be able to improve their teaching.' The Illinois State Board of Education is hosting listening tours around the state for school leaders, educators, parents, students, and others interested in changes to the state assessments. The next one will take place in Chicago from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on May 22 at the Chicago World Language Academy. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at
Chicago Tribune
16-05-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Aurora schools recruit, fill positions and find alternatives as teacher and staff shortages persist statewide
Amid persistent staffing shortages, East Aurora School District 131 has taken several new measures to recruit teachers over the past few years. Last year, the district began partnering with Aurora University to help individuals — including current employees of the district — earn college credit or teaching licenses to fill high-demand positions, said the district's Associate Superintendent of Staff and Student Services David Ballard. The district is currently working on a similar partnership with Northern Illinois University. The district also provides stipends to bilingual teachers and staff who relocate to the Aurora school district, and it also has a teacher mentor program that it hopes will help attract candidates for open positions. These programs are meant to help fill staff openings, particularly in areas the district struggles to recruit enough staff for — special education, bilingual education and paraprofessional staff, to name a few. Staffing shortages are by no means unique to East Aurora, however. In fact, the recruitment programs the district has instituted are funded by an initiative — the Illinois State Board of Education's Teacher Vacancy Grant program — that is meant to address staffing challenges in school districts statewide. The state initiative, which began as a pilot for the 2023-24 school year, provided funding to 170 of the state's most understaffed school districts, East Aurora included. Now in its second year, the program received $45 million from the state to distribute to school districts. Results so far show that 51% of districts receiving this grant funding saw a decrease in unfilled positions, compared to only 17% of districts who didn't, according to a news release from the Illinois State Board of Education last fall. While these initiatives are fairly new, the issue they're meant to address has been around since the COVID-19 pandemic, the state's organization of regional superintendents has previously said. The Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, or IARSS, has said schools statewide are struggling to recruit qualified teachers, and seeing teachers retiring earlier than expected due to stress. The state has attempted various strategies in recent years, such as increasing the minimum pay for teachers and the vacancy grant program. This year, the problem appears to be easing slightly. The number of unfilled teaching positions in the state, for example, dropped from 4,096 during the 2023-24 year to 3,864 this school year, according to this year's report, which uses data collected by the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools. Of the Aurora-area school districts, East Aurora had by far the highest teacher vacancy rate with 39 open teaching positions, according to this year's data from ISBE and IARSS. Nearby West Aurora School District 129 had 12 unfilled teaching positions, while Indian Prairie School District 204 reported the equivalent of 2.3 vacant positions. The state dashboard's data on the number of positions is self-reported from the school districts, said Meg Bates, the director of the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative. Bates' research group is housed at the University of Illinois system and collaborated with the Illinois State Board of Education on the data collection for its educator shortage dashboard. Unfilled positions are as of Oct. 1, 2024 — and could fluctuate over the course of the year — and vacancy rates are determined by comparing the number of filled positions from last year's data with the number of unfilled positions this year. East Aurora's teacher vacancy rate is 'very high,' according to Bates, noting the disparity in openings between it and the districts surrounding it. And some content areas and specializations have more vacancies than others. For example, special education is one area where all three districts in the area are struggling to fill positions. East Aurora had 11 vacancies — a more than 12% vacancy rate — while West Aurora had five vacancies and Indian Prairie had 1.5, according to this year's data from ISBE and IARSS. As for non-teacher positions, all three districts are facing paraprofessional shortages, according to this year's data. Indian Prairie had the most openings at 53.10, while East had 22 and West had 14.30. Paraprofessional and substitute teacher shortages also bring their share of challenges on districts, said Indian Prairie fifth-grade teacher and 2024 Illinois Teacher of the Year Rachael Mahmood. Without enough of either, teachers and paraprofessionals in the schools have to adapt and pick up the slack. 'It's not restructuring that goes on for an entire year,' Mahmood said. 'It's restructuring that goes on every single morning.' She said that makes it difficult for teachers to balance taking off work when they need to, given these challenges and the strain their absence puts on their students and fellow teachers. In East Aurora, overall vacancies — inclusive of vacancies for teachers, paraprofessionals, school counselors, etc. — went up slightly in recent years, from 67 in 2023 to 71 in 2025, according to data from the Illinois State Board of Education. During those years, the number of paraprofessional openings has gone down but is still the highest share of unfilled positions in the district. The rest were primarily teaching roles across various subject areas. In the past year, East Aurora has hired 249 staff members, according to Ballard. In April, East Aurora's school board authorized another 14 staffing requests for next year: three special education teachers, two bilingual teachers, several teachers in other subject areas and three social workers. But hiring full-time staff has not been able to fill the gap completely for East Aurora, as is the case at many schools across the state. Often, the method by which vacancies are filled in school districts is through alternative measures. Relative to its neighboring districts, this has been a significant portion of how East Aurora has dealt with its staffing challenges — the district 'remedied' more teacher and support staff positions, 403 in total, than any other district in the state, per data from the 2024-25 report. West Aurora remedied the equivalent of 13 staff positions, and Indian Prairie remedied six. 