From the Desk—Reflecting on Progress in 2024

What a year this has been! While there have been challenges, including a tight budget, we are grateful that 2024 also brought real progress. As we look ahead to 2025, knowing we face another tough budget year and plenty of changes and challenges, the progress made in 2024 reminds us that positive impact is not only possible, but essential. There is, of course, more work to do, but it is important to pause and appreciate where we have taken important steps, seen meaningful growth, and tackled deep-seated and difficult issues. Then, fortified by the knowledge that we can accomplish hard things when we put our minds to it, we can ready ourselves for the next push. 

In Early Childhood, A New Agency and a New Leader! 

2024 is the year that Illinois created the Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC), a move that allows the state for the first time to bring together programs that have been managed across three agencies – a move that in turn creates the opportunity to ensure that programs and policies are fairer, more effective, and easier to navigate for both families and providers. Of course, it requires serious focus and visionary leadership to take full advantage of this opportunity. So it is fortunate indeed that the Governor has appointed Dr. Teresa Ramos as the founding Secretary of IDEC. As First Assistant Deputy Governor for Education, Dr. Ramos has been integrally involved in IDEC’s development. A longstanding education advocate (including as Outreach Director for Advance Illinois!), she is committed to working closely with parents, community leaders, providers, and those with technical expertise as the emerging agency shapes key new strategies to strengthen Illinois’ system of early childhood education and care.  

We look forward to partnering with Dr. Ramos and IDEC in 2025 and beyond, and will continue to prioritize core recommendations from the Governor’s Early Childhood Funding Commission. These include stable and coordinated funding mechanisms to support high-quality programs, improved system-wide data and analytic capacity to inform programs and policy, and targeted work to retain, recruit and fairly compensate a qualified and diverse ECEC workforce. Importantly, the state has already made meaningful headway on these critical goals. You can read more about the good work already underway in our recent ECEC publication.  

K12: Signs of Progress, Areas for Improvement 

Along with the rest of the country (and world), Illinois students continue to recover from the impacts of COVID 19 and significant educational and community disruptions.  So it was encouraging that the 2024 Illinois School Report Card included news that Illinois students demonstrated academic proficiency that exceeded pre-pandemic levels in English Language Arts, that kindergarten readiness in the state is steadily increasing, that high school graduation rates continue to improve (especially among Black students), and that college-enrollment is ticking back up.  That is all worth cheering, and suggests that dedicated, hard work at the local level is making a difference, as is ongoing investment in the state’s equitable school funding formula. At the same time, other data reminds us of the work ahead. The state continues to wrestle with significant equity gaps, math proficiency has not yet rebounded, nor has college readiness, as reflected in SAT scores. As importantly, chronic absenteeism rates – powerful predictors of longer-term persistence and achievement - remain troublingly high, particularly for targeted student groups.  

At long last...A Serious Blueprint for Adequate, Equitable, and Sustainable Funding for Illinois’ Public Universities 

This year, after more than 2 years of analysis, research and discussion, the Commission on Equitable Public University Funding concluded its work with strong, actionable recommendations for a better way to fund the state’s public universities. As the Senate and House convened hearings on the Commission’s findings, there was a growing and clear consensus that the state’s current funding approach cannot continue; that it is time to move away from a system that does not consider student or institutional need, that is not connected to any state priorities, and is driven largely by politics. Today, SB3965 and HB5907, which operationalize the Commission’s recommendations, have been filed, and higher education leaders and legislators are actively negotiating a final package. We fully expect the General Assembly to take up this critical issue in the coming session, but it is worth pausing to celebrate that for first time, Illinois has a clear roadmap for how to better support students and universities, and to ensure that sufficient funding follows student need. The state now has a ground-breaking model that is (1) anchored in adequacy and equity, (2) with a distribution methodology that acknowledges the diverse needs of students and the specific missions of universities, and (3) prioritizes new dollars for institutions with the least resources while ensuring all institutions benefit.  

Also on the higher education front, we can and should celebrate that the state continues to grow the Monetary Award Program (MAP), appropriating at a level that allows all applicants to receive awards, even as it has enabled the state to increase average award amounts.  That said, MAP still covers just 55% of average tuition and fees at a four-year public university, compared to 100% coverage in the early 2000s, and Illinois remains one of the least affordable states in the nation to attend college. So the work continues. (And it is worth noting that fixing the state’s public university funding will also help keep tuition rates down.) 

