Acknowledging the Present, Working Toward a Just Future

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

There has been much to process over the past year: the COVID-19 pandemic, the racial reckoning that convulsed much of 2020, the uprising at our nation’s Capitol, the death of Daunte Wright, the death of Adam Toledo (aged 13), the death of Jaslyn Adams (aged 7), the death of Ma’Khia Bryant (aged 16), mass shootings in multiple cities across the country and the understanding that we have deeply-rooted issues of racial equity and violence that continue to plague our society and prevent our children from realizing their potential. Violence and racial injustice are not only taking lives – but leaving pain, trauma and other wreckage in their wake.

In the face of tragedy and wrongdoing, it has always been my impulse to work that much harder. But while all of us at Advance Illinois will continue to pursue high-quality and equitable education for Illinois students, to make sure that race, income, geography and citizenship status do not limit any child’s potential or growth, we also commit ourselves to working harder and in better partnership with civil rights, racial justice and community-based organizationsto reimagine a public education system that is no longer business as usual.

Yesterday's guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd represents a step toward justice, but it is also a profound reminder of how far we have to go. We are committed to standing in solidarity with all communities – Black, Latinx, Asian-American, LGBTQIA, and more – as we work to address, tackle and dismantle the systemic racism and prejudices that are embedded within the fabric of our country and, sadly, within our education system.

We know that when we work together, we can move mountains. We have done so before. Let us stay the course so that all children have the opportunity to be children – to pursue their dreams free from fear, discrimination, trauma and violence and surrounded by adults, schools and communities that support, challenge and nurture them.

In partnership,

Robin Steans

President

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members” – Coretta Scott King

From the Desk of Robin Steans - 2021: A Year of Building Back Better

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Like many of you, I was glad to say goodbye to 2020. However, even as vaccinations are underway and we can begin to imagine returning to a new “normal” in the year ahead, it is clear 2021 will present its own challenges. COVID-19 is still surging, civil unrest continues, and data is emerging that confirms the impact this pandemic is having on students, especially our youngest learners and across lines of race/ethnicity and income. As we consider the year ahead, Advance Illinois has a number of interconnected priorities. 

We must invest in B-20 education continuum and we must do so equitably 

There is no question, 2021 will be a tough budget year for Illinois. In addition to ongoing fiscal challenges, Illinois now faces a confluence of events and issues that will place enormous stress on our finances. 

The reality is that education in Illinois is deeply underfunded, and our needs just went up. As challenging as it will be, it is time to treat our educational system – early childhood, k-12, and higher education – as one interconnected structure that will adequately and equitably serve all Illinois students.

We have an opportunity to reimagine early childhood education and care.

In recent years, the state has been working to address and improve access to high-quality and affordable early childhood programs. We applaud Governor Pritzker for creating the Illinois Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Funding to take a hard look at how we fund and operate our early childhood system and to develop recommendations to make Illinois the best state in the country for raising a family. When the commission reports out in March, we expect it – for the first time in the state’s history – to calculate how much the state should be spending to ensure equitable access to quality care and programming. That’s a necessary step, and we expect the gap to be in the billions. With that information in hand, as sobering as it may be, we will have an obligation to put ourselves on a path to meet those needs and to implement other commission recommendations on how to more strategically and equitably support families and providers.   

We have an obligation to live up to our commitments to support equitable K-12 funding.

Having taken a “pause” in growing the state’s K-12 funding last year, it is essential that the state renew its commitment to putting at least $350 million into its Evidence-Based Funding formula.  Doing so permits districts to create strong, sustainable educational programs and to use federal relief funds for their intended purpose: to safely reopen schools for in-person learning and support students socially, emotionally, and academically as they recover from the many ways in which COVID-19 has disrupted their development and learning.   

We are overdue to revamp higher education funding.

