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 Resources
The Road to Retention: Understanding the educator shortage and ways to engage and keep educators
The Road to Retention – Report Overview
Defining Educator Compensation
Defining Educator Compensation – 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.