Educator Pipeline Group

Leveraging Expertise and Data Insights to Improve Educational Access

Illinois’ educator workforce is complex— the Educator Pipeline Group (EPG) comes together to craft proactive strategies and systems that strengthen and diversify our pipeline and prepare students for college and career success.

About the Educator Pipeline Group

Launched in 2019, the Education Pipeline Group (EPG) today represents over 90 organizations with members from state agencies, school districts, civil rights and advocacy groups, teacher voice organizations, institutions of higher education, and education management groups. 

“I believe we do a good job of educating our students. That said, working with this group has challenged me to look at existing structures and ask how we can improve them. Whereas it can be easy to throw up your arms and say, ‘The system can't be changed," I've seen how it can change through research, collaboration, and advocacy.”

Bob Chikos
Special Education Teacher
Crystal Lake Central High School

Our Organizing Principles

The principles that drive the work of the EPG are centered around the question: How can we work together to refine, advance, and support innovative strategies and systems to recruit, develop, and retain highly effective educators who reflect the diversity of Illinois and prepare students for college and career success to build stronger communities? Any solution would do the following: 

  • Ensure all students have highly-effective, culturally-responsive educators who are prepared to support their academic, social, and emotional needs.   

  • Ensure all aspiring and current educators have access to career exploration, preparation, induction, professional learning, and continued leadership opportunities.  

Additionally, the group has worked to consider the educator pipeline holistically, from recruitment and preparation to retention, leadership, and growth, integrated diversity into each element.  

Read the Educator Pipeline Group’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion statement.

  • Motivate individuals to pursue an education career in Illinois by increasing the desirability, prestige, and sustainability of the profession from early childhood through 12th grade.   

  • Build upon and explore strategies that address the educator shortage and meet short term needs while maintaining high standards of quality that students need to succeed.   

  • Cultivate an inclusive educational environment that recruits, develops, supports, and retains educators that better reflect the diversity of our state. 

How We Work

The EPG meets monthly to work together to refine, advance, and support innovative strategies for recruiting, developing, and retaining highly effective educators in Illinois as outlined in the policy development process.

Our policy and advocacy work are accomplished through five Policy Action Teams, each of which focus on a different aspect of the educator pipeline including recruitment, preparation, IEP workstreams,  leadership, and diversity. Here are the current Policy Action Teams:

    • Short-term: no cost, building off existing initiatives; collaborate with Ed Rising to identify outreach and dissemination opportunities to Seal of Biliteracy and Multilingual students. 

    • Long-term (possible fiscal note, legislative/administrative change) Bilingual Licensure Hub/Consortium Innovative preparation pilot for Bilingual/ESL endorsement into coursework for licensure. 

    • Help more students complete teacher prep programs by alleviating the financial barrier, expanding and increasing diversity in the pipeline  

    • Help address inequities across districts in terms of who can afford to offer funding to attract student teachers  

    • Support consistent and quality training for cooperating teachers to support their vital work in coaching and mentoring student teachers  

    • Draw more cooperating teachers into the role 

    • The ‘IEP Review Work Group’ is partnering with all stakeholders to streamline IEP paperwork so that it is less burdensome on special education teachers and support staff and more meaningful for parents. 

    • Short-term:  Create a new ISBE capacity to support teacher leadership focused on systematic expansion of and support for teacher leadership  

    • Long-term: Form a coalition dedicated to systematic expansion of and support for teacher leadership. 

    • Short-term:  Work with ISBE to roll out the Illinois Educator Preparation Program profiles and highlight measures for reporting out numbers of diverse candidates and graduates  

    • Long-term:  Form a New Principal Mentoring Work Group to Advocate for Sustained FY26 Funding and Potential Improvements to New Principal Mentoring 

 For more information or to join, contact Jim O’Connor at: joconnor@advanceillinois.org.