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Common Core State Standards
The Illinois State Board of Education has adopted new Math and English Language Arts standards for K‐12 education known as the New Illinois State Learning Standards Incorporating the Common Core. The goal is to better prepare Illinois students for success in college and the workforce in a competitive global economy.
Click here to review the Common Core standards.
Click here to learn how Illinois will implement the standards.
New Media Specialist Available
Click here for more information.
Outreach Director Position Available
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Illinois Students Deserve A
World-Class Education
Upcoming Events
Hear New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman discuss education in America at a presentation sponsored by Advance Illinois and the Gorter Family Foundation North Chicago Community Partners. Mr. Friedman will be speaking in Rhoades Auditorium at Rosalind Franklin University in North Chicago, Illinois, on Wednesday May, 30, at 7 p.m. Register now for this free event.
Did you miss our event "Making Teacher Evaluations Meaningful" featuring world-reknown teacher evaluation expert Charlotte Danielson and Sara Ray Stoelinga, Senior Director of the Urban Education Institute? Watch the video and view the presentation slides.
Read our new report!
Illinois has seized an historic opportunity to help our chronically lowest-performing high schools through the federal School Improvement Grant program. With $146 million dollars in SIG funding, state officials identified nearly 100 high schools where dramatic reform was needed to reverse years of dismal student performance. One-third of the eligible schools applied for the first year of grant funding and 10 schools that put forth the boldest plans for improvement were selected.
This report examines the reforms unfolding in these 10 schools that span from the heart of Chicago to the southernmost tip of Illinois. It begins with the premise that the urgency of the task and the scale of the investment in improving Illinois’ lowest-performing schools calls for public attention and review.
Our students are not getting a world-class education.
America's once comfortable lead in education has evaporated. Students from around the world now routinely outperform American students on nearly all measures of academic achievement.
The situation is no better in Illinois. Though our students live in the digital age, they are being schooled in systems created for the industrial age.
The result? Too many kids fail to graduate from high school. Those who do are not prepared for college, careers or life in a competitive marketplace.
Advance Illinois believes we can do better, and that all Illinois students should have the chance to graduate from high school college-ready, career-ready and world-ready.
We are grateful to The Joyce Foundation and the CME Group Foundation whose support made this report possible.
Our Mission and Priorities
In 2008, a group of high profile political, civic, business, and educational leaders came together to found Advance Illinois, an independent, objective voice to promote a public education system in Illinois that prepares all students to be ready for work, college, & democratic citizenship.
To help Illinois' students and improve its public education system, Advance Illinois has developed a set of three policy priorities - discrete areas where "we can do better".
- Recruit, develop and empower effective educators.
- Set expectations and provide supports.
- Empower local leaders to innovate.
The Right Choice?
Math Teaching Often Doesn't Fit With New Standards
Education Week — Many mathematics teachers are teaching topics at higher or lower grade levels—and for more years—than the Common Core State Standards call for, according to preliminary results from new research. That finding suggests that when the new standards are fully implemented, many math teachers could face significant shifts in what they will teach.
Call to States: Revolutionize Teacher and Principal Preparation
Early Childhood Partners - Technical Assistance Request for Proposal
The state is seeking a vendor for its campaign to encourage effective early childhood collaborations/partnerships.
The Request for Proposals (RFP) to identify a lead entity to design and implement a statewide campaign to encourage effective early childhood collaborations/partnerships has been posted.
Study: Student Progress Can Be Tied to Teacher's School
SEATTLE (AP) - The academic progress of public school students can be traced, in part, to where their teachers went to college, according to new research by the University of Washington Center for Education Data & Research.
But the center's director, Dan Goldhaber, cautioned that the study is just first step toward determining what kind of training - not where the training occurred - best prepares teachers for excellence in the classroom.
Even so, it's the kind of information U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan would like every school to have access to and that's why he recently announced a new program to use federal dollars to pay for similar research.
60% of State's Public Schools Fail to Meet U.S. Test Targets
Six of every 10 Illinois public schools failed to meet federal test targets this year and risk federal sanctions as a result, according to information released Thursday by the Illinois State Board of Education.
High schools fared the worst.
Statewide, 656 of the 666 public high schools fell short of the proficiency standard on math and reading tests that students take every spring. Only eight high schools where students take the exam in 11th grade met federal standards. Two more high schools made it based on participation and student performance on other state exams.
