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What we’ve been up to... 

It has been a very exciting and very busy past two weeks with lots of work across Illinois. We’ve been all over the place, and it’s been great to be hands-on with everything from instructional practices in the classroom to state policy, and from supporting current and future teachers to implementing high-level research! Read on to see what we’ve been up to... 

• Localized planning with partners on customized services with both school districts and community partners. 

• Illinois Workforce Innovation Board Work-Based Learning Workgroup Meeting with DCEO, ICCB, representatives from industry, corporations, and education 

• VALEES Institute Day, including novel workshops focused on implementing authentic learning and the Essential Skills directly in middle schools to capitalize on learning and career-readiness research with early adolescents and to make for fruitful transitions to and through high school and beyond. 

• Regional planning for expanded workforce to teaching pipeline programs with joint efforts from leaders across the community college, regional office of education, and school districts. 

• Advance Illinois Legislative Dinner examining the next steps in Illinois expansion of infrastructure around and support for early childhood education. 

• As part of the launch of the SkillsUSA Illinois Apprenticeship Landscape Analysis report, attending the SkillsUSA Illinois Amplify event during which SkillsUSA students were able to learn about leadership and legislative processes. 

• Meeting with key education professional and advocacy organizations around our expanded Illinois P-20 Network research agenda focusing on topics related to Career and College Readiness and Educator Engagement. 
  

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SkillsUSA Illinois Apprenticeship Landscape Analysis – Educator Overview Webinar 

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ECN Conference 2025 – Register Now 

We are excited to be welcoming Diane Sweeney back for this year’s ECN Conference on April 24, 2025. This session is ideal for coaches and administrators to attend as Diane will walk us through some of the most critical issues to get right for school culture, educators’ growth, the long-term success of instructional coaching, and, ultimately, student success. Check out this short video Diane recorded for more information! 

In addition to this year’s ECN Conference, we still have one more Instructional Coaching Hot Topic session on April 10, after-school, online via Zoom. Learn more and register! 

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Keep Illinois Upadate

Earlier this year, we released The Road to Retention: Understanding the educator shortage and ways to engage and keep educators. This report featured four recommendations to improve retention and engagement among educators related to: 

• Compensation 

• Teacher Leadership 

• Professional Development, Coaching, and Co-Teaching 

• Culture, Working Conditions, and Wellness 
  

Throughout the winter, we've been coordinating with other statewide groups working in the Teacher Leadership space. Additionally, we continue to develop new programs for the Educational Coaching Network to address professional development and coaching (though not specifically co-teaching, we realize!).   

Today, we are excited to share that we've also been working on the other two recommendations – Compensation and Culture, Working Conditions, and Wellness. To further these efforts, we want to dig-in and find out what is already taking place, what is working, and what educators really want with regards to these concepts. To learn more about this, we will be launching a statewide survey in April that seeks to gather more information directly from educators of all types across all levels from throughout Illinois to both identify high-quality practices that are working in school districts and to seek the creation of additional novel solutions to these challenges. We're hoping for thousands of responses from across Illinois, and we're currently working to build alliances with those that will be able to share out this link across schools, districts, and regions. 

Visit the KEEP Illinois website, and continue to watch our Newsletter for more information! 

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