Illinois 2025-2026 Regular Session

Illinois Senate Bill SJR0019 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

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3	3	1 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION
4	4	2 WHEREAS, Policymakers have strongly advocated for efforts
5	5	3 to elevate the importance of retaining diverse and inclusive
6	6	4 educators in Illinois; and
7	7	5 WHEREAS, The Performance Evaluation Reform Act (PERA),
8	8	6 Public Act 96-0861, was signed into law by the governor in
9	9	7 January 2010 and required school districts and other covered
10	10	8 entities to include student growth as a "significant factor"
11	11	9 in evaluating principals, assistant principals, and teachers
12	12	10 by certain implementation dates; the law also required that
13	13	11 evaluations include a four category rating system and
14	14	12 regulated training programs for anyone undertaking such
15	15	13 evaluations; PA 97-8, an offshoot of PERA, introduced the use
16	16	14 of educators' evaluation rating outcomes into employment
17	17	15 decisions in a number of ways, including the standards for
18	18	16 certificate/license actions against an educator for
19	19	17 incompetency, acquisition of tenure, reductions in
20	20	18 force/layoffs, and recall rights; and
21	21	19 WHEREAS, PERA also created the Illinois Performance
22	22	20 Evaluation Advisory Council, which recommended the Danielson
23	23	21 Framework for Teaching to all districts for use in evaluating
24	24	22 educators' professional practice in 2011; later, the State's
25	25	23 evaluator training materials incorporated the Danielson
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34	34	1 Framework for Teaching for use as a training tool for all
35	35	2 teacher evaluators; and
36	36	3 WHEREAS, Teacher diversity has been linked to improved
37	37	4 student outcomes, including increased academic achievement,
38	38	5 higher rates of gifted assignment, and lower rates of
39	39	6 exclusionary discipline; to recognize these benefits, there
40	40	7 has been a growing research and policy focus on recruiting and
41	41	8 hiring teachers of color; however, studies have shown that
42	42	9 teachers of color have high turnover rates, so retention of
43	43	10 teachers of color has also become an important part of the
44	44	11 conversation; and
45	45	12 WHEREAS, Research from Blazar (2024) finds that Black
46	46	13 teachers:
47	47	14 (1) Have statistically significant positive impacts on
48	48	15 Black students' self-efficacy;
49	49	16 (2) Enhance students', particularly Black students',
50	50	17 engagement in classes;
51	51	18 (3) Improve student attendance, reducing absences by
52	52	19 47% for Black students and 22% for non-Black students;
53	53	20 (4) Improve math test scores of both Black and
54	54	21 non-Black students; and
55	55	22 (5) Produce long-term benefits in English language
56	56	23 arts test scores, particularly for Black students; and
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67	67	1 WHEREAS, The Illinois State Board of Education began
68	68	2 reporting the three-year teacher retention rate disaggregated
69	69	3 by race/ethnicity for the first time in 2021; the data showed
70	70	4 that Illinois schools retain Black teachers at the lowest rate
71	71	5 of all teacher groups, 80.6 percent, compared to an 87.6
72	72	6 percent rate for White teachers; and
73	73	7 WHEREAS, After a year-long study, the Illinois State Board
74	74	8 of Education released the Teacher Evaluation Research Project
75	75	9 (2024), a research report that found the State's current
76	76	10 evaluation requirements result in the following:
77	77	11 (1) A heavy workload, and at times, a burden on both
78	78	12 teachers and evaluators, which minimizes opportunities to
79	79	13 prioritize actionable feedback and professional growth for
80	80	14 all educators;
81	81	15 (2) Concerns about the presence of bias in
82	82	16 evaluations, particularly regarding student growth
83	83	17 measures; and
84	84	18 (3) Disparities in rating distributions by educators'
85	85	19 race and school district characteristics, with serious and
86	86	20 significant negative impacts on Black and Latinx
87	87	21 educators; and
88	88	22 WHEREAS, Since 2011, when Illinois recommended the
89	89	23 Danielson Framework for Teaching as an evaluation tool, there
90	90	24 have been lingering questions about potential biases built
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101	101	1 into Danielson Framework for Teaching itself, which could be
102	102	2 contributing to the disparities in rating outcomes that we are
103	103	3 seeing in Illinois and go beyond potential individual
104	104	4 evaluator bias, and whether or not the tool is fair to Black
105	105	5 and Brown educators in their work with all types of students,
106	106	6 including students with disabilities, multilingual learners,
107	107	7 and early learners; further, there has yet to be a clear body
108	108	8 of evidence to demonstrate that the Danielson Framework for
109	109	9 Teaching is a robust instrument, which would foster the
110	110	10 equity-based teaching practices and reflective conversations
111	111	11 that are envisioned in the Illinois Culturally Responsive
112	112	12 Teaching and Leading Standards; therefore, be it
113	113	13 RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL
114	114	14 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE HOUSE OF
115	115	15 REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING HEREIN, that we urge the Illinois
116	116	16 State Board of Education to initiate and complete a research
117	117	17 study to examine the application and use of the Danielson
118	118	18 Framework for Teaching, including ways to confront ideological
119	119	19 barriers to socially just teacher performance evaluation; and
120	120	20 be it further
121	121	21 RESOLVED, That the Illinois State Board of Education is
122	122	22 urged to deliver this report to the legislature by June 30,
123	123	23 2026; and be it further
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