The reports and publications highlighted below offer both high-level and detailed evaluations of state and national education systems using a broad range of issues, from test scores and teacher quality to data systems and funding structures. Again, please note that the opinions expressed in the following works do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of Advance Illinois.
The Widget Effect The New Teacher Project This study describes how school systems “treat all teachers as interchangeable parts, not professionals. Excellence goes unrecognized and poor performance goes unaddressed. This indifference to performance disrespects teachers and gambles with students’ lives.” The study looked at 12 school districts, including three in Illinois, that range in size, geographic location and teacher evaluation approach. But, the study concludes, the outcomes are strikingly similar across the districts.
Here and Now 2: Change We Can Measure IFF This new report by the IFF (formerly known as the Illinois Facilities Fund) examines citywide and community area changes in the number of performing schools in Chicago's 77 neighborhood areas between 2004 and 2008. It also documents the contribution of charter and other new schools under Renaissance 2010. Like the 2004 Here and Now study, this study is based on the premise that all Chicago students should have academically performing schools within or near the community area in which they live.
Lost Opportunity: A 50 State Report on the Opportunity to Learn in America The Schott Foundation The report’s data indicate that, nationally, students from historically disadvantaged groups have just a 51 percent Opportunity to Learn, when compared to White, non-Latino students. The effects of these inequities are disproportionately concentrated in a few states. California and New York each account for 15 percent of the nation’s Opportunity to Learn inequity impact. Texas accounts for an additional 12 percent. Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania account for 5 percent each. New York’s share of the economic effect of inequity is nearly three times its percentage of the national population.
Parsing the Achievement Gap Educational Testing Service This Policy Information Report follows up on a 2003 report Parsing the Achievement Gap: Baselines for Tracking Progress. The updated report identifies 16 factors related to academic performance ranging from birth weight and hunger to lead poisoning, parental involvement, and teacher quality. The report concludes that while a few of the gaps in achievement have narrowed, overall, there has not been much progress.
This new report looks at the path to college for students in academically advanced programs -- graduates of the city's seven Selective Enrollment schools, those who completed International Baccalaureate programs, and graduates who had taken a sequence of at least six honors and two Advanced Placement classes. The study reveals that nearly two-thirds of these students graduate with access to selective four-year colleges, yet fewer than half of these students enroll in colleges that match their qualifications -- and about 17 percent didn't enroll in any college after graduation.
Investing the Recovery Funds for Student Success Broad Foundation This paper lays out five big ideas for investing the one-time recovery funds that, if seized, will enable parents, educators, taxpayers, and students to see real educational results by 2012 and provide the base for more dramatic improvements in the future. If states and districts focus their funds on these ideas, we believe that it will be a down payment on excellence that lays the groundwork to produce breakthrough gains in what our students learn and achieve for the next generation.
Realigning Resources for District Transformation Center for American Progress A new study "provides concrete ideas for strategic spending in three key areas�taking stock of current practices, focusing on support for quality instruction, and making transitional investments�in order to give some guidance to those districts seeking to balance the act�s short-term focus on preserving jobs with its long-term goals of promoting student achievement."
The Cost of the Achievement Gap McKinsey & Company Here�s just one fact among many that show how serious an impact the achievement gap is having on all of us, not just those we�re under-serving: According to the report, the gap between white students and their black and Latino peers costs the U.S. $525 billion. The report also says closing the low-income gap would grow the Gross Domestic Product by as $670 billion. The report goes on to say that the persistence of such gaps is the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession.
The Urban-Suburban Graduation Gap Editorial Projects in Education Research Center A new study shows that cities are still graduating students at much lower rates than suburbs. The report shows that �despite some progress made by several cities from 1995-2005, the average graduation rate of the 50 largest cities is well below the national average of 71%, and there remains an 18 percentage point urban suburban gap. �
Florida's Online Option Hoover Institution Virtual school offers template for reform. Combining distance learning with personalized instruction, this Sunshine State innovation supplements school district course offerings
National Commission on Teaching and America's Future A new report suggests the U.S. is on the precipice of a teacher shortage, due to high attrition rates and the retirement of baby boomers. The study suggests teaching teams as one solution to the high rate of attrition among new teachers.
A new report reinforces much of Advance Illinois' fall report, the state's achievement gap is high, our standards are low and our students are performing in the middle of students in the country.
Parents Perception vs. Student Realities Target Area Development Corp. In order for Chicago parents to be most effective in helping to improve their local schools, they need accurate information about the current challenges faced by Illinois students and an understanding of the processes by which change can come. Unfortunately, most of the information acquired by parents about ongoing school issues is received in second-hand fashion from the news media and individual teachers. In many cases, these sources provide an incomplete and sometimes, incorrect view of the education needs of Illinois students, leaving parents with critical gaps in their knowledge and disempowering them from real engagement in district-level decision-making regarding significant school changes.
The parents of Illinois and Chicago public school students are poorly informed about the real problems and challenges faced by local students. The survey report, Parent Perceptions, Student Realities in Chicago Schools, released by the Citywide Education Organizing Campaign (the Campaign), a coalition of 13 community groups convened by Target Area DevCorp, explores ways to better engage parents in decisions regarding public education.
Center for American Progress
This is an annual report from EdWeek on the use of technology in education. As the world of online education continues to evolve, brick-and-mortar schools are incorporating digital curricula and virtual teachers into their classrooms in ways that have surprised even the advocates of the online education movement.
