KEEP Illinois – Defining Educator Compensation Survey

In April 2025, from April 7 to May 14, 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, specifically in the area of educator compensation.

This survey is anonymous and completely voluntary, is likely only to take as little as 5 to 7 minutes to complete, and can inform conversations both locally and statewide about educator compensation. Thank you for taking the survey and sharing with colleagues! The results of this survey will be made publicly available at the start of the 2025-2026 school year.

The Road to Retention KEEP Illinois Report Released

This week, KEEP Illinois met to review the now released report, The Road to Retention: Understanding the educator shortage and ways to engage and keep educators. This report reviews the existing literature on educator retention and engagement as well as state and national data. The report also makes recommendations regarding both policies and practices that can enhance educator engagement (and, ultimately, retention). 

During the KEEP Illinois meetings, participants discussed which recommendations should be priorities as well as which are most realistic. Following those discussions, KEEP Illinois participants will receive a short follow-up survey. Based on those survey results and the discussions, a KEEP Illinois action plan will be put into place and future efforts will focus on implementing policies and practices across Illinois that are likely to increase engagement for all educators so they can continue to thrive throughout their careers. The video included below provides a brief overview of the full report.

To stay up-to-date on what is taking place with KEEP Illinois, please visit the Illinois P-20 Network’s KEEP Illinois website and watch for upcoming Illinois P-20 Network Newsletters.   

Supporting Educator Engagement with Coaching

One of the Illinois P-20 Network’s four Areas of Focus is Educator Engagement. As will be evident with the forthcoming publication of the KEEP Illinois research review regarding educator retention and career-long engagement, there are many key elements to retaining educators throughout their careers in ways that can continue to grow and thrive. While climate and culture, salary, collaboration, professional autonomy, and relationships with peers and supervisors are all critical, one strategy that can consistently improve all of these other elements (with the exception of salary) is coaching.

The Educational Coaching Network (ECN) is designed to serve as a partner to organizations on their journeys with developing, implementing, and maintaining coaching as well as a partner to individual coaches – from new coaches with the annual Foundations of Coaching series as well as to experienced coaches with the Advanced Coaching workshops that provide different learning opportunities each year based on the needs that have been identified by coaches across Illinois. Additionally, coaches and school and district leaders are invited to celebrate coaching and to dive deeper into its direct impact on students at this year’s ECN Conference on April 24, 2025, with Diane Sweeney.

KEEP Illinois is dedicated to helping educators locally and policymakers state-wide develop and implement practices and policies that will promote long-term engagement and growth (and retention) for educators throughout our careers. ECN provides important supports for these efforts.

To learn more about the Educational Coaching Network and/or for information about customized assistance with launching, evaluating, and/or improving coaching in your organization, please contact Tim Dohrer.

KEEP Illinois Update: Deepening Our Understanding of the Teaching Profession and Educator Engagement

Work continues in earnest on a review of research about educator retention and engagement. This is part of a larger project to understand the field and provide districts and policymakers with guidance on how to help teachers and administrators thrive. At the March Forum, a group of educators from across the state came together to discuss a 2022 study from Matthew Kraft and Melissa Lyon entitled, “The Rise and Fall of the Teaching Profession: Prestige, Interest, Preparation, and Satisfaction over the Last Half Century.” Participants noted that the teaching profession has had cycles of high or low interest depending on a variety of forces, with today’s levels being at historic lows. Those forces create a complex problem that can’t be solved easily, but the group has started to identify some local and broader changes that could result in greater job satisfaction and elevate the profession.

Studies like this are being added to a growing database of research that will culminate in a series of reports and resources educators and leaders can use to enact policies that will result in greater retention and more positive school cultures for educators across Illinois.

If you want to learn more about KEEP Illinois, contact Tim Dohrer (tdohrer@niu.edu).

Sprinting toward new priorities

Following the Illinois P-20 Network Meeting, held on November 29, 2023, the leadership team of the P-20 Network has spent time organizing, coding, and analyzing the feedback about short- and medium-term priorities from participants in the Meeting. 

A new approach to project management to accomplish tasks and be agile

Based on that feedback, first, the Illinois P-20 Network will be adopting a modified sprint planning approach to project management. In this approach, short-term goals are identified and set-up for accomplishment over an equally short period of time. This approach to project management is most frequently used in software development, in which 6-week sprints are often the norm. Following each sprint, a project team typically takes the following week for bug fixes in the software as well as for identifying the goal of the next 6-week sprint and laying out a corresponding project plan for that sprint. 