'They have to do something,' Bates said about East Aurora. 'And they have a really chronic issue.' Ballard said that typically looks like hiring long-term substitute teachers, offering paid extra duty assignments for existing staff and paying for contractual staff. A number of them simply remained unfilled and unremedied. Filling positions this way is not the district's preference, he said, but sometimes it's the only option. 'We may have an emergency where there's a student who needs a one-to-one (teaching assistant), perhaps,' Ballard told The Beacon-News recently. Speech language pathologists, for example, are often difficult to fill with district employees, he said. While concerns about a teacher shortage increased in recent years, concerns about staffing preceded the COVID-19 pandemic, Bates said. But she noted that it's not equally felt across the state: the bulk of the shortage is concentrated in some content areas and a limited number of districts. A 2023 report from the education watchdog group Advance Illinois found that a vast number of vacancies are in special education and bilingual education, and it's a more prevalent issue in rural and low-income districts — a disparity state initiatives have sought to address. Last summer, the Illinois State Board of Education launched a bilingual recruitment campaign, with a particular emphasis on roles like special education and bilingual education instructors that targeted both urban and rural areas, to attempt to fill the gaps. The initiative attracted more than 17,000 individuals interested in becoming a teacher, according to a press release from the Illinois State Board of Education on March 17. The program's advertising was paid for with one-time federal pandemic relief money, and though advertising ended in January, the state's website will remain live going forward. Bates said that, from a policy perspective, it's important not to take a 'broad-brush' approach and instead to concentrate state resources and support on the districts and content areas that need it most. That's the rationale for programs like the Teacher Vacancy Grants, she explained. East Aurora is a recipient of a Teacher Vacancy Grant, for example, while neighboring Indian Prairie and West Aurora are not. And reasons for higher vacancy rates in different — sometimes neighboring — school districts are varied, Bates said, often coming down to factors like the income-level of students' families, which she said often correlates with performance on standardized tests, and sometimes with decreased funding for the district resulting from a lower property tax base. East Aurora has around 70% low-income students, according to state data from 2023-24, whereas West Aurora was 50% low-income and Indian Prairie was at 21%. 'A lot of it is perception,' Bates said in an interview in early April about districts with high low-income populations. 'It's perceived as a more challenging environment to work in.' While rural areas tend to struggle with attracting teachers willing to move, she said, urban school districts tend to face the issue of competition among nearby districts for teachers. Bates said what East Aurora 'is facing is its proximity' to West Aurora and Indian Prairie. 'It might just be, you know, teachers work and they start their career (in East Aurora) and then they're looking at Indian Prairie and thinking, I could make 10K more,' Bates said. Now, as concerns about possible Trump administration federal funding cuts to education swirl, school districts face new uncertainties. The Teacher Vacancy Grants are funded by state dollars, meaning they wouldn't be affected by possible federal funding interruptions or losses, an ISBE spokesperson told The Beacon-News previously. Some federal funding is doled out based on the number of low-income students, however, so a district like East Aurora might be harder hit by a potential loss of federal education dollars, Bates noted. Those impacts are not specific to hiring, but would likely tighten budgets in the districts reliant on that funding source. But, while uncertainty remains, local districts are doing what they can to fill positions and stay afloat. Indian Prairie said holding teaching assistant job fairs has helped fill significant gaps in support staff, namely special education paraprofessionals, according to a district spokesperson. The district also has what it calls the 'Grow Your Own Teachers' program, a joint effort between the district and teachers union started in 2021, according to past reporting. Through student clubs, social media campaigns and information and career fairs, the program is meant to encourage students to consider pursuing a career in education — and to return to Indian Prairie to do it. A spokesperson for West Aurora said that the district is 'currently well-staffed,' but, still, they've made new marketing materials and brought current teachers to job fairs and hiring events to talk about their experiences in the district. Like East Aurora, they also pointed to their two-year induction and mentoring program for new teachers as a key retention strategy. And much of East's focus is on widening the applicant pool, Ballard said, such as its initiatives meant to help individuals get licensed to fill in-demand roles. 'While we try a number of tried-and-true tactics that everybody else does — job fairs, and those kinds of things, student teachers, those kind of personal connections — we also want to explore ways that we're trying to reach out in a proactive way,' Ballard said. 'We know that we've got to expand our reach … recruiting, retention is really a full-time thing.' Mahmood said statewide and district programs can address some of the major issues school districts have with attracting teachers, like improving pay. But there are other, non-monetary factors for what makes a teacher come to or stay at their school. 'I believe that a person who feels belonging in their district or school … is going to want to stay, even if it's not the highest pay,' Mahmood said. Belonging has been a key theme of the work she is doing during her year-long sabbatical to advance the profession of teaching, she said. 'There's something in your heart that makes you feel connected in a way that fills a piece of you that you need filled.' she said. And that in itself is a long-term recruitment strategy, she said. 'If teachers were so validated and affirmed in the work they did, and they poured all of that onto kids, and kids saw teachers having, like, the time of their life in the classrooms, and classrooms were so much fun, and all these things were going on, they'd be like, 'Man, I'd love to have a career like this,'' Mahmood said. 'We have 12 years of advertisement for our career.'
