On Monday we
commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling on
Brown vs. Board of Education. Many of you probably participated in the
commemoration that was held at
Over the last month,
as we prepared to celebrate this monumental decision, many of us focused on the
continued inequities in education. And yes, they are there. But this week we
also had an example of our successes. Wednesday evening was the first of three
receptions where, together with
We saw schools that
receive a large portion of state and federal funds and others that are greatly
dependent on property taxes. Each of them in their own way illustrates that
while our passion for education is universal, simple math challenges every
district to stretch every dollar. We do have to reflect on the fact that 50
years after Brown v. Board, while success is not defined by zip code, funding
is.
And that continues
to cause me great concern, especially this week with the Governor, who instead
of hammering out a budget with legislative leaders, continues to govern by
press conference. We all know that the Legislature approved a $250 per pupil
increase in General State Aid. The Legislature has made it abundantly clear
that they want the GSA increase. The Governor has yet to approve this legislation,
so we have no substantive movement on this front. Without the GSA increase
– and funding our other critical needs like the Mandated Categoricals
– our schools will be detrimentally affected. Another alternative
is flat funding – which would mean no growth at all.
Advocacy for equity
of funding is as important as it was 50 years ago. I believe that our State
Board has been honest and forthright in addressing this area. Sadly, we saw one
of our best resign from the State Board this week, Bev Turkal. She remarked the
other day that since January alone she has driven 5,000 miles around this state
to address the real needs of education, none of which are found in any plan
proposed by the Governor. Bev will leave her state role and continue her
advocacy at the local level in
Bev’s vacancy brings
three Democratic vacancies to the State Board, which if the appointments were
made today would grant the Governor the political majority he now so curiously
desires.
Robert
Schiller
State
Superintendent
of
Education
Included in today’s
message:
Legislative
Update
As you may be aware
the General Assembly was scheduled to adjourn today but due to the budget
impasse will have to come back next week and possibly beyond that time to finish
their work this session. There are
still numerous education issues pending before the GA. I have previously
addressed the budget but there is also the issue of the poverty grants. SB 86 was amended by the House this week
to add a permanent Hold Harmless to the poverty grant. HB 4522 would allow for a 1-year Hold
Harmless as well as eliminate the practice of taking any potential GSA shortfall
out of the poverty grants.
As I mentioned in
previous messages ISBE and other groups have been working on legislation to
streamline and strengthen the teacher certification process. I am hopeful that
we will see movement on this issue in the coming
week.
The Senate has
approved Senate Joint Resolution 75 which makes denials to certain school waiver
request. Below is a link to the
resolution. Please keep in mind
that if a waiver is not specifically denied by the General Assembly it is deemed
approved. The House now needs to
approve this resolution.
Early Review and Correction Period
for Participation Data—June 10-28
This year the
assessment division will electronically post the preliminary 2004 assessment
data and calculations for AYP participation rates from June 10-28. During this
time period the districts will be able to correct their data online. Data posted during this period will
include the Student Information Rosters (a roster of individual student
demographic information taken from the pre-ID labels and/or the information
gridded on the covers of the answer documents), Demographic Verification Reports
(enrollment information taken from the electronic enrollment system), and a page
with the preliminary participation AYP calculations for the ALL and subgroup
categories for each building. Special attention should be paid during this time
to making sure that all student demographic information (low income, IEP,
race/ethnicity, etc.) is entirely accurate.
NOTE: Districts that did not submit their
approved enrollment data by the May 21st deadline will not have preliminary AYP
calculations posted at this time.
However, they will be able to enter their enrollments during this window
so their participation rate calculations can be made when the window closes
again.
Scoring will not
have been completed at this time so you will be working only with student
demographic data from the answer documents and pre-ID labels (numerator data)
and with your enrollments on the first day of testing (denominator data). After this correction period, the AYP
participation rates will be recalculated using the corrected data from the
districts.
During the June
10-28 period we will also be collecting requests to remove students with medical
emergencies from the denominator and schools/districts will also be identifying
their immigrant students who are new to the
Letters are being
sent to each district containing a detailed timeline describing the next steps
in the data correction process.
ISBE is also scheduling a series of in-service training sessions across
the state through a partnership with the Illinois Principals Association during
the early correction window in June so that administrators will have an
opportunity to look at their school’s data first, attend a training session and
ask specific questions as needed, and then go back and make any necessary
changes. User Guides will also be
posted electronically which will walk people through the correction process
screen-by-screen.
