From: STATE SUPERINTENDENT
Sent: Friday, November 08,
2002 3:39 PM
To: 'District
Superintendents, ROEs, Directors of Special Education'
Subject: Weekly Message from
State Superintendent Robert Schiller 11-8-02
Good afternoon. At our meeting on Wednesday, November 6, the
members of the Assessment and Accountability Task Force came to consensus on a draft
of a proposed framework for state assessment. We now turn to you to ask for your input on
this proposal.
The actual document is
located at http://www.isbe.net/aatf/pdf/assessprop.pdf and is featured on the
front page of our website at www.isbe.net
. We would like to receive your input
by December 6 so we can review it at our next meeting. Please email your comments to feedback@isbe.net. You can also address them to the Assessment
and Accountability Task Force and fax them to 217/524-4928, or mail them to
ISBE, 100 North First Street, Springfield, IL
62777-0001.
Upcoming Hearing
and Meetings. The Task Force has scheduled an additional
public hearing December 2 in Galesburg at the High School Media Center, 1135
West Fremont Street. The full Task Force
is scheduled to meet December 10 from 10:00 A. M. to 3:00 P.M. in Naperville at
the North Central Regional Education Laboratory, 1120 East Diehl Road. Additional meetings will be scheduled as
needed to complete the recommendations in time for the General Assembly to
consider them during the session that begins in January.
In today's
message:
Ÿ Requests
received for local superintendent salaries
Ÿ Illinois
schools selected for "Following the Leaders"
Ÿ Illinois
Alternate Assessment information goes online
Ÿ ISBE
approves emergency loan for Hazel Crest 152 ½
Ÿ American
Education Week resources available from NEA
Ÿ Referenda
fare poorly November 5
***************
Requests received for local
superintendent salaries
Some newspaper reporters have made their annual fall request for a list of local superintendent salaries. As you know, the newspapers typically rank them highest to lowest for their stories.
On Tuesday morning, November 12, we
will email you a secure web address and password so you can see the data before
the reporters receive it. We will be releasing the data -- which is subject to
FOIA -- to reporters who submit requests starting at 8 a.m. on
Friday, November 15. We will issue the
same caveats as in the past regarding the definition of "salary" and
the effects of pre-retirement salary increases.
If you have questions about the figures, contact Steve Scaife at
217/782-3950 or sscaife@isbe.net.
********************
Illinois schools selected for
"Following the Leaders"
Nine Illinois schools have been selected to participate in the federally
funded "Following the Leaders" project: Leepertown Elementary
District 175 (Bureau County); the
elementary, jr. high and high schools in Virginia District 64 (Cass County); and Rock Island District 41's
Lincoln Elementary, Longfellow Elementary, Thurgood Marshall Learning Center,
Washington Jr. High and Edison Jr. High (Rock
Island County).
Following the Leaders is an initiative funded
by the U.S. Department of Education to provide schools with direct services -
including teacher training and online support - to help them meet the
requirements of the new federal No Child Left Behind Act. More information about the program is
available at http://www.isbe.net/news/2002/nov7-02.htm.
*******************
Illinois Alternate Assessment
information goes online
Teachers, parents and
the public now have an online resource for information about the state test for
students with disabilities. The
information is available at <http://www.isbe.net/assessment/IAA.htm>.
The Illinois Alternate
Assessment (IAA) is the state's tool for measuring the progress made by
students whose disabilities make participation in the regular state assessments
inappropriate. Rather than the standard
pencil-and-paper format, the IAA uses a portfolio of student work collected
over the course of the school year. The
IAA assesses the same subject areas as the regular assessments do for students
in the same grade.
The site includes
general information on the IAA, information to help parents interpret their
children's scores and schedules for workshops to help teachers administer the
test more effectively.
*****************
ISBE approves emergency grant for
Hazel Crest 152 ½
ISBE has
approved an emergency grant for Hazel Crest School District 152 ½ that will
enable the district to fund short-term payroll expenses while the district's
Financial Oversight Panel completes a financial analysis and makes
recommendations for achieving a long-term solution.
The
$283,000 emergency grant is the maximum the district can be given without
specific legislative action, yet it will only get the district through payrolls
that are due in November. It will still run out of money before the end of the
month.
In the
meantime, the Financial Oversight panel is conducting further analyses and will
make recommendations for achieving a long-term financial solution that can be
considered by the General Assembly during the veto session later this
month. For additional information about
the grant, go to
http://www.isbe.net/news/2002/nov4-02.htm.
Also check
out the Education Week story about Hazel Crest and financial
difficulties in other Illinois school districts at http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=10illinois.h22
********************
American Education Week resources
available from NEA
"Making Public Schools Great for Every
Child" is the them of American Education Week, November 17-22. The National Education Association, a major
advocate for commemorating the week, has curriculum resources and other
materials for schools and communities at http://www.nea.org/aew/.
***********************
Referenda fare
poorly November 5
Voters passed just
over 20% of school district tax referenda at the November 5th
election. This is the lowest passage
rate for tax referenda since the 1996-97 school year. These results are very discouraging and
certainly reinforce the need for overhauling the way education is
financed. Bond referenda fared better as
13 out of 26 received voter approval.
Unofficial results from November 5: http://www.isbe.net/pdf/schoolref.pdf.
For a historical view
of results: http://www.isbe.net/pdf/taxref.pdf.
Robert Schiller
State Superintendent
of Education
statesup@isbe.net