Educational organizations typically organize around 1-year goals and plans (e.g., School Improvement Plans) and longer 3- to 5-year strategic plans. Schools, school districts, and postsecondary institutions benefit from the long-term focus over time that is tied to sticking with a consistent small set of goals over many years to move the entire organization forward in deep and lasting ways. For the Illinois P-20 Network, on the other hand, sprint planning is beneficial because it allows Network members to quickly see tangible benefits from the Network’s work on an ongoing basis and because it allows the Illinois P-20 Network to be nimble and adjust to changes in policy and/or the needs of its constituent member organizations. 

To this end, each of the workgroups has set targeted goals for the third quarter of the 2023-2024 academic year. We will update all Illinois P-20 Network members on our progress toward each of these targets this spring. 

Next steps for Illinois P-20 Network Workgroups

Dual Credit Think Tank – With the successful and large in-person gathering at the Fall P-20 Network Meeting, the Dual Credit Think has continued to provide direct opportunities for practitioners at both the school district and postsecondary levels to offer feedback on Stand for Children Illinois’ proposed amendment to the Dual Credit Quality Act. In the weeks to come, the Dual Credit Think Tank will focus on facilitating conversations for practitioners to continue to influence the legislative process as it unfolds in Springfield with their on-the-ground experiences. A second priority that the Dual Credit Think Tank will undertake alongside this effort, a series of professional learning opportunities regarding developing a common understanding of the 2022 amendment to the Dual Credit Quality Act will take place in February, March, and April. If you are not already in the Dual Credit Think Tank and would like to be, please contact Rodrigo López.  

IPIE – Based on feedback from the Fall P-20 Network Meeting and the ongoing work of IPIE, over the next three months IPIE will offer monthly online sessions focused on supporting districts with analyzing district and school data for the planning and implementation of their work around the ISBE Equity Journey Continuum. To become involved in IPIE and/or attend upcoming meetings, please complete this short IPIE interest form. 

KEEP Illinois – Over the next few months, KEEP Illinois will publish three white papers based on the existing literature on the following topics: educator retention broadly, instructional coaching and its impact on educator retention, and the impact of wellness policies and practices on educator retention. Each of these will also be presented as a practitioner-focused webinar as they are completed. During this period, KEEP Illinois will also commence a regular pattern of monthly meetings to discuss research, best practices, and additional action steps. If you are not already a part of KEEP Illinois and would like to be, please contact Tim Dohrer. 

Advancing Positive, Engaging Environments for All Educators 

The Fall 2023 Illinois P-20 Network meeting consisted primarily of worktime for each of three key Illinois P-20 Network workgroups: Dual Credit Think Tank, IPIE, and KEEP Illinois. A summary of the KEEP Illinois workgroup worktime follows below. 

KEEP Illinois continued its work on several topics related to educator engagement and retention during the Illinois P-20 Network Fall 2023 Meeting. Arturo Senteno, Principal at West Leyden High School, provided important context and his own research on teacher and administrator engagement which reverberated throughout the remaining work session. Participants then broke into three groups based on topics identified in previous meetings as both important and achievable: research, wellness, coaching.   

While research on retention and engagement exists, it is not collected or synthesized in ways that can be easily used in decision-making. Creating a research “hub” and lit review could be a potential next step to help. Educator wellness is another critical topic that needs to first be carefully defined and understood.  KEEP Illinois members suggest creating a resource guide for teachers, administrators, and school board members to use in creating mental and physical wellness initiatives in their districts. There also should be exploration of how local and state policies can include a greater focus on adult wellness. Coaching for both teachers and administrators is another potentially powerful intervention to support engagement. Next steps include broadly sharing research with teachers, administrators, and professors on coaching, as well as best practices on how to create a culture of coaching in schools.

In the end, participants strongly endorsed continuing these efforts to improve retention and engagement across the state. Starting in January, KEEP Illinois will begin hosting monthly online forums and email updates to keep everyone connected and moving forward. Work will also proceed on an accessible platform with research on educator engagement, an educator wellness resource guide for organizations, and additional resources on instructional and leadership coaching. 