All of the energy
local districts put into verifying and fixing this data early should have a
tremendous payoff in more timely and accurate reporting this year. To access more information about each
step in this process, please go to the assessment website at www.isbe.net/assessment
Electronic Grants Management System
(eGMS) Update and Training CD
It is expected that
the electronic Grant Management System (eGMS) will be available in production
through the Illinois State Board of Education’s Web Application Security system
(IWAS) next week. A broadcast email
will be distributed through the IWAS system as well as through a special Supt
Weekly Message to notify you when it is available. The first grant to be offered through
eGMS is the 2004-2005 NCLB Consolidated Application. If you should have technical problems
with eGMS, please contact the
ISBE has also
developed an eGMS Training CD for the 2004-2005 NCLB Consolidated Application
which includes a User Guide. The
Training CD was mailed this week to all attendees of the eGMS spring workshops,
as well as to all school district administrators who were not able to
attend. In addition, you may access
the eGMS User Guide and Training presentations from the CD on our eGMS web site
at http://www.isbe.net/egms/video.htm If you would
like additional copies of the CD please contact the
2004 Summer School Approval &
Reimbursement for Special Needs Children
The process for
approving special needs children with disabilities and subsequent reimbursement
for summer 2004 is outlined in a memorandum which can be accessed at http://www.isbe.net/funding/pdf/summer_school_approval.pdf. Please contact the appropriate staff
indicated on the last page of the memorandum if you have any
questions.
Deadline for Consolidated
Applications for English Language Learning
Programs
Consolidated Applications
for English Language Learning Programs for FY 05 are due to the ISBE by May
28, 2004. For more
information contact us at 312/814-3850.
Invitation to Comment on
Rules
At its April
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 575 (School Technology
Program)
P.A. 93-368, effective
July 24, 2003, made the following changes to Section 2-3.117a
of the School Code that necessitate amendments to these rules:
General state aid is
proposed to be used as collateral in the case of a loan recipient's default on a
loan, and the proposed amendments describes the process for the State Board of
Education's accessing general state aid when a default
occurs.
Deadline for Public
Comment:
June
22, 2004
Notice of Completed
Rulemaking
Please be advised
that two other rulemaking items recently adopted by the State Board of Education
are now in effect. Both these sets
of rules have been posted on the agency’s web site at www.isbe.net/rules choose “Rules Currently in Effect” and
scroll to the relevant Part number.
(If you print only the affected Sections, remember to include the table
of contents for the Part, which changes every time the Part is
amended.)
·
Standards for Certification in
Specific Teaching Fields (Part 27)
This rulemaking
accomplishes two technical corrections, one in the common core of standards for
science (Section 27.140) and the other in the common core of standards for
social science (Section 27.200).
The performance
indicator stated in Section 27.140(j)(2)(A) has been
expanded to reflect the original intent of the drafters of these standards. Section 27.200(q)(2)(D) has been made consistent with Section 27.230 in its
use of the time references “AD” and “CE”.
Affected Sections:
27.140, 27.200, and 27.230
Effective Date:
April
29, 2004
This rulemaking
implements P.A. 93-212, effective July 18, 2003,
which amended Section 18-17 of the School Code to allow schools to purchase
certain science curriculum materials under the Secular Textbook Loan
Program. In addition, procedural
portions of the rules have been changed to reflect the electronic submission of
request forms.
Affected
Sections:
350.10 and 350.15
Effective Date: May 3,
2004
Invitation to
Comment on Rules
Academic Improvement
Awards
This week the
Illinois State Board of Education recognized the first of 98 schools who have
made Academic Improvement in their assessment scores over three years of
assessments.
For more on the
recognition and a list of the first recipients, please go
to:
http://www.isbe.net/news/2004/may12_04.htm
To hear the
Superintendent’s comments at the event, please go
to:
http://video.isbe.net/ramgen/messages/schiller-051904-56k.rm (dial-up)
http://video.isbe.net/ramgen/messages/schiller-051904-lan.rm (lan)
Environmental Improvement Grant
As part of the
Governor’s Safe and Healthy Schools Initiative, the Illinois EPA has created a
special grant program to fund environmental improvement ("greening") projects
and activities at K-12 schools in
Grants will
generally range from $500 to $2,500.
To apply, schools
must complete a grant application form including a summary of the proposed
project, requested budget amount, expected results and timelines, and how
success will be measured.
A one page final
report will be required within 90 days of completion of the project or
activity.
For calendar year
2004, the deadline for submitting applications for grants is
December 31, 2004.
Applications will be processed as they are
received.
For more information
and the grant application go to
http://www.epa.state.il.us/green-illinois/green-schools/grant-program/index.html
For further
information, please contact Annette McCarthy at Annette.McCarthy@epa.state.il.us
or Becky Lockart at Becky.Lockart@epa.state.il.us,
or call (217)782-8700.
Nutrition
Programs and Support Service
The publication titled
If you have any questions, please contact Nutrition
Programs and Support Services at (800) 545-7892
(
Weekly News
Clips
You may review this
week’s news clips at http://www.isbe.net/news/2004/newsclips/040521.htm