KEEP Illinois – Keeping Educators Engaged Professionally
KEEP Illinois stands for Keeping Educators Engaged Professionally, and the goal of this grassroots action team is to do just that for educators across Illinois serving all levels of education. The goal of KEEP Illinois is not just to solve educator retention for early childhood educators, educators working in school districts, and educators working in postsecondary environments, but to create and implement structures, policies, and practices that allow and encourage educators to grow and flourish throughout their careers.
KEEP Illinois Research Study – Spring/Summer 2025 – Defining Educator Compensation Survey
In April 2025, from April 7 to April 30, the Illinois P-20 Network will be conducting a statewide study of early childhood through high school educators to explore their thoughts on compensation. This study builds off the recommendations included in The Road to Retention, which offered four recommendations to better engage educators throughout their careers and to improve retention. Those recommendations included: compensation; teacher leadership; professional development, coaching, and co-teaching; and culture, working conditions, and wellness.
This study seeks to gather more information directly from educators of all types, including both licensed teachers, clinicians, and administrators as well as paraprofessionals, across all levels (early childhood through high school) from throughout Illinois to both identify high-quality practices that are working in school districts and to seek the creation of additional novel solutions to these challenges.
KEEP Illinois Resources
Read the full report…
The Road to Retention: Understanding the educator shortage and ways to engage and keep educators
Watch the report overview…
About KEEP Illinois
Patterned after the Illinois P-20 Network’s successful Dual Credit Think Tank, KEEP Illinois is a grassroots effort from practitioners across the state. Currently, approximately 60 teachers, counselors, and administrators, ranging from principals to superintendents, have volunteered to serve as members of KEEP Illinois, which is also working in partnership with the Illinois Association of School Personnel Administrators (IASPA).
KEEP Illinois was launched in Spring 2023, and following a successful in-person meeting at the Fall 2023 Illinois P-20 Network Meeting, KEEP Illinois has published its The Road to Retention report on the research around effective policies and practices to support educator’s growth in their professional environments. Once this white paper is published during Spring 2024, it will become the basis for specific actions, ranging from KEEP Illinois professional learning opportunities to policy recommendations that KEEP Illinois members will identify with a grounding in the research. Additionally, as gaps are identified in the existing research on educator retention and career growth, KEEP Illinois may undertake such research on its own moving forward.
To become involved in KEEP Illinois, please complete this short form.
2024-2025 Third Quarter Goals
- Identification of strategies to support Teacher Leadership – Complete
- Development of research study to learn more about educators’ feelings and district practices regarding compensation – Underway