Supporting and Strengthening Our Educator Pipeline 

Illinois has been building a comprehensive and evidence-based set of strategies to strengthen and grow the state’s educator pipeline. These efforts include a new media campaign to attract the next generation of teachers, investment in new teacher mentoring and coaching, and ongoing work to remove financial barriers for student teachers, bilingual teachers, special education teachers, and aspiring teachers of color. The result? Illinois continues to see increased enrollment in teacher preparation programs and a more diverse set of candidates. Federal stimulus dollars have bolstered these efforts, but in 2024 the state wisely chose to use state dollars to continue key programs, such as the Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity (ECACE) and teacher affinity groups. We hope the state will continue to invest in these and other critical pipeline programs, particularly as demand for effective and diverse educators increases. 

In addition to creating and growing relevant programs, the state took important steps this year to reflect on and revisit key elements of our teacher licensure and evaluation systems. We commend ISBE and the General Assembly for evaluating and seeking to continuously improve these critical systems, which are in place to ensure our educators are effective and well-supported. 

Sadly, 2024 also brought some challenges. This year, after several years of historic increases in funding to the Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) Scholarship, a 32-year program and one of numerous key investments the state has been making to strengthen and diversify its teaching pool, MTI has come under legal attack. 

The lawsuit against MTI alleges discrimination on the basis of race, as the scholarship is limited to teacher candidates of color. The challenge to this longstanding and effective program is misguided, missing the critical point that this scholarship supplements many other programs, and, more importantly, is targeted to address research-based student need. Put simply, Illinois continues to work to undo systemic injustice and to ensure that students of color are given the tools they need to achieve and succeed at the same rate as their peers. Decades of research tells us that students of color do better across a range of outcomes when they have a teacher of color at some point during their schooling. To address this, Illinois launched MTI, making scholarships available to aspiring teachers of color in exchange for those teachers teaching in schools with 30% or more students of color.  Discontinuing a strategy grounded in evidence to improve student outcomes is in opposition to our state and our children’s best interests. Accordingly, we expect strong support for HR0942 and SR1303 affirming the state’s compelling interest in maintaining this critical program. 

In Conclusion... 

Illinois seeks to become the greatest state in the nation to raise a child, and we are working to implement strong, forward-looking, student-centered policies and vision. Consider the transformative change in K-12 education spurred by Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) reform, this year’s massive governance shift in early childhood, and proposals on the table to bring adequacy and equity to the forefront in Higher Education in ways no other state has attempted. We have proven over and over again that when we come together to think boldly, and when we keep students and children at the center, we can and do accomplish important things. On to 2025! 

From the Desk—Back to School 2024: What the School Year Holds, and What We’re Watching

Back-to-school season is a busy and exciting time for families and students across the state. The energy in the air is palpable – and policy leaders are feeling it, too, with big changes underway this fall in early childhood education and care, and as the state considers whether a new funding system is on the horizon for higher education. Here’s what we are watching and working on this fall! 

The New Illinois Department of Early Childhood:  A First Step toward Transformational Change 
As of July 1, 2024, Illinois has a stand-alone, integrated Department of Early Childhood (IDEC)! It was wonderful to pause over the summer to celebrate this accomplishment – one of several critical recommendations from the 2021 Illinois Commision on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Task Force! As the new school year begins, the state has less than two years of transition time to tackle other essential Commission recommendations: (1) that Illinois move toward more adequate and equitable funding overall, (2) that it adopt new funding mechanisms that make it easier for families and providers to access and navigate the system, (3) that we grow the pipeline into the profession while improving wages and benefits, and (4) that we improve data collection and develop relevant, annual reports that help inform practice and policy.  While the search for a permanent IDEC Secretary is underway, the transition moves forward under Transition Director, Ann Whalen, and Acting Secretary, Irma Martinez Snopek, with regional listening sessions continuing through September and new Transition Workgroups starting up.   

As a member of the Transition Advisory Committee, we will be following along and paying close attention to all developments. If you are interested in getting involved, all Transition Advisory Committee working groups are now public, and we invite you to listen in and share your perspective on what transformational change can look like within the new agency. The meeting schedule is posted on IDEC’s new website. 

K-12: Consistency is Key, but Is It Enough to Sustain Recovery? 
It seems hard to believe, but we just passed the 7-year anniversary of the Evidence-Based Funding for Student Success Act. The funds that have flowed through EBF have made a tremendous difference across the state, and in conjunction with federal relief dollars, contributed to districts’ ability to respond to the pandemic. As we look toward the 2024 Illinois Report Card, we hope and expect to see progress on learning outcomes. Indeed, we are heartened by findings from IWERC’s learning renewal reports.  As one might expect, the reports show that schools that were low-performing and less well-funded going into the pandemic were the most deeply impacted by COVID disruptions (i.e., saw the steepest academic declines). However, the study also reveals that these districts have been making the fastest recovery. That is heartening news, though it is important to note that the same data make clear that we are not yet fully recovered. As importantly, even when we have once again reached pre-pandemic performance, student outcomes will still be far from where they need to be, and ongoing gaps by race, income, language and more remain significant. So as districts see ESSER funds disappear this year, and grapple with the impact of a projected ~$500M decline in local revenues through the Corporate Personal Property Replacement Tax (CPPRT), EBF is more important than ever. If our goal is learning ‘renewal’, not just ‘recovery’, we need to dig deep and find the dollars it takes. 