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Moline-Coal Valley School District announces Those Who Excel award winners
The Moline-Coal Valley School District has announced three recipients of the Those Who Excel Award from the Illinois State Board of Education. Jenna Bennison, kindergarten teacher at Franklin Elementary, Award of Excellence; Dr. Rachel Savage, superintendent, Award of Meritorious Service (School Administrator) and Tiffany Denys, art teacher at Wilson Middle School, Award of Meritorious Service (Classroom Teacher) will be recognized at the ISBE's awards banquet on Saturday, May 17, in Bloomington.. About the program: Those Who Excel Awards Awards are presented in seven categories: classroom teachers, early career educators (teachers 1-4 years), school administrators, student support personnel, educational service personnel, community volunteers, and of Excellence: To receive the Award of Excellence, the most prestigious of the Those Who Excel honors, educators must have demonstrated a commitment to equity and to the success of all students. They regularly collaborate with colleagues, students, and families to create positive school cultures. They are lifelong learners who connect their schools to the community at large and who inspire other education professionals within and beyond their schools. Award of Meritorious Service: Educators presented with the Award of Meritorious Service have gone above and beyond in service to their school communities. They are experienced educators who take on leadership opportunities and whose accomplishments uplift the culture of learning in their school. They stand as exemplars of their profession and have become integral members of their schools and districts. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Chicago Tribune
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Letters to the Editor: Pritzker's ‘reckless' GOP attack shows he's no national leader
As the founder of Awake Illinois, a nonprofit advocating for ethical governance, I am compelled to condemn Gov. J.B. Pritzker's reckless remarks at the New Hampshire Democratic Party's McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner on April 27. This letter adapts a statement from Awake Illinois, reflecting my personal concerns and outlook. Pritzker's claim that 'Republicans cannot know a moment of peace' is a direct attack on free speech and civic engagement, endangering the principles that ensure open participation in public life. His call for 'mass protests, mobilization and disruption' threatens millions of Americans, including families Awake Illinois represents, with intimidation for their beliefs. This rhetoric risks inciting unrest, and his 'peaceful protest' defense does not undo the harm of his provocative words. This hits close to home in Illinois, where my organization is fighting discriminatory practices. Awake Illinois recently filed two federal civil rights complaints against the Illinois State Board of Education: one under Title VI for race-based teacher programming and another under Title IX for permitting a male in female bathrooms (Valley View School District 365), compromising student safety and fairness in K-12 schools. Pritzker's inflammatory speech fostered a toxic environment, evident when a speaker likened me and Moms for Liberty to executed Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher, as noted in our X post on April 28. This vile smear wrongly demonizes advocates like me and trivializes the Holocaust, chilling free expression. Pritzker's reckless comments and divisive rhetoric in New Hampshire are a critical misstep in his pursuit of national political ambition. As a parent and independent who successfully sued Pritzker in 2021 over his unlawful mandates, I have witnessed his radical governance firsthand. He also champions policies known as 'gender-affirming care' — policies other countries have halted and that many parents, including myself, have come to learn are actually mutilation and sterilization of vulnerable kids. He rejects Title IX protections and supports males in female private spaces and sports teams. His veer to the far left, alienating moderates and independents, has exposed the fragility of his national appeal. By doubling down on polarizing rhetoric and failing to unite Illinoisans, he is undermining his credibility as a viable national leader. I doubt Pritzker will retract his comments, apologize or denounce the Nazi comparison. Illinois needs unifying leadership, not division. At Awake Illinois, our motto, 'We Cannot Be Cancelled,' drives our resolve to continue advocating. I invite your readers to join me in forging a future where Illinoisans' families and freedoms thrive, undaunted by Pritzker's intimidation.
