Civic learning for all students seems like a reasonable and important aim for all schools to achieve. If we believe that the future of our American democracy depends on a citizenry that is informed, engaged, and responsible, what better place to create future citizens than in schools? The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools…

The Illinois Initiative on Transparency in Learning and Teaching is a grassroots assessment project designed to promote students' conscious understanding of how they learn and to enable faculty to gather, share, and promptly benefit from data about students' learning by coordinating their efforts across disciplines, institutions, and countries.…

This report provides initial results of Illinois' Shifting Gears Initiative that operated between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2009. This mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) evaluation sought to accomplish three goals: (1) to assess program and student outcomes for two models (adult education and developmental education) for two target groups…

This report of a regional conference on Competency Based Teacher Education (CBTE) held to allow the six States in Region V (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin) to share information about vocational personnel development activities and programs, consists primarily of 12 conference papers: (1) Personnel Development in…

As mandated by Illinois Public Act 84-1291, this report identifies the service needs of persons with autism, recommends service models, and offers a plan of action to ensure delivery of appropriate services within resources available. Three primary themes are emphasized: a need for intervention at the earliest point in time for persons with…

Business teachers in Illinois have developed innovative career education programs and in this document they share their ideas and practices through 11 descriptive articles. Teacher contributions include an overview of the career education concept in secondary education and its relationship to the business occupations cluster, career planning,…

Initiated in 1964, the Illnois gifted program provided funds for development of local gifted programs by local districts. General purposes and criteria for individual programs were realized with varying success. Gifted programs increased and were extended to less wealthy and smaller districts; techniques and inservice education spilled over into…

This project presented a conceptual model for adapting with change and the strategies and procedures for introducing change skills instruction into vocational programs to groups of vocational educators and administrators at sites throughout Illinois. Following the presentations, the project directors solicited feedback from the persons who…

Research is summarized and analyzed in this revision of the author's 1960 "Analysis of Research on the Education of Gifted Children," which was used as a guide in the construction and implementation of the Illinois Plan for Program Development for Gifted Children. Information is provided on identification and definition and on…

Designed to meet Illinois state law requirements for consumer education to be taught before graduation from high school, this guide outlines the major topics to be included in the mandatory nine weeks of consumer education. Because the law neither stipulates a specific grade level for this material, nor requires its introduction as a separate…

In 1986, Illinois implemented the Children at Risk of Educational Failure preschool program. By the 1991-1992 school year, almost 25,000 children were enrolled in the program. This document reports on accessibility to, and community involvement in, the program, and instructional and evaluation practices used in the program. The section on…

Five Illinois universities, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), and the Illinois Area IV Learning Technology Hub are collaborating in the Preparing Educators for the 21st Century Program" (PIE-21). This state-funded program focuses on providing preservice teachers, administrators, and teacher education faculty with…