Higher Education: On the Path to Adequate and Equitable Funding 
At a special press conference and roundtable event this July, Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, joined by her colleague, Rep. Carol Ammons, announced the filing of SB3965 (Adequate & Equitable Funding Formula for Public Universities), a bill that brings to life the Recommendations of the Illinois Commission on Equitable Higher Education Funding. The recommendations are the product of over two years of dedicated investigation, discussion, research, data analysis, modeling, and more – a process that created a blueprint for how Illinois can reimagine the way it funds public universities. The bill introduces a groundbreaking student-centered, adequacy-based public university funding formula to replace the outdated, politically-driven process. This new formula is focused on what universities need to support student success – adjusting funding based on deep and persistent equity gaps and designed to support each university’s unique mission. Importantly, the bill calls for new funding to close longstanding and significant statewide funding gaps, and while all universities get new dollars, the formula ensures that institutions furthest from adequacy are prioritized to accelerate them toward full funding.  SB3965 also includes a robust framework for accountability and transparency, ensuring new investments support students and advance state goals. Having served on the Commission, I am thrilled to support this equitable approach to university funding, accountability, and transparency. Further, we are delighted that the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) has launched an Adequacy and Equity in Community College Funding Working Group to examine how the state’s two-year colleges might also re-think the funding and supports so essential to the thousands of students who enroll each year. The need is clear on all fronts, the energy and momentum are building, and we look forward to making concrete progress in the coming year. 

Two Additional Things We're Excited About This Fall 
COVID shined a light on the need for Illinois to develop a truly systemic approach to student mental health and well-being. The Resilience-Supportive Schools Roadmap represents an important step in the right direction. The Roadmap builds on the Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH) pilot and the Social-Emotional Learning Hubs, offering a guide for schools and districts to self-assess where they are in becoming trauma-informed, and resources they can use to develop stronger supports, programs and systems to address student mental health and well-being. These quality resources, together with a coherent and overarching structure, can and should be a game changer for countless students and communities across our state.  

We are also excited that The Illinois State Board of Education has launched “The Answer is Teaching” campaign. The campaign is designed to elevate the teaching profession and recruit new teachers, and by all accounts it is off to a strong start. We’ve heard radio ads and seen highway billboards directing us to “See What Makes Teaching a Great Job - ISBE (becomeateacher.com).”  We especially love the messaging around teaching as a career that lets you impact the lives of students (and your own!) and lead in your community. On top of that, the simple, straightforward portal helps future teachers take the next step – and over 2,000 people have done just that! And we’re glad to see the specific call outs to areas of greatest need: rural and urban public schools, special education and bilingual classrooms. Teaching is a challenging, intellectual, dynamic, high-impact profession, but it isn’t always seen that way. We hope the campaign will uplift the profession and inspire and connect the next generation of classroom leaders to enter the field of education and start making a difference! 

In Conclusion... 
There is a lot of important work underway in Illinois, and more to come. Whether it is finding a way to give student teachers stipends, or building a stronger pipeline into school counseling, nursing, psychology, or social work, Illinois has proven that it is willing to innovate and to take action to prioritize our children. Indeed, we have become a national leader on many fronts. Here is to another year of focus and achievement, in the classroom and in the statehouse. 

From the Desk: The Work Ahead

Hello, 2024. The General Assembly is now in session, and we are all bracing for a lean budget year. In spite of this, the Illinois State Board of Education put forth a commendable budget proposal - one that grows the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) formula and early childhood programming, and that proposes to invest state dollars to continue federally-funded programs that have been strengthening the educator pipeline and bringing badly-needed mental-health supports and systems to districts and families.  At the postsecondary level, state higher education agencies are asking for 50 million new dollars to expand need-based scholarships (MAP). Notably, IBHE asked for more dollars to be directed to state universities, but called for them to be distributed equitably, rather than evenly – a recommendation that is consistent with the state’s ongoing work to develop a more equitable, adequate and sustainable approach to higher education funding.    

Put simply, while we cannot ignore the possibility of an $891 million budget deficit in FY25, agencies identified what they believe our students need.  And their priorities line up with serious work underway in the field.   

• This spring, the General Assembly will vote on a plan to establish a new, stand-alone early childhood agency, a critical step in creating a more coherent, strategic, and effective system of care for our youngest learners. 

• In March, the Commission on Equitable Public University Funding will release long-awaited recommendations for how the state might take a more adequate, equitable, and sustainable approach to funding its public universities. 