As for higher education, not only must we reinvest, but we must do so with a commitment to equity.  Disinvestment in higher education over the last few decades, particularly during difficult budget years, has forced institutions to more than double tuition and fees in order to stay open, and students from low-income households bear the brunt of this burden. That must change. We are encouraged by the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s strategic planning process, which has spotlighted the need for funding reform, appreciate the suggestions coming from the Partnership for College Completion, and applaud the support and urging of the Illinois Black Caucus and General Assembly. We intend to work with these and other leaders to articulate a clear understanding of the cost and develop an equitable funding mechanism for higher education that not only drives resources where they are needed most, but can serve as a national model. 

After 12 months of disruption, we have a responsibility to support students and educators – socially, emotionally, and academically – and to build back better. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted education in every community, exacerbating systemic racial/ethnic and socio-economic inequities and creating unprecedented challenges for children and families as well as educators. Research suggests that the disrupted schooling over the past year, if left unaddressed, will impact students’ educational outcomes and reduce their lifetime earnings. We must act boldly and collaboratively to make sure our students and educators have the supports and tools they need to recover and thrive beyond this crisis, recognizing that recovery and renewal will take years and acknowledging the equity imperative at the core of this work.   

We are heartened that the Illinois P20 Council is working with leaders, practitioners and experts from across the state to coordinate research-based practices to inform short- and long-term recovery and renewal efforts from preschool through postsecondary. Through a combination of guidance, statewide programs, and partnership on locally-driven efforts, leaders are working to craft and employ a multi-year plan to that prioritizes research-based strategies. While work is still in process, priorities include: increasing access to mental health supports, along with trauma-informed training; creating mechanisms to identify and re-engage students who have dropped out or had limited access to education throughout the pandemic; providing students and teachers with additional in-person instructional and planning time; and strengthening digital access and virtual teaching and learning. 

While we all look forward to going “back to normal,” the hard reality is that recovery and renewal will likely take years. We need to support local efforts, even as we recognize the state has a unique responsibility to ensure an equitable recovery for all. We hope the tensions that have challenged communities over the past year will not prevent us from coming together to support the next generation. 

Never have we needed data more to help understand how children and students are doing and to inform the path forward. 

As we begin the new year, we are starting with a number of unanswered questions: How are our children and students faring academically and socially during COVID-19? Who has needed supports and services? What is happening to the students that didn’t show up for school or programs? Are the impacts of COVID-19 playing out differently by geography/race/income/age? What is happening to our educators and workforce? Are teachers and leaders getting the training and supports they need to address unprecedented levels of trauma and/or the vagaries of remote instruction? While some national, state, district, and/or school data exists, it varies by locality and very little is available at the state level to answer these and other pressing questions. 

We know enrollment in PreK and kindergarten is down – but by how much and in what communities? We know we have lost postsecondary students. Is there a pattern that might shed light on how to re-engage students? And with 852 different districts measuring attendance in 852 different ways, what do we know about student engagement and learning as we work to ready ourselves for what’s ahead? This is not just an Illinois problem, but a national one, too. 

We must take advantage of every opportunity to better understand how students are doing – academically and beyond. We know student learning and development has been disrupted, but we cannot address serious issues without basic information about what has happened, recognizing that this pandemic has not affected all students and communities equally. As importantly, we will not know whether we are making necessary progress without critical data points along the way. While this need has become more acute with COVID-19, having quality and comprehensive data is true at all times to help inform and improve educational supports and services. 

The need to strengthen and diversify the education profession is more critical than ever. 

Teachers are the most important in-school factor impacting student learning. Every parent understands that even more keenly now! Unfortunately, Illinois is struggling to maintain a strong and diverse educator pipeline. In SY20-21, Illinois had over 1,700 unfilled teaching positions in public schools, and while 53 percent of Illinois students are non-White, just 18 percent of our teaching force is of color.  

