Illinois State Receives $1.78 Million to Improve Instruction in Chicago Schools

Illinois State University has received a $1.78 million federal grant as part of the five-year partnership to prepare hundreds of new teachers to work in high-need areas of Chicago Public Schools.

The Teacher Education and Assessment Continuum for High-need Educators and Resources + Principal Leadership in Urban Schools (TEACHER + PLUS) grant initiative is in response to the pressing need for new teachers in Chicago in elementary education, bilingual/English language learning, special education, mathematics and science. The total five-year award is around $12 million with an additional $12 million in matching dollars contributed by partner organizations. Illinois State is the fiscal agent and lead partner in collaboration with Chicago Public Schools District 299 (CPS) and seven other community-based partners. Five of Illinois State's colleges (Education, Arts and Sciences, Applied Sciences and Technology, Fine Arts and Business) and four university centers focused on math, science, technology, special education and literacy will be extensively involved.

Under the project, 500 new teachers who are Illinois State graduates will increase their ability to provide instruction for high-need Chicago public schools. At least 322 graduates will continue teaching in Chicago schools through the fifth year of the program. All of the clinical and course work under TEACHER+PLUS will be conducted in schools in three high-need Latino and African-American communities.

Robert Lee, Director of the Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline in the College of Education, noted the value of the project. "Grants such as this help us leverage resources to change the way we recruit students from CPS to pursue teacher education at Illinois State; prepare pre-service teachers through redesigned courses on campus that are simultaneously matched with meaningful Chicago-based clinical experiences; and graduate high-quality teachers for Chicago's highest need schools," Lee said.

College of Education Dean Deborah Curtis also commended the project. "This is a strong affirmation of the work that was done in the first four and a half years in our original Teacher Quality Enhancement grant, which ended yesterday and started this project," Curtis said. "The model used is a community immersion model and it seems to have been the difference in creating a viable pipeline for highly qualified teachers for Chicago Public Schools. The next step is a bit of a replication of the model and an expansion. We hope to be taking it to scale now," she added.

"Now with the TEACHER+PLUS Project, this new vehicle will allow us to take what we have learned in Little Village, and expand to other deserving Chicago communities. This is a testament of what can happen when a true collaborative model is put into action-it speaks to the collective efforts of many and not only impacts Illinois State and Chicago, but the communities we serve and the children in our partner schools, that's what is most important," Lee said.

The TEACHER+PLUS project will address five key objectives: establish a system of collaboration among Illinois State, CPS and Chicago community partner agencies; prepare pre-service candidates to be highly qualified teachers for high-need Chicago schools; support and retain new teachers in high-need Chicago schools; develop the leadership capacity of TEACHER+PLUS candidates through Principal Leadership and improve the academic achievement of CPS students.