Research Webinar Series
We’re excited to announce the P-20 Network Research Series, which will feature free webinars on topics related to the P-20 Network Areas of Focus and of interest to individuals and organizations across the Illinois P-20 Network. While we will be sharing more webinars over the next couple of weeks, the first webinars are on the schedule.
- Friday, April 17 – 1 PM – Student Motivation and CTE Course Selection – Joe Bruno – Register
- Friday, April 24 – 9 AM – Career readiness implementation in school districts across Illinois – Amanda Pelsor – Register
More information about upcoming webinars will be shared on this page on the Illinois P-20 Network website, the Illinois P-20 Network LinkedIn feed, and upcoming Newsletters.
March 2026SkillsUSA Illinois Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning Landscape Analysis Webinar
Update – 2025-March-07 – We are excited to have publish Constructing a Strong Foundation on which to Build: SkillsUSA Illinois Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning Landscape Analysis.
With the support of SkillsUSA Illinois, throughout the Fall and Winter of the 2024-2025 year, a research team from the NIU P-20 Research and Data Collaborative comprised of the Illinois P-20 Network and the Workforce Policy Lab at the NIU Center for Governmental Studies has conducted a comprehensive overview of apprenticeship programs across Illinois, including their locations, the career fields they cover, and the demographics of current apprentices. This work has also focused on Work-Based Learning more broadly, including paid and unpaid internships. To complete this study, the team brought together existing governmental data sources from the United States Department of Labor and the Illinois State Board of Education as well as seeking input from both educators (school districts and postsecondary) and from business and community partners with two original surveys.
On Thursday, March 13, 2025, we will be hosting a webinar for educators to provide an overview of the results, the key themes, and the report’s recommendations. As a landscape analysis, this report is simply a starting point for future work, though we are both excited to have helped start moving Illinois further down the road of thoughtful data analysis as well as thankful for the support of SkillsUSA Illinois that allowed this work to take place.
March 2025An Overview Webinar of HLC’s Proposed Policy Changes
On September 6, 2023, Rodrigo López, Director of P-20 Initiatives at Northern Illinois University, and Aimee Galvin, Government Affairs Director at Stand for Children Illinois, hosted an informational webinar for educators across Illinois on behalf of the Illinois P-20 Network’s Dual Credit Think Tank.
With attendees from across Illinois representing secondary and postsecondary institutions, Rodrigo and Aimee reviewed the Higher Learning Commission’s (HLC) proposed policy changes to Faculty Qualifications, resulting from the HLC’s Board of Trustees’ first reading of the policy this past summer. The Board is expected to vote on the proposed Faculty Qualifications policy during their upcoming meeting this November.
The webinar provided background context to these proposed policy changes, and the webinar also provided information on the current policy and guidelines (Determining Qualified Faculty Through HLC’s Criteria for Accreditation and Assumed Practices) as noted in the Assumed Practices – CRRT.B.10.020. Aimee from Stand for Children Illinois offered an overview of their organization’s philosophy on dual credit and shared some thoughts on potential implications for both school districts and postsecondary institutions in Illinois, which are included in the Stand for Children Illinois HLC Proposed Rule Change Comment Letter.
Next Steps for Practitioners to Consider (and for Action)
The proposed policy changes and the information shared by the Dual Credit Think Tank present a time-sensitive opportunity for both school districts and postsecondary institutions to engage in a conversation about how these changes may impact their goals and their directions moving forward. For example, the HLC is seeking to adopt Progress toward academic credentials as an alternative to approve instructors to teach college courses. In the context of dual credit, this allows dual credit partnerships to construct a framework to explore the use of Professional Development Plans as a means to be credentialed to teach dual credit courses, similar to what is described in the Dual Credit Quality Act. Additionally, Illinois P-20 Network partners might find value in learning more about implementing a local policy that uses Equivalent Experience to increase dual credit instructors within career and technical education.
Understanding that dual credit partnerships from across Illinois face their own unique challenges, the Dual Credit Think Tank encourages all members to critically analyze the proposed policy changes and participate in the open comment period.
Please note that comments to HLC regarding this proposed policy change remain open through September 18, 2023. Comments can be provided to HLC via email: policycomments@hlcommission.org
The full webinar can be viewed on YouTube or below.
Webinar Recap – HLC Proposed Policy Changes
On February 7, 2023, Rodrigo López, Director of P-20 Initiatives at Northern Illinois University, and Aimee Galvin, Government Affairs Director at Stand for Children Illinois, hosted an informational webinar for educators across Illinois on behalf of the Illinois P-20 Network’s Dual Credit Think Tank. With attendees from across Illinois and representing school districts, community colleges, universities, and other professional and interest groups, the proposed policy changes recently communicated by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) were shared. While the HLC proposed policy changes were the primary focus of the interview, Rodrigo and Aimee also reviewed the recent amendments to the Illinois Dual Credit Quality Act and shared the proposed rule changes to the ICCB System Rules Manual that pertain to dual credit (Section 1501.313).
