Illinois's Performance
Ungraded
Why does this matter?
Setting goals provides a long-term vision along with short-term motivation. States can demonstrate their commitment to diversifying the workforce by setting public goals and then tracking progress towards those goals. Currently, only a handful of states have numeric, public goals to diversify their workforce.
Why does Illinois stand out?
Illinois publishes explicit goals for increasing the racial/ethnic diversity of the teacher workforce. The state regularly publishes the racial and ethnic demographics of its educator workforce.
Illinois’ state teacher preparation data dashboards provide easy-to-interpret data on teacher candidate enrollment and completion, disaggregated by race and ethnicity. Programs are given report card scores comparing their share of diverse teacher candidates and completers relative to the rest of the state.
What are the key actions Illinois should take?
See what these exemplars are doing in this policy area:
Key Resources
State of the States 2023: Teacher Diversity
Explore NCTQ’s comprehensive scan of state teacher diversity policies.
Increasing teacher diversity: Four ways districts can take action
Learn more about how districts can create the conditions for a more diverse workforce.
References
- The Hunt Institute & Office of Governor Roy Cooper. (2021). Developing a representative & inclusive vision for education (DRIVE) final report and recommendations. Retrieved from https://files.nc.gov/governor/documents/files/HI-DRIVE-Final-Report.pdf
- Of note, other states do set goals around teacher diversity that may not be numeric, or are not published, and thus are not reflected here.