(This summary reflects the 2009 amendments to the Illinois Grow Your Own Teachers Act. For the full text of this amended law, click here. In addition, click here for Public Act 96-1393, which transfers authority for the program from the Illinois State Board of Education to the Illinois Board of Higher Education.)
Goal: Add 1,000 teachers to low-income and other hard-to-staff Illinois schools by 2016, with an average retention of 7 years.
Focus: Increase the diversity of teachers by race, ethnicity, and disability and prepare them for hard to staff positions and hard to staff schools in areas serving a substantial percentage of low-income students.
Target population: Parents and community leaders with a history of working to improve low-income schools, and/or paraeducators, such as teacher aides, school clerks, security aides, school-community liaisons, with a high school diploma or equivalent.
Cohort: Teacher candidates from the target population move together through the program, with guaranteed support and a schedule that allows them to work full time.
Local Consortia: at least one 4-year higher education institution with accredited teacher preparation program and demonstrated success in preparing teachers for low-income schools; community organizations, and at least one school district or group of schools. May also include community colleges and/or a school employee union.
Community organization: Nonprofit organization that has demonstrated capacity to train, develop, and organize parents and community leaders into a constituency that will hold school and school district accountable for achieving high academic standards; also can include general parent organization; organizations of special education or bilingual education parents, and school employee unions.
Eligible schools: Schools serving a substantial percentage of low-income students; substantial is defined as 35% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch in grades preK-8; 25% of students in grades 9-12.
Criteria: The Illinois Board of Higher Education, through a competitive process, shall award grants to qualified consortia that meet the following criteria:
a. Demonstrated success of the higher ed institutions in preparing candidates from non-traditional backgrounds for hard-to-staff, low-income schools and positions;
b. Quality of the implementation plan including strategies for overcoming institutional barriers for non-traditional candidates;
c. Nature and extent of articulation agreements between a participating community college and the 4-year institution;
d. Number of participants; the size of the cohort;
e. Experience of the community organization in organizing parents and community leaders to achieve school improvement and a strong relational school culture;
f. Qualifications of cohort coordinator at the 4-year institution who provides strong cohort support;
g. Collective decision-making plan within consortia
h. Plan for direct impact of program on quality of education in target schools
i. Relevant curriculum and effective adult education practices;
j. Classes accessible to candidates in time and place;
k. Provision of a level of performance to be maintained by candidates as condition of continuing in program
l. Plan of the 4-year institutions to ensure candidates take advantage of existing financial aid resources before using loan funds in this program
m. Availability of support services (counseling, child care, tutoring);
n. Plan for continued participation of graduates in a program of support for at least 2 years, including mentoring and group meetings
o. Plan for testing, qualitative evaluation of candidates’ teaching skills that ensures they are as prepared for teaching as other individuals completing the teacher preparation program
p. Internal evaluation that provides report annually on progress of candidates.
q. Contributions from consortium members, including stipends for student teaching
r. Consortium commitment for sustaining the program over time
s. Inclusion of community organizing strategies in the teacher preparation program, to help candidates develop tools for working with parents and community members.
Forgivable loans: Must be available to candidates to cover tuition and other expenses not covered by other grants or program funds. The loans will be fully forgiven if a graduate teaches for 5 years in an eligible school, with partial forgiveness for shorter periods of service. Loan waivers and deferral of repayment may be considered in exceptional circumstances, under standards established by the State Board.
Uses of grant funds:
The Board will award grants to qualified consortia that may cover developmental classes, other support costs for candidates such as child care and classes held in the community, the cohort coordinator(s), the costs of supports provided by the community organization, and school district costs of student teaching, work experience and mentors for students. Funds must be used to supplement, not supplant, the average per-capita expenditures that higher education institutions spend on students.
Student teaching: School districts may use GYO grant or other public funds to pay Grow Your Own candidates for their required student teaching.
Evaluation: The Board shall contract for an independent evaluation of implementation by each consortia and of the program overall. (The current contractor for the statewide evaluation is Philber Research Associates.)
