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What we’ve been up to... 

From attending in-person statewide meetings to being in classrooms with students to working with educators on professional development and planning, it has been a busy two weeks... 

• SDLC Statewide Meeting at Waubonsee Community College – Along with the ISBE CTE team and other CTE leaders from across the state, EFE directors gathered from throughout Illinois for planning and collaboration. 

• GPS Parent Series – Why Before Where: Career Planning for the Next Generation – The Illinois P-20 Network’s Jason Klein hosted a GPS session with Dr. Ken Wallace on career readiness and postsecondary planning. This session was broadcast live on the Internet and was held at the Technology Center of DuPage. In-person discussion followed with curriculum and instruction and career readiness leaders from throughout DuPage and Cook Counties. 

• McHenry County College Dual Credit and Counseling – The Illinois P-20 Network spent the past few weeks working with high school counselors from across McHenry County and advisors from McHenry County College. These sessions provided background about dual credit, explored individual case scenarios, and then examined counseling and advising systems and processes across school districts. 

• Middle School Career Readiness Planning – Regional work has continued to support middle school career readiness planning that is designed to improve classroom instruction and ensure that curriculum is delivered in ways that are as authentic and relevant as possible. 

• Lake County Tech Campus – Just yesterday, the Illinois P-20 Network was able to attend this year’s Lake County Tech Campus annual partner lunch and serve as participants for the Tech Campus Education Advisory Council. 

In addition to these events, we were able to celebrate the 118th Homecoming at our home institution, Northern Illinois University, and we’ve been just as excited to see the fall celebrations taking place in school districts and postsecondary institutions across the Network. Your efforts to build community and provide a bright light for all learners and staff are noticed and are more important than ever! Thank you, and please reach out if there are any supports we can provide to your community! 

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Big Hollow Builds Success with Sweeney's Student-Centered Coaching 

Big Hollow School District 38, which is located in Central Lake County, Illinois, shows how student-centered coaching can make a difference. 

A Big Hollow team attended an ECN workshop with Diane Sweeney two years ago. They chose Diane’s coaching model because of its student-centered nature, which helped to get staff on board from the beginning with collecting student data and measuring growth. Now, two years later, Big Hollow has discovered a new challenge – the demand for coaching from teachers is off-the-charts! After hearing their colleagues’ success stories, nearly all of the teachers want to be coached. 

With Diane back this year to provide an updated and innovative set of Student-Centered Coaching workshops, your school district can mirror the successes that have been evident at Big Hollow. Learn more about this year’s ECN Student-Centered Coaching Series directly from Diane! 

This year’s series includes six workshops divided into three levels. Participants can choose to attend as few or as many individual workshops as they want.  

• November 17–18 – Level 1 Workshops – DeKalb, Illinois 

• February 24–25 – Level 2 Workshops – Naperville, Illinois 

• April 14–15 – Level 3 Workshops – Naperville, Illinois 

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Dual Credit and Weighted Grades – New Survey 

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GPS Parent Series – Free and Available for Your Families 

Did you know that the GPS Parent Series: Navigating Healthy Families is free and available to be shared with your families across Illinois (and beyond)? The GPS Parent Series has been in place for over 30 years, and over that time period, it has grown tremendously. Now, it features dozens of events online each year for parents that are free and cover a range of topics, from academic and life skills to career and postsecondary readiness to parenting. Sessions are offered in both English and Spanish. Check out the full range of events, including past events that are recorded and remain available, and please share with your community and families. 

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ECEP Illinois Report Released 

The ECEP Illinois team has released the Illinois Strategic Action Plan for Computer Science Education (K–12). This plan reflects years of collaboration among educators, researchers, policymakers, nonprofit organizations, industry partners, and community voices from across the state. (The Illinois P-20 Network was engaged as a participant in ECEP Illinois during its opening year of work.) This plan identifies both key challenges and solutions to make computer science and artificial intelligence education equitable and sustainable across Illinois. With clear priorities on funding, teacher preparation, K–12 pathways, outreach, research, and guidance on AI, the plan offers policymakers and leaders the information needed to create policies and legislative responses.

ECEP Illinois invites educators and the public to help shape the next stage of this work. The public feedback period is open and will close on November 30, 2025. Click here and scroll down for a link to a form where you can provide feedback on the plan. In addition to online input, there will be in-person feedback sessions. Details on session dates and locations will follow. 

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One Click Admit – Supporting High School Students with Postsecondary Admission 

One Click College Admit – an initiative of the State of Illinois – is the state's free, quick, and stress-free direct admissions program into most state public universities and all community colleges. Participating students pay no application fees and do not need to submit essays or letters of recommendation for general admission to these state universities or their local community college – the only requirement to be considered for admission to most of the state's universities is meeting the university's minimum grade point average (GPA). Interested students can visit the One Click College Admit site (https://oneclickadmit.org/) for more information and to opt in to participate. Students who are under 18 years of age must have their parent or guardian complete and sign the consent and release form.

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Does your school or district need an Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resource team-based challenge?

Check out NIU's Innovation Challenge!

Teams of high-school and community college students will strengthen their critical thinking and communication skills by collaborating with team members to solve an authentic problem. This is great for FFA, 4H, and other student clubs as well as for science classes. 

Teams will choose one of two authentic food system problems: 

• Microplastic contamination in seafood 

• Antibiotic-resistant bacteria contamination in beef and dairy 

Students will work in teams of 2 to 4 to analyze the problem, utilize the authentic employability competencies, and collaborate with an industry partner to generate a solution. By aligning to these goals, the Innovation Challenge meets the criteria established by ISBE for Team-Based Challenges. 

Learn more and register your team at niusteam.niu.edu/innovation-challenge.

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FREE Adventure-Based Learning Workshop
Share with physical education teachers, counselors, social workers, and other educators!  

This free workshop will be held on Saturday, November 8, from 12 to 4.30 PM at Glenbard East High School.  

The workshop is designed to meet the wide range of interests and varied experiences of educators who may be looking to introduce, refine, or elevate their offerings of Adventure-Based Learning (ABL).  In this interactive workshop, participants will engage in a series of activities that reinforce key ABL principles (e.g., Community Building, Communication, Decision Making, etc.) and which support the work school districts are doing with students on Social and Emotional Learning and the ISBE Essential Skills.  

The agenda includes an overview and sequencing of ABL both in physical education and in other settings, including: belaying, low elements, high level group initiatives, and high elements.  Led by experienced Facilitators Nicole Miller and Jim Ressler, participants will leave with resources for instant implementation – including planning materials, facilitation guides, and a range of processing strategies to document and enhance the learning experience.  Attendance is free, and Professional Development Hours are available!  

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ISBE announces Numeracy Plan Listening Sessions 

The Illinois State Board of Education is kicking off listening sessions for the statewide Numeracy Plan work, and the Illinois P-20 Network is excited to be hosting the October 22 session at the Northern Illinois University Naperville Conference Center!

Learn more about this work, including all the stops on the Numeracy Plan Listening Tour, and register on the ISBE Numeracy Plan website. 

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