From the Conclusion: "A large body of evidence indicates that efforts to improve student learning will not be successful without increasing the supply of effective teachers, particularly in high poverty and low performing schools. Alternative certification programs are a promising strategy for addressing that necessity. Yet, for the benefits of alternative certification programs to be realized, policymakers need to institute policies that ensure the programs are able to attract and retain talented participants and provide them with high quality preparation programs."
In the winter of 2008, the Center on Education Policy released reports examining the impact of national and state accountability systems on curriculum, instruction, and student achievement in Rhode Island and Illinois. Using classroom observations and interviews with school administrators, instructional specialists, teachers, parents, and students, CEP developed case studies of 12 schools in the two states. This report summarizes the common findings across the two states and discusses findings that were unique to each state.
Institute of Govt and Public Affairs, Univ of Illinois
This report examines the economic impact that Univ of Illinois has on the state. One finding: the university produces about $13.1 billion per year in direct and indirect economic impact on the Illinois economy each year, including the creation of more than 150,000 jobs.
This report examines the growing need in the new economy for workers who have more than a high-school diploma, but who don't necessarily have a four-year college degree. It presents research on the job market and discusses how well Illinois' education system is faring in preparing its students for that market.
The National Assessment of Educational Performance (NAEP) is the only longitudinal, nationwide measure of student performance. The NAEP tests have been administered for more than three decades and are useful in comparing student achievement, across states and over time, in a variety of subjects. In the 2007 edition of The Nation�s Report Card, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) examines NAEP results from more than 350,000 fourth- and eighth-grade students in reading and mathematics. The report includes national and state-by-state data disaggregated by grade-level, gender, and race/ethnicity.
This Illinois-specific report presents data on student achievement measured by both the National Assessment of Educational Performance (NAEP) and the Illinois Standards Assessment Test (ISAT). Specifically, Education Watch finds that Illinois� achievement gaps�both between black and white students and between poor and non-poor students�are among the largest in the nation; Illinois average NAEP scores also consistently fall in the bottom 50% of states. Education Watch includes statistics on educational attainment and opportunity gaps, as well.
Windows on Achievement and Inequality provides an in-depth statistical analysis of the national achievement gap from pre-school through high school. In this report, ETS goes further than most sources in presenting data on student performance and achievement gaps, examining innovative ways to look at national and statewide information and suggesting new questions to policymakers.
In 2006, the Commission on School Leader Preparation in Illinois Colleges and Universities submitted its report, �School Leader Preparation: A Blueprint for Change,� to the Illinois Board of Education. In this report, the Commission argued that better principal preparation is essential in improving student achievement. Subsequently, the Illinois General Assembly initiated a joint resolution to establish the Illinois School Leader Task Force to investigate and recommend ways in which to implement the Commission�s Blueprint. This document is their final report to the Illinois General Assembly.
This report is a continuation of earlier studies from IERC on the distribution of teacher quality statewide. The in-depth analysis of teacher quality, school poverty, and student performance yields a number of recommendations for how districts and the state might ensure that all students are taught by quality teachers.
This report investigates the accuracy of some commonly held assumptions regarding the frequent flight of new teachers from the profession. In short, this report finds that new teachers do not leave the profession at significantly higher rates than other young employees leave their professions. Additionally, IERC finds that while new teachers tend to leave their schools at significant levels, the rates of departure are constant across urban, suburban, and rural schools.
The Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS) is an extension of NCES� Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) meant to provide national-level information on teacher mobility and attrition. This report highlights the data received from the TFS, presenting key findings that answer the following three questions: (1) Who is most likely to move or leave? (2) Why do teachers move or leave? and (3) Where do teachers go when they move or leave? Answering these questions is the first step in creating schools that can retain and recruit more excellent teachers.
Published in 2007 by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), the State Teacher Policy Yearbook evaluates Illinois� current teacher policies as �unsatisfactory.� The report identifies six key policy topics in need of urgent attention and compares Illinois� policies in these areas to the practices of the other 50 states (including the District of Columbia). The report also identifies nationwide best practices in each policy area and offers Illinois-specific NCTQ reform recommendations.
Andrew Calkins, William Guenther, Grace Belfiore, and Dave Lash
The Turnaround Challenge, from the Mass Insight Education & Research Institute, provides a detailed account of the nation�s lowest-performing schools and outlines an ambitious approach to turning them around. Presenting both comprehensive school-based reforms and large-scale community- and state-level changes, Mass Insight challenges state and local officials, school administrators, business leaders, teachers, parents, and students to act boldly to fundamentally reengineer the structures and systems of failing schools.
The issue of school funding in Illinois is prominent in politics statewide. In an effort to inform the public debate on this topic, the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability has published Money Matters with two objectives: (1) to explain the state�s current school funding system and (2) to document the impacts of disparities in funding across the state.
Parents & Residents Invested in School & Education Reform (PRISE)
School reconstitution causes disruption for students and the community. Including parents and the community in the reform process is necessary in order to reduce the disruptions. Through training and opportunities for participation, parents can play a significant role in achieving the school vision. PRISE Reform looks to link academic research to lived experience and advocate for measurable reform.
If you would like to suggest additional research and/or publications to be added to the ones above, please contact us.
