ILLINOISSTUDENTSDESERVE
A WORLD CLASS EDUCATION.

Our children's future is in jeopardy.

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.



29 March, 2010

Congratulations to Delaware and Tennessee!
Comments   Posted by: admin In: Uncategorized  

Delaware and Tennessee have won Phase 1 of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition.   The DoE announced the winners by twitter today.  Read more in the WSJ.   Illinois was a finalist, and will now start the work toward Phase 2.

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24 March, 2010

NAEP Scores: Flat in Illinois; U.S. cities improve
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Illinois scores on national reading tests remained flat in 2009, an indication that transformative reform is needed for the state’s schools.  Performance on these tests, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), have been flat for several years.  Achievement gaps have also remained essentially the same over the past six years, though they’ve improved slightly over that time period. Learn more on the NAEP website, including a special page on Illinois scores. Coverage from the Washington Post is here.
Related:  Students in the nation’s urban school districts have improved markedly in mathematics and reading proficiency as measured both on state exams and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, according to a new report by the Washington-based Council of the Great City Schools. EdWeek coverage here.

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22 March, 2010

Smarter Data Systems - Better Schools
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Advance Illinois Senior Policy Associate Ben Boer contributed to the Education Sector’s running blog “Five Principles for Smarter Data Systems.“   Ben makes the point that good data and a strong assessment system should work together in  feedback loop, with strong data feeding sound assessments, and the results from the assessments feeding back to the data system to improve further testing.   Read the essay here.

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Our Mission

Advance Illinois is an independent, objective voice to promote a public education system in Illinois that prepares all students to be ready for work, college, & democratic citizenship.

What We Do

NEWS ROUND-UP

Illinois is named a Race to the Top Round 2 Finalist
Congratulations to Illinois for being named one of the 19 Race to the Top Round 2 finalists.  State leaders and lawmakers should be proud of their hard work and smart leadership over the past year. Good luck to the team going to do the finalist interview in Washington.  Read more...

Advance Illinois Releases "Race to the Top" Report

A new report recommends Illinois state leaders take bold action to reform the state’s school system, in order to win a chance to bring Illinois as much as $400 million being made available by the U.S. Department of Education. The report was released today by Advance Illinois, the statewide education advocacy organization, chaired by former Gov. Jim Edgar and former Secretary of Commerce Bill Daley. “We can’t miss the moment,” said Edgar. Read more...

"Race to the Top" Roundup
Get the latest media coverage of the U.S. Department of Education's $4.35 billion "Race to the Top" competition, including how other states are working to position themselves here in our Education News section. Read more...


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RESEARCH ARTICLES


How Bold is Bold
The New Teacher Project (TNTP) provides a unifying framework and practical strategies that will enable states to respond to Race to the Top with a bold and coherent teacher effectiveness agenda.  TNTP believes top applications will differentiate themselves by placing a strong emphasis on teacher effectiveness in two of the four key assurance areas:  great teachers and leaders and turning around struggling schools.  Many of the strategies are in line with Advance Illinois’ belief and stance on improved data systems, teacher evaluations, and increasing human capital pipelines to Illinois most struggling schools.

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