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90_HB1282
105 ILCS 5/34-43.2 new
Amends the School Code. Requires the Chicago Board of
Education for FY 1997-98 and each succeeding fiscal year to
reserve and allocate an aggregate amount equal to 7% of its
total personnel budget to develop and implement a
district-wide, comprehensive, sustained professional
development strategy that is designed to retool, rectify, and
upgrade the educational workforce of the district in order to
realize sustained and permanent improvement in student
achievement at all grade levels. Provides that 47.5% of the
aggregate amount reserved shall be used by the Chicago Board
of Education to create and fund contracts entered into by the
Board with service providers that are to provide expertise to
assist teachers and administrators in creating and delivering
instructional programs that are aligned with national and
State standards for content, pedagogy, and professional
development. Provides that 2.5% of the aggregate amount is
to be used by the Chicago Board of Education to fund a
management program for the chief executive officer and other
staff of the Board's Central Office. Provides that 47.5% of
the aggregate amount shall be used for block grants to local
school attendance centers to create and implement support
systems responsive to the educational needs of the local
communities served by the attendance centers. Provides that
the remaining 2.5% of the aggregate amount shall be used for
grants to local school attendance centers to provide
management and instructional training and consultative
services for principals, assistant principals, and other
members of school leadership teams. Effective July 1, 1997.
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1 AN ACT to amend the School Code by adding Section
2 34-43.2.
3 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
4 represented in the General Assembly:
5 Section 5. The School Code is amended by adding Section
6 34-43.2 as follows:
7 (105 ILCS 5/34-43.2 new)
8 Sec. 34-43.2. Professional retraining and development
9 program.
10 (a) It is the purpose of this Section to provide for the
11 development and implementation within the entire district of
12 a comprehensive, sustained professional development strategy
13 that will retool and rectify the educational workforce of the
14 district by enhancing the content and depth of subject matter
15 knowledge which teachers bring to the classroom, improving
16 instructional and administrative skills, and upgrading
17 pedagogical practices. In order to achieve that purpose and
18 generate the level of teacher and administrator performance
19 that is required to realize improved student achievement at
20 all grade levels on a sustained and permanent basis, the
21 board of education of the district shall develop for and
22 provide to its educational workforce a multi-dimensional
23 system of internal and external support and guidance
24 resources by:
25 (1) Initiating and maintaining a district-wide
26 comprehensive teacher professional development program;
27 (2) Implementing an ongoing, collegial dialog among
28 the district's and State's education leaders; and
29 (3) Institutionalizing a continuing focus on the
30 educational visions of the district and State.
31 (b) In order to fulfill the purpose of this Section, for
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1 its 1997-1998 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter,
2 the board of education shall reserve and allocate an
3 aggregate amount equal to 7% of its total personnel budget
4 for that fiscal year for use in accordance with and in the
5 percentages provided by this Section. Each category or class
6 of expenditure that constituted a component of the total
7 personnel budget of the board of education for the 1996-1997
8 fiscal year, as contained in the annual school budget (and
9 any additional or supplemental budget) of the board of
10 education for that fiscal year, shall continue to be regarded
11 as a component of the total personnel budget of the board of
12 education during a subsequent fiscal year, and in no event
13 shall the total personnel budget for a fiscal year after the
14 1996-1997 fiscal year be deemed, for purposes of computing
15 the amount required to be reserved and allocated under this
16 Section for that fiscal year, to be less than the total
17 personnel budget for the 1996-1997 fiscal year.
18 The funds that are to be reserved and allocated for
19 development and implementation of a comprehensive, sustained
20 district-wide professional development strategy under this
21 Section must:
22 (1) Incorporate and balance academic disciplines in
23 mathematics, science, and the humanities, as well as
24 basic reading skills, language arts, social science, art,
25 and music; and all interventions must address the content
26 and depth of subject matter knowledge, pedagogy, and
27 skills and issues related to effective learning by
28 students and must not be geared to any one particular
29 book series or curriculum;
30 (2) Support the use of technology (especially
31 computers and electronic networking) for learning in and
32 among disciplines and for organizational and classroom
33 management; and
34 (3) Address the organizational development needed
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1 to create school and school-district cultures that
2 support the continuous improvement of instruction.
3 (c) Of the aggregate amount that must be reserved and
4 allocated by the board of education each fiscal year for
5 purposes of this Section as provided in subsection (b), 47.5%
6 shall be used and applied by the board of education to create
7 and fund a district-wide network of service providers to
8 assist local school attendance centers within the district.
