Special Education and Support Services
Illinois ASPIRE Centers
To implement Illinois ASPIRE, ISBE has established four regional ASPIRE Centers—one in the city of Chicago, and one each in the northern, central, and southern parts of the state. All ASPIRE Centers will provide standardized professional development and technical assistance to educators and parents in their geographic regions, focused on the following topics:
- Designing and providing early intervening services, with an emphasis on reading instruction that is scientifically research-based;
- Student progress monitoring;
- Response to intervention; and
- Standards-aligned instruction and assessment.
The professional development will include elements of Flexible Service Delivery, the Standards Aligned Classroom curriculum and Reading First.
All school districts and special education joint agreements
located within the counties served by each regional center
will be eligible to participate in training offered within
the region (download regional map 
).
In addition, school demonstration/data
collection sites will be identified within each region
to facilitate school and student level data collection and
evaluation, and these sites will receive training and technical
assistance services from the regional centers.
The four Illinois ASPIRE Centers are administered by:
- Illinois ASPIRE – Chicago: Chicago
Public Schools, District 299
Contact: Tonia Swoope at tmswoope@cps.k12.il.us or 773-553-2209 - Illinois ASPIRE – North: Northern
Suburban Special Education District
Contact: Mark Shinn at markshinn@mac.com or (847) 275-7200
OR
Peggy Miller at pmiller@nssed.org or 847-831-5100 - Illinois ASPIRE – Central: Peoria
Regional Office of Education #48
Contact: Christy Martino at cmartino@peoriaroe48.net or 309-673-1040
OR
Jennifer Jewell at jrj@jewellzone.com or 309-673-1040 - Illinois ASPIRE – South: Southern
Illinois University
Contact: Melissa Bergstrom at mbergst@siue.edu or 618-650-3182
OR
Michael McCollum at mmccollum@siue.edu or (618) 650-5182