• As federal relief funds disappear, the state will make hard decisions about how to maintain programs for student well-being and programs to grow our educator pipeline.  

As state leaders this year make key decisions on how to direct scarce resources, the research is clear: investments in education pay off. Better academic outcomes, enabled by adequate investments in education, translate to economic growth, increased earnings, and decreased unemployment. Nationally, research has found that the median increase in tax income for every additional bachelor’s degree, when compared to a high school diploma, is $7,800 per person per year, which also results in a corresponding decrease in the use of social services. As or more importantly, a well-educated population is associated with better individual and family well-being - increased civic engagement, volunteerism, happiness, and better health and wellness. Suffice it to say, investing in education means ensuring a brighter future for our children and for the state as a whole. 

Advance Illinois Policy Priorities for FY25 

ADEQUATE & EQUITABLE FUNDING ACROSS THE BIRTH-20 (B-20) CONTINUUM 

Every step of our education system relies on the health and success of the previous one, so it is vital that Illinois take a Birth-20 (B-20) funding approach to ensure that every part of the education and care continuum is adequately and equitably funded. While funding is not the only answer to what ails public education in Illinois, years of under-investment and inequitable investment—from early childhood through higher education—have taken a toll on student achievement and progress, and the impacts of COVID-19 disruptions have only exacerbated inequities. Accordingly, this legislative session, we are advocating for:  

• Increased state early childhood investments and celebrating and supporting the work underway to create a stand-alone early learning and care agency.  

• Continuing to move the needle on adequately funding our 850+ public school districts by adding $550 million in new funds into the Evidence-based Funding Formula (EBF) if at all humanly possible 

• Taking the necessary next steps to create a public university funding formula that centers equity and student need. This March, the Commission on Equitable Public University Funding will release its recommendation for how the state might distribute funding resources to the state’s 12 public universities. It is critical that we take this opportunity to reimagine how Illinois can provide reliable, equitable, and sufficient funding for our public four-year institutions to effectively serve their diverse student populations.  

A STRONGER, MORE DIVERSE TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL PIPELINE 

The impact of educators on students’ experiences and outcomes cannot be overstated: Teachers play the single most impactful role in a student’s academic growth and broader well-being, and school administrators are the driving force in the recruiting, retaining, and developing teachers and shaping school climate. We applaud the thoughtful and coordinated investments Illinois has been making to strengthen, grow, and diversify its teacher pipeline. That work has been paying off, but as our recent report The State of the Educator Pipeline 2023 found, there is significant work still to do to address shortages and increase educator diversity. This session we are continuing to advocate for evidence-based strategies that address the full continuum of the educator pipeline, from preparation and recruitment to placement and retention. It is critical that Illinois:  

• Sustains its investment of $8 million in the Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) scholarship to support candidates of color, including Black male and bilingual candidates; 

• Uses state funds to replace lapsing federal stimulus dollars to continue important programs including ECACE, teacher and principal mentoring, affinity groups, educator rising; and  

• Takes action to strengthen the student teaching experience, addressing the significant financial barrier this experience can present and finding ways to better support cooperating teachers, who play a critical role.  

WHOLE CHILD SUPPORTS  

Even before the pandemic, students experienced significant needs related to social, emotional, and mental health well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic and its broad disruptions only exacerbated these challenges. We applaud the strides Illinois has taken to become a trauma-responsive state and the ways it has leveraged federal stimulus funds to invest in the resources and systems required to provide our children and youth healing-centered education and care. 

But while students continue to rebound, COVID’s impact on well-being persists, with students of color and students from low-income households disproportionately affected.  

• We continue to prioritize efforts that support all Illinois school districts in becoming trauma- informed and healing-centered environments. This includes supporting development of a Childhood Adversity Index, laying out the training and ongoing development that both new and current educators need, and updating the State Report card to include district level data on mental health resources and staff currently available to support students. What is more, as ESSER funds disappear, the state must step up to support critical efforts like the REACH pilot and SEL hubs. 

DATA AND RESEARCH 

Research, data, and analysis are linchpins of good policy and evidence-based practice. Accordingly, the state must continue to prioritize data collection and reporting, even as it attends to learning renewal. As an organization, we will continue to support investments in our education agencies’ capacity to collect and make data available for state leaders and stakeholders, and work to ensure we sufficiently fund our statewide longitudinal data system (ILDS) so that we can better understand the impact of our investments in education from birth to post-secondary and workforce.  

If we care about our students’ futures, the work is never done. The good news is that Illinois has been making progress—growing and diversifying its workforce, supporting students in renewal and recovery, building equity into its funding mechanisms, and investing in the data and research policymakers and practitioners need. Let us continue this work in the year ahead. 

Onward,

Robin