Good afternoon,
November has proven to be a very productive month at the
new State Board as we worked together to get the 2004 Report Cards completed
accurately. I thank all of you again for your patience and cooperation in
ensuring that our corrections to the report cards were accurate and
thorough.
Special thanks to my staff for its hard work and
leadership. Ginger Reynolds, our Interim Assistant Superintendent in Teaching
and Learning has only been here a short time, but she really rolled up her
sleeves with the rest of our team to get things moving! Becky McCabe in
Assessment and Connie Wise in Data Analysis, along with their staff members are
also to be commended for their hard work. Several came in on Veterans’ Day
to keep working on the Report Cards and finalize the data in as timely a fashion
as possible. I feel lucky to have
these individuals on board at the agency.
As I have said, we are further along with the release of
the Report Cards than we were last year and we are releasing information that’s
accurate. But we have to make sure that we do not find ourselves in the
same predicament next year, and have developed a three-pronged plan to ensure
that it does not happen again. If you haven’t read our release on this you
can do so from our home page www.isbe.net
In other news, the Governor has announced his support
for school consolidation incentive grants; we have identified $2.6 million in
operational savings at the agency that can be made available for the grants this
year, and another $3.8 million that can be reallocated to schools next
year.
This week before Thanksgiving I offer my sincere
gratitude for all you do each and every day for our kids. Those of us who
are passionate about education know that often our only reward is in seeing our
students succeed.
You will not receive a weekly message from me next week
because of the holiday, unless urgent information must be communicated. That said, I do
hope to see some of you at the Triple I Conference this weekend in
Best wishes to you all for a safe and Happy
Thanksgiving.
Randy J. Dunn
State Superintendent of Education
(Interim)
Also included in today’s
message:
2004 report cards now available
online
The 2003-04 report cards for your district and school(s)
are now available online through IWAS at https://sec1.isbe.net/iwas After logging in by entering your Login Name and Password,
select System Listing on the left, and then click on E-Report Card listed under
My Systems.
At the Early Access 2004 eReport Card site, you can
access (1) your report cards, (2) your district summary, (3) a template for the
last page of the school report cards regarding Planned Improvement for the
School and District, and (4) 2004 Report Card Definitions and Sources of
Data. Prior to disseminating to the public, please complete the page
regarding Planned Improvement for the School and District for each school.
The contents of these pages need not be submitted to ISBE. All documents
at the site may be printed and saved on your own
disks.
State (Better Schools Accountability) and federal (No
Child Left Behind) laws require school districts to release report cards
annually. Following is a summary of the statutory
requirements:
To ensure that districts have adequate time to report to
your community, the State Board will not release individually identifiable
district or school information to the general public until
Agency streamlining press
release
Yesterday, you received a news release regarding ISBE
streamlining agency operations. Due to a computer error, some of the
information may have appeared garbled, repeated or run together on your computer
screen. To view the news release in its entirety, please go to the following
link http://www.isbe.net/news/2004/nov18_04.htm
Reading First district
meeting
The ISBE Reading First team will meet with all Reading
First Districts on
Invitation to comment on
rules
At its October meeting, the State Board of Education
released one set of proposed amendments for public comment. This item has
been posted on the agency’s web site at www.isbe.net/rules; choose “Proposed
Rules and Amendments”. Please submit any comments or suggestions you may
have to rules@isbe.net.
Part 1100 (Procurement by the State Board of
Education)
This set of amendments responds to two recent pieces of
legislation that amended the Illinois Procurement
Code.
Deadline for Public Comment:
ISBE employment
opportunities
The most recent external vacancy list for jobs at the
Illinois State Board of Education may be accessed at http://www.isbe.net/hr/pdf/VL04-28.pdf
Young Authors’
Conference
ISBE is pleased to announce that the 31st Annual
Illinois Statewide Young Authors’ Conference will be held
The Illinois Young Authors’ Conference is a celebration
of the written work of children in kindergarten through eighth grade and is
cosponsored by ISBE and the Illinois Language and Literacy Council. The
purpose of the conference is to support classroom teachers in their efforts to
encourage and improve students’ abilities in writing, reading, listening and
sharing, and to recognize the accomplishments of young authors. All
children in kindergarten through eighth grade, including those in special
programs, are encouraged to participate.
In the spring, young authors selected by their local
districts are invited to attend this one-day statewide conference where their
books are read, discussed and affixed with the official seal of the Young
Authors’ Conference. The conference emphasizes language as a vehicle for
communication. In small groups, children are encouraged to share ideas
with noted children’s authors, educators, and other young authors. Adults
who accompany children to the conference are invited to a session designed to
further their insights into children’s writing.
For further information on the Young Authors’
Conference, please contact Leigh Ann Smith at lsmith@isbe.net or
217/782-4648.
Center for African Studies grant opportunities for K-12 and
community college faculty
The Center for African Studies at the
Application
procedure
Applications consist of a single page statement of
proposed activity that includes how the applicant expects the award will enhance
their teaching of
Awardees are expected to share the outcomes of their
summer fellowship as a report that outlines the newly created curriculum
materials. The report is due by
For application procedure and more information, please
go to http://www.afrst.uiuc.edu/travel.html
Meeting the Challenge
XV
Meeting the Challenge XV, a fine arts conference for all
educators, is planned for
Weekly
Newsclips
May be accessed at http://www.isbe.net/news/2004/newsclips/041119.htm