93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2003 and 2004
SB3066

 

Introduced 2/6/2004, by Iris Y. Martinez, Jacqueline Y. Collins

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
New Act

    Creates the Grow Our Own Teachers Act. Provides for local consortia to establish teacher education programs to facilitate teacher recruitment and retention in low-income, hard-to-staff, public elementary and secondary schools or such schools with hard-to-staff positions. Provides for funding, transfer credit, assistance to students, and a task force. Provides for evaluations and reports to the General Assembly. Effective July 1, 2004.


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FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

 

 

A BILL FOR

 

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1     AN ACT concerning education.
 
2     Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3 represented in the General Assembly:
 
4     Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Grow
5 Our Own Teachers Act.
 
6     Section 5. Definition. "Community-based organization"
7 means a nonprofit, community-based organization that has a
8 demonstrated capacity to train, develop, and organize parents
9 and community leaders into a large nonpartisan constituency
10 that will hold the school and the school district accountable
11 for achieving high academic standards.
 
12     Section 10. Local consortia programs. Each teacher
13 education program established under this Act shall be managed
14 by a local consortium, composed of at least one community-based
15 organization, one school district, and one or more institutions
16 of higher education. Local consortia shall establish teacher
17 education programs in compliance with Illinois teacher
18 certification requirements to facilitate teacher recruitment
19 and retention in low-income, hard-to-staff, public elementary
20 and secondary schools or such schools with hard-to-staff
21 positions.
 
22     Section 15. State funding. The State Board of Education
23 shall prescribe teacher vacancy, teacher turnover, and teacher
24 turnover cost thresholds for schools that determine the
25 eligibility of a local consortium serving those schools for
26 State funding of the proposed teacher education program.
 
27     Section 20. Eligible participants. Local consortia shall
28 recruit cohorts of participants consisting of educational
29 support personnel already employed in the targeted schools,

 

 

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1 residents of the targeted community, and members of the
2 participating community-based organizations and shall enroll
3 qualified candidates in an approved course of study leading to
4 full teacher certification.
 
5     Section 25. Transfer credit. For consortia that include
6 both community colleges and accredited colleges of education,
7 one primary function shall be to maintain agreements on the
8 full transfer of credit within the framework of the Illinois
9 Articulation Initiative and provisions for the Associate of
10 Arts in Teaching (A.A.T.) degree.
 
11     Section 30. Eligible Expenses of programs. State funds
12 under this Act shall be used to assist teacher training
13 candidates within a local consortium's teacher education
14 program with tuition and related costs in obtaining their full
15 certification. Both part-time and full-time degree candidates
16 shall be eligible for this financial assistance. Tuition
17 assistance shall be in the form of forgivable student loans,
18 with forgiveness of the loans dependent on 5 years of service
19 as a fully certified teacher in the targeted hard-to-staff
20 schools or hard-to-staff positions identified by the local
21 consortium. State funds shall also be used to defray costs
22 incurred by community-based organizations, schools districts,
23 public community colleges, and public universities in
24 organizing, administering, and evaluating the consortium's
25 teacher education program.
 
26     Section 35. Program funding. Up to 7 local consortia
27 teacher education programs shall be granted funding under this
28 Act, including at least 4 involving City of Chicago School
29 District 299. State funds shall cover the entire cost of
30 training for a cohort, extending over 5 years.
 
31     Section 40. Funding sources. The State Board of Education
32 shall fund local consortia teacher education programs

 

 

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1 beginning in the 2004-2005 academic year. The State Board of
2 Education shall allocate up to $5,000,000 for these programs in
3 the 2005 fiscal year from existing funds for the State's
4 failing schools, and the General Assembly shall allocate an
5 additional $5,500,000 for the programs. Funds shall be
6 allocated in each additional year to fund new consortia or new
7 cohorts in existing consortia.
 
8     Section 45. Review of applications. The State Board of
9 Education shall establish a task force to establish and
10 maintain the process of application review and program
11 evaluation.
 
12     Section 50. Evaluation. The State Board of Education, at
13 the direction of the task force, shall evaluate the
14 implementation of all State-funded local consortia teacher
15 education programs, including analysis of program completion
16 and teacher retention rates, changes in diversity of individual
17 school and school district staffs, and the extent of school
18 district cost savings from reduced turnover. The results of
19 this evaluation shall be presented annually to the House and
20 Senate education committees of the General Assembly.
 
21     Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect July 1,
22 2004.