View the webinar below or on the Illinois P-20 Network’s YouTube channel. Continue reading below the video for next steps.
Action Items
- If you are an HLC member institution, please consider submitting feedback on these proposed changes at this time. Learn more about HLC’s proposed revisions. Feedback by member institutions is due to HLC by February 15, 2023.
- Participate in the Dual Credit Think Tank’s next major task – Collecting and publishing best practices for reviewing the credentials and experiences of high school teachers beyond their earned academic credentials.
For more information on the Dual Credit Think Tank or to get involved, please contact Rodrigo López at rodrigo.lopez@niu.edu
ISBE CTE Summer Speaker Series 2022
CTE for ALL students & for EACH student
As part of the Career ConneCTEd Illinois efforts to support high-level Career and Technical Education (CTE) for all students throughout the state, this year, we are launching a Summer Speaker Series that will focus on ensuring access to and success in CTE classrooms. With a focus on the “special populations” and “nontraditional careers” of the Perkins V Act, the following three topics were identified by analyzing statewide CTE student data as well as through engaging CTE leaders from across Illinois.
For each topic, we will host a keynote presentation in June, and then, there will also be a corresponding educator panel for each topic that will be held in late July and early August prior to the start of the 2022-2023 school year. All of these events will be held online, and links will be sent to those who have registered the day before each event.
Family & Community Engagement and Postsecondary Placement
- Keynote – June 28, 10:30 AM – Dr. Ayanna Brown, Elmhurst University & Thought Spectrum, LLC
- Educator Panel – July 27, 9 AM
Active Recruitment of Special Populations into CTE Programs and Nontraditional Careers
- Keynote – June 21, 9 AM – Dr. Amanda Bastoni, CAST
- Educator Panel – July 28, 9 AM
Elimination of Barriers for Individual CTE Students
- Keynote – June 23, 9 AM – Dr. Valerie Milton, Michigan Department of Education
- Educator Panel – August 2, 9 AM
High Quality CTE Practices Webinar
Over the course of the spring, a national landscape analysis of best practices in Career and Technical Education (CTE) has been conducted in order to inform curriculum, instructional, and policy decisions related to CTE. As part of the ISBE CTE Project that is being facilitated by NIU STEAM and the Illinois P-20 Network, we are excited to launch a whitepaper with this analysis, and we will be hosting a free summary webinar at 1 PM on June 15, 2022.
May 2022Learn about Competency-Based Education
Join Education Systems Center for a webinar that highlights Competency-Based Education
June 23rd from 9 to 10.30 AM
Competency-Based Education can provide a stronger foundation for providing deep, authentic learning opportunities for all students and for most appropriately challenge students as well as meeting individual academic and social-emotional needs. Competency-Based Education offers flexibility that can also support very strong implementations of Career Pathway Endorsements and a wide range of Dual Credit offerings.
Over the past four years, dozens of Illinois school district have been implementing Competency-Based Education. As one of these superintendents recently said when referring to the shift to remote learning in March, 2020, “Being a Competency-Based district made the move to remote learning so much easier, and we were so much more effective with students as a result of the work we’d been doing.” The benefits of Competency-Based Education extend far beyond remote learning. The realities of remote learning have caused professionals across all kinds of fields to consider changes to their work. In the case of educators, one result of these reflective questions is a heightened awareness of and desire to learn more about Competency-Based Education.
On June 23, 2020, our partners at Education Systems Center invite policymakers and practitioners to a webinar that will explore the opportunities remote learning provides to shift from traditional teaching and learning to more systemic personalized and competency-based approaches. Led by national experts, this session will provide a framework with entry points and next steps for pivoting to personalized instructional systems that meet students “where they are” and support them in moving forward as they are ready. Participants will also examine the challenges they have addressed implementing remote learning and consider how shifting to personalized, competency-based approaches can provide a useful framework for next school year and beyond.
This session will be led by three national experts in personalized and competency-based approaches who are authors of the new book Deeper Competency-Based Learning: Making Equitable, Student-Centered, Sustainable Shifts: Rose Colby, Karin Hess, Ed. D, and Daniel Joseph. In addition, participants will hear directly from Illinois districts at the leading edge of implementing competency-based approaches through the state’s competency-based pilot.
Following registration, participants will receive excerpts from Deeper Competency-Based Learning: Making Equitable, Student-Centered, Sustainable Shifts along with reflection questions to respond to in advance of the session.
June 2020