P-20 Network Newsletter — April 5, 2024

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is excited to share its statewide Career and Technical Education (CTE) Summer Professional Learning Calendar. With only one exception, all of these workshops are free to attend, and the calendar includes a mix of in-person and online workshops on a wide range of topics. These workshops are geared toward meeting the needs of CTE teachers, though all teachers, counselors, and administrators are also welcome to attend.

On June 18, 2024, the ISBE Career Connections Conference will be held at the Tinley Park Convention Center. With dozens of breakout sessions led by educators from across Illinois, a panel of industry experts focused on Work-Based Learning, and an opening by ISBE’s State Superintendent, Dr. Tony Sanders, this is a learning event not to be missed! At a cost of only $65 per participant (and discounts for groups of 5 or more), this may be the greatest professional learning value for educators in Illinois!

On April 3, 2024, the Higher Education Committee held a hearing, and among the bills heard was HB5020, an amendment to the Dual Credit Quality Act. Multiple people representing interest groups testified and shared their positions, and ultimately, there was a commitment to continue negotiations on an additional amendment to the legislation that is currently being drafted with additional stakeholder feedback.

The Illinois P-20 Network will continue to do two things as this process moves forward:

Share updates to the Dual Credit Think Tank, specifically, and to the field broadly.

Provide opportunities for practitioners from both postsecondary institutions and school districts to share their feedback on key elements of discussion that are still being considered with the next amendment to HB5020.

Learn more about the current components of HB5020 and where it stands in the legislative process in this P-20 Network News HB5020 Update.

STEAMing It Up is a one-day interdisciplinary conference for educators from across all grade levels that will be held at the Waubonsee Community College Downtown Aurora Campus on June 7, 2024. This year’s conference is focused on evidence-based literacy instructional strategies and their integration within STEAM instruction. The conference will focus on engaging students across all instructional tiers while also building their Essential Skills.

The keynote at STEAMing It Up will feature ISBE principal consultants from across English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science jointly presenting It Takes a Village: Collaborating for Success for All Students in Literacy and STEAM.

Join the Educational Coaching Network on May 9, 2024, at NIU Naperville for its 2024 ECN Conference featuring Jennifer Abrams. The focus of this day will be the five facets of being our best selves at work – knowing our identity, suspending certainty, taking responsibility, working interdependently, and building resiliency. In addition to free parking, breakfast, lunch, materials, and six Professional Development Hours (PDHs), participants will receive a copy of Jennifer’s new book Stretching Your Learning Edges: Growing (Up) at Work.

The Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) is seeking applicants for the position of ISACorps™ Community Outreach Worker. ISACorps™ are near-peer mentors who work with students and their families throughout the state as they navigate the college going process. A concerted effort is made to reach out to first-generation college students and/or those who are low income. ISAC hires in every region of Illinois so that the individuals being served work with someone from their area who has college experience. This is a full-time salaried opportunity with extensive training and career development support as well as tuition waivers for state universities. Positions are available across the state with a start date of June 2024. The job description and application can be found on the ISAC website.

Please share this outstanding opportunity widely with spring college graduates and recent alumni in your network.

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