From the Educator Advisory Council

Advance Illinois was launched to bring together people—at every level and from every community across our state—who are interested in ensuring a pathway to successful careers and engaged citizenship for each Illinois student.

We recognize and endorse Advance Illinois’ mandate to catalyze change. We are teachers and former teachers from across Illinois cities, suburbs, and rural areas. We work with children and young adults of all grade levels and abilities. We believe our schools must change.

At the same time, we speak for a profession that is often underappreciated, undersupported, and, because of its public nature, embroiled in political uncertainty.

This paper provides our vision of teaching and learning, created in collaboration with Advance Illinois and with the support of the American Institutes for Research. It sets out a future where all students—not just the fortunate—in Illinois are assured the best from their teachers.

It sets forth a vision of teachers as nation builders, respected professionals who are entrusted with our country’s future.

We believe that the policies that Advance Illinois has promoted during the last two years - including new professional teacher and principal evaluations, a new preparation process for principals, and new teacher certification requirements - will help establish the kind of high quality work environments we need in Illinois to attract and keep the best and brightest in the teaching profession.

As teachers and educators, we are willing to go the extra mile for our students, step outside out comfort zones, hold each other accountable. identify those who excel at instruction, create and lead teams focuses on student and school goals, and build careers in which we continually examine and improve upon our teaching and leadership skills.

We appreciate working with Advance Illinois and hope for more avenues for educator engagement in the development, design, and implementation of policy. Together, we believe we can propel our students and Illinois' education system forward to meet the needs of this exciting, evolving world.