9 The board of education is authorized to enter into contracts
10 or agreements with those service providers, which may include
11 public and private universities, colleges, and community
12 colleges, teacher academies and other staff development
13 centers, private training programs, or consortia of 2 of more
14 of those entitles. Service providers shall be required to
15 provide expertise to assist teachers and administrators in
16 creating and delivering instructional programs that are
17 aligned with both national and State standards for subject
18 matter content, pedagogy, and professional development. The
19 services provided under contracts or agreements entered into
20 under this subsection shall be school-focused, job-embedded,
21 and provided to whole-school leadership teams (including
22 parents) that are responsible for instruction and
23 instructional decisions.
24 Services provided under contracts or agreements entered
25 into under this subsection shall not in any way promote or
26 train teachers in the use of any specific curriculum or set
27 of instructional materials. Service providers shall be
28 contractually obligated to provide to the district, on an
29 annual basis, quantitative and implementation evaluations of
30 the services that are being provided to the district's
31 educational workforce.
32 A key focus of all such evaluations shall be how services
33 result in increased teacher effectiveness and improved
34 student achievement over time. Improved student achievement
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1 shall be measured by pupil scores on State assessment tests
2 administered under Section 2-3.64 as part of the Illinois
3 Goals and Assessment Program and by such other nationally
4 normed achievement tests as are selected by the board of
5 education for use with respect to pupils in grades in which
6 the State assessment tests are not administered. The board
7 of education shall not use any funds received under this
8 subsection to increase or otherwise augment the personnel
9 employed by the district in order to offer instructional
10 support to teachers or local school attendance centers, nor
11 shall the board of education use any such funds to create its
12 own academies, professional development centers, or training
13 courses.
14 (d) Of the aggregate amount that must be reserved and
15 allocated by the board of education each fiscal year for
16 purposes of this Section as provided in subsection (b), 2.5%
17 shall be used by the board of education to fund a management
18 program for the chief executive officer and other officers
19 and personnel of the district's Central Office staff. The
20 management program shall be provided pursuant to a contract
21 or agreement that the board of education shall enter into
22 with a reputable private or public service provider with an
23 established record in management training.
24 (e) Of the aggregate amount that must be reserved and
25 allocated by the board of education each fiscal year for
26 purposes of this Section as provided in subsection (b): (i)
27 47.5% shall be used by the board of education to fund annual
28 block grants to local school attendance centers to create and
29 implement comprehensive and sustained support systems
30 responsive to the needs of the local communities served by
31 those attendance centers; and (ii) 2.5% shall be used by the
32 board of education to fund annual management and
33 instructional training and consultation grants to local
34 school attendance centers.
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1 The grants that the board of education is required to
2 fund and provide to local school attendance centers under
3 this subsection are in addition to and shall supplement and
4 neither supplant nor reduce the lump sum allocations that the
5 board of education provides to attendance centers and
6 learning zones under Sections 34-2.3 and 34-8.17.
7 The support systems that are to be created and
8 implemented with block grant funding under this subsection
9 shall contribute to the educational visions of the district
10 and the State by providing local school attendance centers
11 with the financial resources to, among other things:
12 (1) Restructure the local school attendance
13 center's use of space and time;
14 (2) Implement and analyze curricula and
15 instruction, aligned with best pedagogical practices;
16 (3) Provide extra planning time for teachers and
17 administrators;
18 (4) Analyze and evaluate instructional programs and
19 practices;
20 (5) Offer training for parents in matters of
21 at-home tutoring and instruction of their children; and
22 (6) Provide teachers with an opportunity to create
23 electronic support networks.
24 As a part of the support systems that are to be created
25 and implemented under this Section, each local school
26 attendance center shall develop the capacity among the staff
27 of the attendance center to effectively plan and
28 strategically implement the school improvement plan, aligned
29 with State guidelines and consistent with the requirements of
30 Section 34-2.4. School improvement plans that require the
31 use of block grant funds made available under this subsection
32 to assist in their development or implementation shall
33 necessarily include:
34 (1) Clearly articulated goals and rigorous needs
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1 analyses;
2 (2) Mechanisms to build consensus on strategies for
3 achieving State goals; and
4 (3) Implementation plans for ensuring the use of
5 best pedagogical practices in actualizing these
6 strategies.
7 The management and instructional training and
8 consultation grants that the board of education is to make to
9 local school attendance centers under this subsection shall
10 be used by those attendance centers to provide management and
11 instructional training and consultative services to
12 principals, assistant principals, and other members of the
13 school leadership teams responsible for instruction or
14 instructional decisions. They also may be used to provide
15 additional time for school personnel to attend conferences
16 and participate in electronic networks.
17 Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect July
18 1, 1997.