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As the Illinois State Board of Education gets closer to finalizing regulations implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Stand for Children Illinois submitted comments offering feedback to strengthen the next draft of the plan. Stand’s suggestions include: More clearly incorporating subgroup scores in school ratings. This should be an integral part of school ratings: the new […]
There are about 860 school districts in Illinois and just one of them is responsible for paying the employer costs of their teachers’ pensions: Chicago Public Schools. The State covers the cost for the rest. Neither the State nor CPS has been a model financial steward for this responsibility—both the State and CPS now have […]
Last December, Congress replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB) with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The shift gives states significantly more flexibility about how to identify schools that are succeeding and support for schools that are struggling. Remember how NCLB labelled virtually every school as failing? That’s right, in the last few years, schools […]
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a dramatic school funding formula overhaul must be accompanied by a “Hold Harmless.” (OK, maybe not universally, but school funding changes almost always include a provision that protects districts from getting less money than they used to. That’s a “Hold Harmless.”) As Springfield continues working on school funding reform, the concept […]
Chicago – Stand for Children Illinois PAC, which supports elected officials and candidates who make the best interests of students a top priority, today announced its endorsement of candidates in the upcoming 2016 general election. “Our state’s education system has made important gains over the course of the last several years, with the help of policies setting […]
Updated: May 31, 9:50am There is a whirlwind of education funding reforms and budget bill spending in the General Assembly right now. If you’re having trouble keeping up, this blog is for you. SB 231 (MANAR/C. MITCHELL): BETTER FUNDING FOR BETTER SCHOOLS BILL SB 231 moves Illinois’s most-regressive-in-the-nation state school funding method from a complex […]
