Advance Illinois hosted Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and more than 300 civic leaders and educators at a breakfast Friday, June 19th, following the release of their policy recommendations. The event brought together those who will now help us see through the fundamental changes offered in the report We Can Do Better.   Please see our video highlights.  Also, check out media coverage of the event, in which the Secretary said Illinois has made strong progress toward reform, just a few weeks after saying Illinois had fallen behind other states, and needed to “think differently.”

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UPDATE:  See the Tribune editorial from Sunday, June 28, in our Press Room.

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Advance Illinois, the education reform group co-chaired by former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar and former Secretary of Commerce William Daley, today issues recommendations for radical reform of the state’s education system to dramatically raise the bar for Illinois schools and reverse an alarming decline in student performance.

Advance Illinois release of report "We Can Do Better"

“The need has never been more acute, as our student achievement is slipping dangerously,” said Robin Steans, Advance Illinois executive director. “The opportunities have never been greater, as the federal stimulus is pointing us toward aggressive reform. And never before has such a bipartisan group of people come together around comprehensive, student-focused reform.”

At a press conference Thursday, Advance Illinois today published a report, We Can Do Better: Advancing Public Education in Illinois. The report calls for setting world-class standards, holding school districts and teacher training programs accountable for results, linking teacher and principal evaluations to academic outcomes, and empowering local schools and districts to stimulate innovation.

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U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is offering federal cash incentives–up to $350 million–to achieve one of his priorities: developing national standards for reading and math to replace a current hodgepodge of benchmarks in the states.  Here is a link to the AP story, posted by EdWeek (access compliments of edweek.org).  Here is the story on the Politics K-12 blog.  Here is a link to ed.gov’s blog. Here is Advance Illinois’ statement

in support of the Secretary’s speech.

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