The Illinois Legislative Black Caucus made important strides for our state’s educator pipeline this January, passing HB2170, also known as the Education Omnibus bill. Among the bill’s many highlights, it updated Illinois’ Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship to better support teacher candidates of color, removed state-mandated GPA entrance requirements that restricted alternative program participation, and laid out a path for better educator preparation course alignment and articulation. In early childhood education and care, it encouraged agencies to provide targeted scholarship funding and coaching and to address barriers to accessing higher education. These are important steps in the right direction.  

If Illinois wants all students to have educators who are prepared to support their academic, social, and emotional learning, the state needs an ambitious and coordinated pipeline strategy to recruit, prepare, retain, and continuously support highly effective and diverse educators. This includes: 

• expanding high-quality high school pathways 

• ensuring our educator preparation programs are affordable for candidates 

• investing in proven program, including alternative certification programs 

• maintaining licensure expectations that are focused on evidence-based critical skills and practices supporting mentoring and induction programs (particularly for teachers and leaders of color) 

• combatting bias in hiring and promotion 

As we look ahead, exhausted from a long, hard year, there is more to do. COVID-19 and its aftermath have presented a once-in-a-century set of challenges, and all of us at Advance Illinois remain deeply grateful for the heroic efforts of so many across the state to tirelessly and creatively meet extraordinary needs.   

We hope you had a chance to renew at least a bit over the new year and look forward to working together to ensure this pandemic does not cast a shadow over our children’s futures and that we build back better in 2021 and beyond. 

Sincerely and in partnership,

Robin Steans

President

From the Desk of Robin Steans - Under Impossible Circumstances, Let’s Do Remote Right…

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

…But first, thank you. As we write, schools across the state are beginning to open. They do so amidst the most challenging set of circumstances we are ever likely to face and with only imperfect options. We want to begin by thanking administrators and educators and parents who are working tirelessly to make the best of an impossible situation with ever-changing information, insufficient resources and in the midst of serious health and safety concerns. We salute and admire your dedication. Please know that our effort to understand and share best practices comes from a shared sense of purpose – to help mitigate the negative impact of this crisis on the next generation. 

After listening to health and safety concerns of students, families and educators, Chicago Public Schools and many of the 851 other districts across Illinois plan for full or partial remote learning this fall. For many districts, this has been a gut-wrenching decision made amidst strong feelings and shifting information. Under normal circumstances, in-person instruction is best for most students, and most educators, students and families crave a return to normalcy. With that said, it is clear that remote and blended learning are here to stay for the immediate future. Accordingly, we must unite behind our schools and find creative ways to ensure that remote learning does not prevent students and families from getting the social, emotional, mental health and academic supports they need to be successful.

Sadly, we don’t have much insight or data into how remote learning went across the state this past spring, though survey data of the nation at large show vast inequities. The percentage of students logging in to remote learning differed significantly by race/ethnicity. Students at majority-White schools received graded assignments at a higher rate than those in majority Black and Latinx schools. Similar disparities appear in surveys on the hours teachers spent instructing and on other metrics of student engagement. Left undressed, these inequities may have lasting impacts for our students’ academic and long-term financial success.

To better understand the Illinoiscontext for this fall, Advance Illinois reviewed a sampling of districts’ spring remote plans against known best practices. While only a proxy for what actually happened, these plans highlight areas of strength, attention and need as we dive into fall semester.

What can we learn from remote learning plans posted this past spring?

As COVID-19 hit Illinois, districts were forced to adapt to remote learning with little time to prepare. While the Illinois State Board of Education released remote learning recommendations by March 27, 2020 – just ten days after remote learning was announced – it is unclear to what extent districts were able to incorporate best practices into remote learning this past spring. To explore this question, we identified commonly-recommended best practices in remote learning, then compared remote learning plans from a sample of 100 of Illinois’ 852 school districts. [1] [For an actionable summary of national best practices, click here.]  Our examination found that:

