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What we’ve been up to... |
As many of you have classes starting with students next week or the following week, we know that this arrives at your inbox at an exciting and stressful time. Have fun welcoming back students, their families, and colleagues, and we wish you a great start to the year!
While we’ve made sure that we were working day and night on wrapping up the KEEP Illinois Defining Educator Compensation report, we’ve also been out and engaged both in-person and online with partners across Illinois.
Sauk Valley Community College Board Meeting – We were excited to present at the Sauk Valley Community College Board Meeting regarding the Northwest Illinois Rural and Small-Town LEAP program, the importance of collaboration between school districts, community colleges, and universities, and our collective efforts to address workforce issues, in this case particularly those related to the teacher pipeline. Also, check out the cool Points of Pride cards that SVCC puts out for Board and audience members. There were three programming highlights this month – two on one side of the card and one on the other side of the card!
Planning for Professional Development and Strategic Planning – With the year about to begin, we’ve had a number of meetings with partners over the past two weeks regarding upcoming support for their strategic planning and/or implementation efforts as well as for forthcoming professional development on topics ranging from dual credit to career readiness to authentic learning instruction and assessment.
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ECN Student-Centered Coaching Series with Diane Sweeney
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We are so excited for this year’s innovative and custom ECN Student-Centered Coaching Series with Diane Sweeney. We have been privileged to partner with Diane to develop a new and unique approach to examining Student-Centered Coaching this year. This year’s coaching promotes partnerships between coaches and both teachers and administrators, as well as aligning with The School Leader Paradigm from the Illinois
Principals Association, a model for promoting growth among school leaders.
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. The paired workshop dates are designed to promote the attendance of administrators and coaches together on the first day and just coaches on the second day. Of course, coaches are welcome and encouraged to attend without administrators, and administrators are welcome to attend both days of each level!
November 17 – 18 – Level 1 Workshops
February 24 – 25 – Level 2 Workshops
April 14 – 15 – Level 3 Workshops
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| Learn more and register now
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Illinois P-20 Network Research Updates
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The Illinois P-20 Network has continued to work on multiple research projects throughout this summer, and we want to highlight a current and an upcoming project here.
KEEP Illinois Defining Educator Compensation Report – We have wrapped up data analysis from the Defining Educator Compensation survey that was administered this spring, and we have also brought relevant Illinois Report Card data in to further
that analysis. The report is currently being finalized. Over the coming weeks, the findings will be shared with KEEP Illinois members as well as statewide educational leaders. From there, we will launch the full report and host webinars to share the information broadly. This report will include both potential policy considerations at the state level as well as suggestions for local consideration.
Work-Based Learning Research – Following the publication of the SkillsUSA Illinois Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning Landscape Analysis earlier this year, the integrated
research team of the Illinois P-20 Network and the Workforce Policy Lab at the NIU Center for Governmental Studies has continued its collaboration regarding next steps. The Workforce Policy Lab continues to be the statewide leader in research on apprenticeships and in-practice work regarding apprenticeship policy. The Illinois P-20 Network has defined a scope to continue building out long-term research around work-based learning that will commence early this fall and begin to build trend data that can be utilized at the state and local level for policy evaluation, instructional improvement, and workforce development planning. Stay tuned for more information this Fall with the next report likely to be released in January 2026.
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Rightsizing Proficiency Benchmarks in Illinois
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One of the major, long-term projects that ISBE has engaged with since Dr. Sanders stepped into the role as State Superintendent has been examining our proficiency standards, which define what successful student learning looks like in Illinois and which also serve as the basis for setting cut scores around performance levels on state assessments, like the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, the ACT, and the Illinois Science Assessment.
Drawing on his experience in U-46, Dr. Sanders knows that many students there who have been labeled by the State as being not ready by state assessments were simultaneously earning dual credit or scoring a 4 or 5 on Advanced Placement exams and moving on to earn degrees and experience success in postsecondary institutions as well as in careers. As a result of those experiences and given the fact that state-level cut scores in Illinois are an outlier in comparison to other states (with the Illinois cut scores being especially stringent), ISBE continues to lead a lengthy process that we've previously shared here toward the end goal of rightsizing cut scores.
As we have done in the past, we will continue to share information here about this developing work from ISBE. In the meantime, earlier this month, ISBE posted this video with an overview of the Accountability Listening Tour, one of two Listening Tours in which ISBE engaged this past Spring.
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Is your district ready for the Career and Postsecondary Readiness requirement?
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Did you know that the PaCE Framework requirement of Public Act 102-0917 is now in place for all school districts across Illinois that serve students in grades 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12? We have been working with many school districts, and particularly elementary school districts, helping to support their development and implementation of a career and postsecondary readiness framework. We
find that this work can be deeply engaging for teachers and administrators who have typically not considered workforce outcomes or the postsecondary landscape for their students. We have also been able to ensure that these efforts are deeply integrated with instructional improvement within each district and that such efforts are not a meaningless checkbox for educators, nor just another initiative that will come and go.
Interested in learning more about how we can support your school district with career readiness planning that is integrated with your strategic goals and with instructional improvement efforts? Set-up a time for us to meet to discuss your needs!
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Take (and share!) the Stand for Children Illinois High School Survey |
Over 40% of Illinois’ 12th graders were chronically absent last year. About a quarter of high school students disagree or strongly disagree that what they learn in their classes prepares them for what they plan to do in life.
Stand for Children Illinois is asking: How can we reimagine high school to make it
meaningful for all students? How can we ensure that every student has access to high school coursework, work-based learning and internships, early college or career training, clubs and extracurricular activities, and authentic relationships with peers and adults that give them a sense of belonging in their school community and a unique pathway to pursue their individualized goals for the future?
Stand for Children Illinois invites you to take this 5-minute survey to help us understand how
to make high school meaningful for all students. We also encourage you to share this with others who may be interested and willing participants!
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ISBE Webinars — Updating SEL Standards
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ISBE is inviting educators from across Illinois to join webinars for an overview of the draft of the new social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies within the Illinois SEL Learning Standards. Each webinar will be held from 9 to 11:30 AM. The first of these webinars is taking place right now at the time of the sending of this Newsletter on August 8, 2025, and the next webinar will be held on Friday, August 15, 2025, from 9 AM until 11:30 AM. These informative session will include:
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| Register for next week's webinar
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P-20 Network Email Newsletter —
Pass it along today!
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P-20 Network Newsletters will typically come out every two weeks on Friday. The newsletters include updates on critical policy developments, professional development opportunities, success stories from the Network and much more.
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You are receiving this message because you have previously attended a P-20 Network Meeting and/or have been on previous P-20 Network emails. We encourage
you to forward this email to others in your organization, such as principals, assistant principals, and department chairs by using the Forward to a Friend link below. Others can subscribe by simply completing this very short form.
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Forward this message by using the “Forward to a Friend” button below.
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Copyright © 2025 Illinois P-20 Network, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Illinois P-20 Network
Lowden Hall
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115
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