LITERACY
No other topic in education has received as much curricular and instructional attention as literacy, and yet we continue to see a staggering number of children who do not learn to read, speak and write effectively or efficiently, and even more who do not love to engage in literacy or use literacy skills to learn productively. The Literacy Task Force convenes stakeholders who are interested in affecting improvement in literacy teaching and learning. The task force works to understand and enact new initiatives like the Comprehensive Literacy Plan in Illinois while examining critical evidence-based practices for preparing teachers and leaders to improve literacy learning for all.
PROJECT LEAD
Begun in 2015 to advance and update the Center’s earlier initiative, Diversity at the Blackboard (2006), Project LEAD (Leaders in Education Advocating for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) is a collaborative endeavor that brings faculty and diverse students from multiple campuses together to build a structure and toolbox to:
- Identify and explore the demographics of the teacher and student pipeline and collaborate to improve the numbers alignment so that more students across Illinois experience a diverse teacher and teachers who are allies supporting diversity, equity and inclusion
- Understand and celebrate the value of a diverse pool of teacher candidates to all students, teachers, schools and districts
- Celebrate the profession of teaching & inspire others to celebrate and elevate teaching
- Increase and support the number of talented and diverse candidates of color who become teachers and the significant contributions they make to the profession
- Network & collaborate with both faculty and students across each campus and from campus to campus and along with education stakeholders, build a toolbox and structure to encourage others to consider the profession of teaching and to sustain candidates during their preparation and into the profession
- Advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion for all
TEACHER LEADERSHIP
Teacher Leadership is the opportunities for teachers to go beyond their classroom duties and learn about and assume informal and formal leadership roles that influence change and innovate practices to advance education for all students. In this Task Force stakeholders identify, develop, assess, sustain, and promote teacher leadership pathways and examine teacher leader knowledge and skills, school and district policies and practices, and professional learning. Currently, the Teacher Leadership Task Force is engaged in adding to the research on Teacher Leadership and connecting Teacher Leadership from preservice through inservice.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
Promoting teacher retention in high-need schools by providing teachers and leaders with a network of colleagues and resources. PDN offers six strands of learning through webinars hosted online and in person by Center colleges and universities. The PDN is open to all teachers and leaders especially those serving in high-need schools. PDN sessions introduce teachers to Center institutions and faculty and address a variety of topics, including personalized learning and differentiated instruction, technology, social and emotional learning, culturally relevant/ sustaining pedagogy, teacher leadership and education policy and meeting the needs of Illinois’ increasingly diverse student body. PDN concludes each academic year with a full-day Summer Institute for Educators featuring national and state education leaders.
CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHER AND LEADER STANDARDS
The Culturally Responsive Teacher and Leader Standards Task Force meets monthly to deepen understanding of the state standards and share ideas about implementing the standards in teacher and leader preparation programs in order to strengthen programs and prepare candidates to integrate the standards into their teaching with fidelity. The standards include:
Standard 1: Knowledge of Self and Relationships to Others
Standard 2: Systems of Oppression
Standard 3: Knowledge of Students as Individuals
Standard 4: Students as Co-Creators
Standard 5: Leveraging Student Advocacy
Standard 6: Family and Community Collaboration
Standard 7: Content Selections in All Curricula
Standard 8: Student Representation in the Learning Environment
https://go.boarddocs.com/il/isbe/Board.nsf/files/BW7JPN4E2657/$file/06.Cc%20Part%2024-Rules.pdf
Monthly work includes a deep conversation of each standard around these questions:
- What do we understand?
- What questions do we have? Do we need to bring in some additional resources to clarify the standard or a part of the standard?
- How are the new standards alike the IPTS standard on diversity and what our current practices are? How are they different?
- What ideas can we generate to implement the standards with fidelity?
https://www.isbe.net/Pages/Culturally-Responsive-Teaching-Leading-Standards.aspx
The task force is developing the Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards Tool found here:
https://sites.google.com/view/crtlresourcesmonson/home
MATHEMATICS and SPECIAL EDUCATION TASK FORCES are launching in the fall of 2025.
This is a living resource that is ever evolving.
