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What we’ve been up to... 

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been engaged with: 

• KEEP Illinois – With the report finalized and ready-to-be-released, we are very excited about moving toward action steps to improve educator engagement throughout our careers. More details about upcoming webinars on October 16 and 17 are highlighted later in this Newsletter! 

• Dual Credit Think Tank - While we completed the analysis of the survey data, its release was unfortunately delayed this week due to illness. No later than early next week, we intend to communicate updated Dual Credit Think Tank meetings with members to share that data and gather feedback from across the Dual Credit Think Tank. 

• Working with partners in the field – Unfortunately, illness curtailed a number of activities over these past two weeks, but members of the Illinois P-20 Network team were able to be out working with partners throughout the state and beyond. A few highlighted experiences include: 

• U-46 & Alignment Collaborative for Education EXPLORE Eighth Grade Career Experience – We were able to attend the welcome reception for vendors, the student and family night, and the eighth grade student visits to U-46's EXPLORE experience held at NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates. With everything from large corporations to small businesses as well as programing from Elgin Community College and universities, this experience was an engaging kick-off for students and their families in the course selection process. 
  

• NIU STEAM’s STEM Fest – Spending the day with thousands of students and families who descended on DeKalb from across Northern Illinois, STEM Fest provided a very fun, very engaging, and incredibly career-focused experience for elementary and middle school students in addition to high school students and their parents! From organized busloads of students from schools to families attending for a free day of fun, if you missed STEM Fest this year, we hope you will join us next fall for the sixteenth edition! 
  

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Next week, we will be releasing two surveys – one focused on educational organizations and one for employers.  

Here’s what we’re asking for assistance with from our Illinois P-20 Network partners:

• Please complete the educational organization survey. 

• Please share the employer survey with any partners who engage in any type of work-based learning and ask them to complete this survey. 

This study has strong potential to identify significant gaps in work-based learning opportunities that exist either across Career Pathways or geographically. But the only way that this study can fulfill its potential is for organizations across Illinois, large and small, to complete it! 

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ECN announces new Coaching and Wellness Workshop  

On December 10, 2024, at NIU Naperville, the Educational Coaching Network will host its newest workshop – Coaching and Wellness: Creating a Mentally Healthy Classroom. 

The workshop is timed perfectly to allow teachers, instructional coaches, support services professionals, and school administrators to engage in thinking about classroom practices that support mental and emotional well-being and provide a stronger foundation for academic learning. 

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KEEP Illinois – The Road to Retention – Report Release Forthcoming 

We are excited to announce two upcoming webinars/online meetings. At these meetings, we will be releasing The Road to Retention: Understanding the educator shortage and ways to engage and keep educators, a comprehensive review of the literature about educator retention and engagement. In this report, we also highlight recommendations for action, and these recommendations for action will now become the basis for the next steps for KEEP Illinois – from practice to policy.

KEEP Illinois webinars will be held on:

• October 16, 2024, at 4 PM

• October 17, 2024, at 1 PM

Existing KEEP Illinois participants will receive calendar invites early next week from Tim Dohrer. Additionally, KEEP Illinois is always welcoming additional participants to its ranks of nearly 100 teachers, administrators, and retired educators from across Illinois. To become a member of the KEEP Illinois team, please share your interest via email with Tim Dohrer (tdohrer@niu.edu).

Learn more about KEEP Illinois at https://p20network.niu.edu/keep-illinois/.

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Over the course of this month, all school districts across Illinois are asked to complete the ISBE Unfilled Positions Survey with a due date of November 1, 2024. The data from the Unfilled Positions Survey is critical as it is truly P-20 data that is used in planning to meet our educational workforce needs. Such data is also used by researchers, as well as for articulating funding needs at the state and federal levels as well as with other non-profits. 

Unfilled Positions Survey analysis can only be done on what is provided, so it is critical that districts complete this survey accurately and on time. Providing data on your school district’s unfilled positions actually takes place within ISBE’s Employment Information System (EIS). If you have questions about EIS, please contact ISBE at datahelp@isbe.net. 

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Illinois P-20 Network
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