• The vast majority (89/100) of sampled districts published easily accessible remote learning plans, demonstrating admirably clear and transparent communication with families. At the same time, many plans reflected the pressures under which they were created. Specifically, most plans would have benefitted from greater specificity. While most districts noted that remote curricula should be aligned with state learning standards, fewer provided additional curricular support. And while the vast majority of districts noted that all students that receive EL, ILP, IEP or 504 plans would continue to receive accommodations​, very few districts were able to provide specific details on remote learning tactics and assistive technologies. Looking ahead, districts will want to provide as detailed guidance as possible for accessing and using the digital infrastructure needed to participate in remote learning; have effective, standards-aligned instruction and the ability to track student engagement; and social-emotional and mental health supports for students and educators.

• The level of need in a district did not determine the quality of remote learning plans. While significant variation in district learning plans existed across the state (as one might expect), it is heartening to see that amongst our sample, the level of need in a district was not correlated with the detail or thoroughness of remote learning plans.

• Larger districts located in cities and suburbs tended to have more thorough and detailed remote learning plans. This finding likely reflects the particular challenges of rural districts in the face of COVID-19, including fewer staff to respond to rapidly-changing circumstances and disproportionately poorer internet access.

Districts deserve acclaim for their quick pivots to and transparent communication of remote learning plans – a considerable lift under difficult circumstances. Now, as remote and blended instruction continues, we have the opportunity to learn and improve. Parents are playing an increasingly significant role in their students’ day-to-day learning, and they need support and information. While remote and blended learning plans are only a proxy for actual practice, they prompt and reflect district planning and care, and they provide an important roadmap to help parents, educators and school leaders provide the best supports possible in challenging times.

SIDE-BAR [District Spotlights]

Bloom Township 206: Prioritized standards and course content developed by PLCs

Bloom Township’s remote learning plan prioritized learning standards that had been determined by teachers in PLCs; teachers were expected to teach course content in alignment with these prioritized standards.  

Champaign Unit 4 SD: Bilingual Parent Liaisons

Champaign schools’ plan noted several supports for bilingual students and families, including: Requiring that weekly messages to families from principals be translated into French and SpanishDesignating Bilingual Parent Liaison roles to ensure continued communication with bilingual students and families.  

Looking to the year ahead

As the continued threat of COVID-19 forces many parts of our state to continue remote or blended learning this fall, high-quality remote learning plans and implementation will be key to effective instruction. We know that, regardless of best efforts in the face of unprecedented challenges, student academic learning has suffered. While remote and blended instruction is certainly an immensely difficult transition for our teachers and schools, there is a real danger that this period will deepen disparities across income, race, language and learning style. As we look ahead, we have a shared goal of ensuring all students have access to high-quality instruction and support in these difficult times. For our state, this means providing:

• Supports for educators. Across the state, educators need resources, training and feedback to effectively serve students in this new context. This is especially true for new teachers, who will need particular coaching and support due to disruptions in their own preparation.

• Resources to close the digital divide. In order to access and deliver effective remote and blended instruction, students and educators need devices, internet connectivity, technical support and high-quality platforms and curricula designed for digital delivery. While Illinois has invested over $80M in new funds for devices, connectivity and professional development, this covers less than 15 percent of Illinois students, and a huge digital access gap remains.

• Rigorous and quality content expectations. Remote and blended learning environments mean entirely new methods of instruction. As 852 districts sift through an array of curricula, digital platforms and other resources, the state should work to ensure that every student is in a classroom with high-quality, culturally relevant instructional materials that are aligned to grade-level learning standards.

• Focus on the social-emotional and mental-health needs of our students and staff. Educators need training and support to identify and address trauma, including their own. 

• Intentional and meaningful family engagement. As remote and blended learning continues, family engagement is more crucial than ever. Collaboration between schools, communities and families is necessary to improve our students’ learning experiences over the next year.

