Policy Update: Illinois: Treating the Symptoms

Vital Statistics
921	Public school districts
4,171	Public schools
2.0 million	K-12 enrollment
37%	Minority students
20%	Children in poverty
11.6%	Students with disabilities
$12.9 billion	Annual K-12 expenditures (all revenue sources)

Most of the state's 921 school districts saw dividends from a 12.6 percent boost in state general education funding last year, following the legislature's 1997 vote to set minimum per-pupil spending levels through 2001.

What happens after 2001, though, is something that lawmakers and school officials are still grappling with.

The education funding legislation, which targeted aid to poor districts in particular, did not address what many believe to be the central flaw of the finance system: its heavy dependence on property taxes. And the new education dollars come from such less-than-reliable revenue sources as cigarette, gambling, and telecommunications taxes.

"The whole connotation of smoking and gambling for the kids is negative," says Ben Schwarm, the director of government relations for the Illinois Association of School Boards. "It's not a permanent solution."

But the spending increases alone didn't satisfy the state's retiring chief executive. During his final year in office, Gov. Jim Edgar, a Republican, supported a funding plan that would have swapped a higher statewide income tax for lower property taxes. When the plan failed, it was seen as a big defeat for the governor.

Meanwhile, on the campaign trail last fall, Republican gubernatorial candidate George Ryan--then the Illinois secretary of state--outlined a school funding plan that hinged on a continued strong state economy, saying he hoped to direct 51 percent of all new revenues to public education. Ryan, who went on to win the governor's race, did not indicate whether he would support the type of tax swap Edgar proposed.

A commission charged with finding solutions to the state's overdependence on property taxes, appointed by Edgar, was scheduled to make recommendations to state legislators before this month.

In addition to electing a new governor, Illinois also named a new state superintendent of education last year. The state school board hired Glenn W. "Max" McGee, formerly the superintendent of a suburban Chicago school district, in October after Joseph A. Spagnolo Jr. resigned last summer. Spagnolo had ushered in new standards and accountability measures, but his tenure had also been marred by findings of poor administration at the state education department. Spagnolo stepped down shortly after the state sent pilot health tests to high schools with questions deemed inappropriate for students. The tests touched off controversy.

On another front, Illinois students in the 3rd, 5th, 8th, and 10th grades geared up to take new state tests in reading, writing, and mathematics in February of this year. Last year, the education department revamped the Illinois Standards Achievement Tests, or isat, formerly called the Illinois Goals Assessment Program, to line up with a group of more challenging and more specific academic standards adopted in 1997.

The new tests and standards replace a system established in the 1980s to evaluate how well students met the state's broadly defined learning goals, or "outcomes." The 1980s-era assessments were often criticized because they allowed more than one correct answer.

In 1998, the state school board created a system through which its members can evaluate whether students have measured up to the new standards, based on results of the ISAT.

But deciding where to set the bar that determines whether individual schools have made the grade has proved trickier, says Lee Patton, the state board's executive assistant for education services.

"The biggest issue is that we are expecting most special education students to be a part of this assessment," Patton says. "Do you disaggregate the scores of special education students? It's a very challenging decision."

"We want to do it in a way that provides appropriate information to the public and not a lot of finger-pointing at schools," she adds.

Under the current system, the state uses an "academic early-warning list" to single out academically troubled schools. The schools then receive help from state officials and, sometimes, state aid to try to improve achievement. In October, state education officials reported that the list named only 71 schools where fewer than 50 percent of the students met minimum standards on state tests, down from 121 schools in 1997.

The state expects its updated reporting system for the revamped tests to be in place sometime this spring.

tests next fall, the state board hopes to begin full implementation of a system of accountability measures designed to help all schools improve--even those that have met the state standards.

Illinois' Quality Assurance and Improvement Planning Process, which is being piloted in approximately 200 schools, recently won accolades from the National Association of State Boards of Education for its "holistic" approach to reform.

The system relies on schools to engage teams of employees to assess how teachers can teach better and students can learn better, and what an individual school can do to improve community relations.

"Successful schools where students are learning are not only the result of hard work by everyone in the building and district, but they require strong commitment and involvement from the surrounding community," board Chairman Louis Mervis says.

Where necessary, the board will also deploy its own external-review teams to guide and assess troubled schools--including those placed on the state's warning list.

In the spring of last year, the legislature earmarked $327 million for school construction as part of the first statewide capital-bond program for schools in more than 20 years.

But with state officials estimating that the need for school construction and repairs will top $13 billion in the next 10 years, there still is just not enough money to go around, says Gary Ey, the state's associate superintendent for school financial services.

"With $13 billion worth of need, how can you spread $1 billion around to everybody?" Ey says. "But it's a good start. We can't solve all the problems right away."

State board officials also expect to announce specific standards for teaching content areas and updated professional-development requirements for teachers this spring.

The legislature passed a broad provision calling for stricter teacher qualifications in the December 1997 package of education reforms.