The final portion of the Illinois P-20 Network meeting included each workgroup providing a summary of their work to all participants. Then, small group discussions considered what the 1-year and 3-year specific task priorities should be for the Illinois P-20 Network. As a next step, the Network’s leadership team will compile all of those suggested priorities, analyze them, and may then solicit additional feedback from across the Illinois P-20 Network. Ultimately, the goal will be that there are specific, actionable, and sustainable next steps for each of the workgroups. 

Workgroup details for the Fall 2023 Network Meeting

With educators who serve students of all ages coming to Naperville on November 29, 2023, from across the state, you do not want to miss this important event. Colleagues from school districts, community colleges, and universities, as well as state agencies and professional organizations, will be attending to help move our educational systems forward together.

The majority of our time will be spent in three workgroups. Participants can join a workgroup even if they have not previously participated with that group in-person or online. All are truly welcome to roll-up their sleeves, attend, and participate!

IPIE – Illinois Partnership for Inclusion and Equity – This transformative data-driven equity workshop is the culmination of insights garnered from IPIE’s expansive membership. This workshop will first review annual trends in DEI before teaching participants to pinpoint and dissect achievement, opportunity, and racial discipline gaps with the precision of the Illinois Report Card. Join us and engage in rich discussions around local district data, sparking innovative strategies to amplify equity initiatives. This workshop concludes by bridging Illinois Report Card equity gap data with actionable steps; guiding districts in enhancing their Equity Journey Continuum. Elevate your district’s commitment to equity!

KEEP Illinois – Keeping Educators Engaged Professionally – The goal of KEEP Illinois is to keep educators engaged in learning and growing as professionals throughout their career. If we are successful with this effort, we will impact the ongoing educator shortage by stopping (or significantly decreasing) the flow of educators out of the profession and improve the daily lives of educators–and, as a result, their students. This work session will focus on developing action plans we will implement in the coming months to improve the conditions for teachers and administrators across Illinois.

Dual Credit Think Tank – The Dual Credit Think Tank will bring members of the dual credit community together to discuss how the recent policy changes that the Higher Learning Commission made to its faculty qualifications will affect policy and practice in Illinois. Participants will learn from secondary, postsecondary, and policy experts about dual credit teacher credentialing practices in Illinois. Members will work to outline the most pressing challenges faced by dual credit partnerships and aim to identify policy-driven solutions. Topics will include course selection, minimum qualifications to teach, partnership agreements, student services/development, and class size/caps.

Doing the Work: Illinois P-20 Network Fall 2023 Meeting

This year, the Fall Meeting of the Illinois P-20 Network will be held on Wednesday, November 29, 2023, from 9.30 AM until 1.30 PM at NIU Naperville. While we will spend a short period of time together at the beginning of the day to set the stage and to frame our work, the majority of the Meeting will be spent as dedicated, in-person worktime for each of the following Illinois P-20 Network workgroups: 

• Dual Credit Think Tank
• Illinois Partnership for Inclusion and Equity
• KEEP Illinois – Keeping Educators Engaged Professionally

For those that have been a part of these groups, we hope you can join us in-person in Naperville on November 29. For those that have not, please join us on November 29 and lend your voice to one or more of the workgroups – Everyone is not only welcome but encouraged to join us!

The day will conclude with a short sharing session and lunch. To help offset the costs of the in-person event, we are asking participants for a small registration fee of $30. Thank you for your understanding!

Launching “KEEP Illinois – Keeping Educators Engaged Professionally”

Goal: Help solve the educator shortage by improving educator retention

Significant work is being done across Illinois by a wide variety of stakeholders, including the Northern Illinois University College of Education, to increase both the diversity and the amount of individuals in the career development pipeline to become teachers. Despite these efforts, without addressing issues of educator retention, the teacher shortage cannot be effectively resolved. To this end, the Illinois P-20 Network is taking on a statewide leadership role with regards to educator retention with the launch of KEEP Illinois – Keeping Educators Engaged Professionally.

KEEP Illinois participation is open to anyone with an interest in supporting educator retention in schools and organizations at all levels across Illinois.

Like the Illinois P-20 Network’s Dual Credit Think, KEEP Illinois seeks to build a strong grassroots base for its work by engaging practitioners from across Illinois. Additionally, over time, KEEP Illinois seeks to build formal partnerships with other organizations to further promote and implement the strategies and solutions that KEEP Illinois participants have seen work locally.