• Data. We need to know the impact of COVID-19 on student learning and engagement in order to effectively address challenges. As remote and blended learning environments continue into the fall, the state and districts need new ways to understand student learning and engagement. We then must use this information to make real-time, mid-course corrections to our plans. We are in a fluid environment and must equip ourselves to adapt and improve.

We know that COVID-19 is impacting all students and families, but it is disproportionately hurting our communities of color and families of lower income background. This fall and beyond, we need to take an equity lens to our work and provide additional supports to highly-impacted student groups.

We are all in this together

It will take us years to recover and rebuild from the impact of COVID-19. Sadly, there is no vaccine for disrupted learning and missed opportunities. While it is essential to double down and focus on making the best of our current situation, we must also continue to plan true and meaningful recovery in order to continue to close gaps in opportunity across Illinois’ educational system. It will take all of us working together to make that happen. If we bring half the energy, dedication and spirit to longer-term recovery work that educators and families are bringing to this moment, then we are already on our way.

[1] Our sample consisted of a weighted sample of IL’s large, medium, and small school districts, while still including the 24 largest school districts. The final sample of 100 school district does closely reflect Illinois’ percentage of White students and percentage of low-income students, although we did oversample both large districts and those classified as cities.

Sincerely. and in partnership,

Robin Steans

President

From the Desk of Robin Steans - Education Must Remain a High Priority for Illinois - Early Childhood

This is the final installment of our three-part series that shares our views on the urgency of providing resources and ongoing support to early childhood education, K-12, and postsecondary. This is the early childhood installment.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Consistent and compelling research has demonstrated the numerous academic and social emotional benefits that accrue when young children participate in high-quality early childhood education and care, such as child care and preschool. Moreover, quality programs enable parents to work and financially provide for their families. Despite its importance, Illinois’ early childhood education and care (ECEC) system is composed of a fragmented, complex array of programs and funding supported by multiple state and federal agencies. ManyECEC providers struggle to navigate this complexity while operating on razor-thin margins and struggling to pay staff living wages that support quality programs and outcomes. Parents across the state are challenged to find high-quality and affordable care while only one in four children enter school “kindergartenready.” And, that was before COVID-19.

The current crisis highlights the fragility of our system. ECEC providers, many of whom are paid based upon attendance, are facing dramatic hits to revenue. Indeed, nearly 50% of Illinois child care programs are at risk of closing permanently without public support. While Illinois has continued to pay publicly funded providers despite diminished attendance, it is unclear how long the state can continue to cover these costs. State support also does not cover lost fees from tuition-paying parents. Although the last federal stimulus package included $3.5B forchild care across the nation, sustaining the child care industry through closures could cost an estimated $9.6B a month. The roughly $118MIllinoisreceived will not go far in this time of immediate crisis. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of children are now unable to access care and support with unclear long-term impacts to their growth and development.

While the state deserves accolades for its crisis management, we must now focus on recovery and the opportunity to rebuild and strengthen our early childhood education and care system.

From Crisis to Recovery

As Illinois turns the corner from crisis to recovery and seeks to jump start the state’s economy, we must first ensure families have somewhere to place their children and their trust as they return to the workplace. To do this, we must keep in mind the following:

• Families need to be confident that their children are in high-quality programs that will keep them healthy and safe. In a recent survey, 75 percent of families indicated concern about sending their children back to child care due to the threat of COVID-19. To minimize this threat, the state should extend some temporary requirements put in place during the crisis, such as reduced class sizes. However, other requirements relaxed during the crisis – such as decreased qualifications for teachers – must be resumed. Well-qualified teachers, adept at addressing children’s cognitive and social-emotional needs, will be vital to helping children transition back into care, enhance their learning, and navigate a strange world of social distancing in a developmentally appropriate way.

