SB3066 93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB093 20235 NHT 47225 b

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.

FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning education.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Grow Our Own Teachers Act.

Section 5. Definition. "Community-based organization" means a nonprofit, community-based organization that has a demonstrated capacity to train, develop, and organize parents and community leaders into a large nonpartisan constituency that will hold the school and the school district accountable for achieving high academic standards.

Section 10. Local consortia programs. Each teacher education program established under this Act shall be managed by a local consortium, composed of at least one community-based organization, one school district, and one or more institutions of higher education. Local consortia shall establish teacher education programs in compliance with Illinois teacher certification requirements 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.

Section 15. State funding. The State Board of Education shall prescribe teacher vacancy, teacher turnover, and teacher turnover cost thresholds for schools that determine the eligibility of a local consortium serving those schools for State funding of the proposed teacher education program.

Section 20. Eligible participants. Local consortia shall recruit cohorts of participants consisting of educational support personnel already employed in the targeted schools, residents of the targeted community, and members of the participating community-based organizations and shall enroll qualified candidates in an approved course of study leading to full teacher certification.

Section 25. Transfer credit. For consortia that include both community colleges and accredited colleges of education, one primary function shall be to maintain agreements on the full transfer of credit within the framework of the Illinois Articulation Initiative and provisions for the Associate of Arts in Teaching (A.A.T.) degree.

Section 30. Eligible Expenses of programs. State funds under this Act shall be used to assist teacher training candidates within a local consortium's teacher education program with tuition and related costs in obtaining their full certification. Both part-time and full-time degree candidates shall be eligible for this financial assistance. Tuition assistance shall be in the form of forgivable student loans, with forgiveness of the loans dependent on 5 years of service as a fully certified teacher in the targeted hard-to-staff schools or hard-to-staff positions identified by the local consortium. State funds shall also be used to defray costs incurred by community-based organizations, schools districts, public community colleges, and public universities in organizing, administering, and evaluating the consortium's teacher education program.

Section 35. Program funding. Up to 7 local consortia teacher education programs shall be granted funding under this Act, including at least 4 involving City of Chicago School District 299. State funds shall cover the entire cost of training for a cohort, extending over 5 years.

Section 40. Funding sources. The State Board of Education shall fund local consortia teacher education programs beginning in the 2004-2005 academic year. The State Board of Education shall allocate up to $5,000,000 for these programs in the 2005 fiscal year from existing funds for the State's failing schools, and the General Assembly shall allocate an additional $5,500,000 for the programs. Funds shall be allocated in each additional year to fund new consortia or new cohorts in existing consortia.

Section 45. Review of applications. The State Board of Education shall establish a task force to establish and maintain the process of application review and program evaluation.

Section 50. Evaluation. The State Board of Education, at the direction of the task force, shall evaluate the implementation of all State-funded local consortia teacher education programs, including analysis of program completion and teacher retention rates, changes in diversity of individual school and school district staffs, and the extent of school district cost savings from reduced turnover. The results of this evaluation shall be presented annually to the House and Senate education committees of the General Assembly.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect July 1, 2004.