• There is an immediate federal role to ensure providers have consistent and adequate funding to stay viable, shift their business models, and address children’s and families’ needs. As the state rethinks child care given social distancing guidelines, we must consider how those requirements will impact providers and families. Smaller class sizes, more frequent cleaning, and other provisions mount up to higher per-child costs – significantly higher than the state and most families are able to afford. Providers already operating on thin margins will not be able to keep their doors open without additional revenue. With the state facing dire budget challenges and many families at their limit, we risk parents being forced to quit jobs and providers closing permanently. The state needs significant additional flexible federal stimulus dollars to get families back to work and young children safely back to formal learning and care environments.

• Even in these tight budget times, lawmakers in Springfield must prioritize ECEC and increase funding for the sector so that we can continue to provide critical services for our most under-resourced families. Current state funding for the Child Care Assistance Program, the Early Childhood Block Grant, Early Intervention, evidence-based home visiting, and other services provides critical programming to give children the best chance to succeed in school and in life. Likewise, our state’s ability to get economically back on track depends on the vitality of this sector. 

From Recovery to Rebuilding

We must also act on the opportunity to rebuild and strengthen our ECEC system for the long term. With the support of the Early Learning Council, the Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care FundingCommission, and other stakeholders, state leaders have the chance to build an ecosystem of governance, infrastructure, and funding designed to equitably support all children and families with high-quality early childhood education and care. At this juncture, state leaders should keep in mind the following:

• Now more than ever, Illinois needs a plan to adequately and equitably fund our ECEC system. Access to high-quality state-funded services should not depend upon where one lives or how much one’s family is able to pay. Yet, only about 50 percent of Illinois children under the age of five and 30 percent of infants and toddlers from low-income households are being served through state-funded ECEC programs with large variability across the state. Additionally, the cost of state-subsidized childcare currently depends not on parents’ ability to pay but the state agency that supports their children’s care. That is not an equitable system.

• State funding to providers must be adequate and distributed in a way that incentivizes stable, quality environments. Unstable and varying funding structures coupled with payments based upon fluctuating attendance leave providers struggling to weather bumps under normal circumstances. The COVID-19 crisis could decimate a significant portion of the market. Illinois must prioritize paying providers in a timely, transparent, and predicable way to ensure a healthy system of providers that can plan for and deliver quality programs with well-qualified and well-compensated staff.

• We must prioritize pathways to quality with the resources to get there. Early learning is only impactful if our programs are high quality, and high-quality programs are contingent on programs’ ability to pay a well-qualified workforce a worthy, livable wage. However, simply paying providers more will not instantly enable excellence. Thoughtfully planned phased-in funding coupled with technical assistance can scaffold programs’ ability to meet increasingly rigorous standards of quality.

• We have an opportunity to better align the early childhood care and education infrastructure to more efficiently and effectively meet children’s and families’ needs. Currently, families, providers, and state agencies must cobble together programs and funding from various agencies to weave a system of comprehensive, quality family supports. During a pandemic or not, the children of Illinois will benefit from an aligned system under a more unified structure. Though managing the change to streamline early childhood programming will be no easy lift, the benefits will lead to better outcomes for everyone, especially our most vulnerable families.

COVID-19 has dealt a significant blow to our ECEC system. Unlike in K-12 and post-secondary, our youngest children are largely disconnected from their programs and supports. This will have long-term impacts on children, families, and programs. For our economy to recover and for our children to get back on track, let us pivot from this crisis to significantly resource, support, and rethink this ecosystem so that we come out stronger on the other side. 

Sincerely and in partnership,

Robin Steans

President

From the Desk of Robin Steans - Education Must Remain a High Priority for Illinois - Higher Education

This is the second in our three-part series that shares our views on the urgency of providing resources and ongoing support to early childhood education, K-12 and postsecondary. This is the postsecondary installment.

From the Desk: Education Must Remain a High Priority for Illinois - Part 2: Higher Education

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We know that a college degree —be it a technical certificate or an advanced degree—creates pathways to stable employment and wages in an increasingly competitive economy.COVID-19 jeopardizes that pathway for the nearly 750,000 students in Illinois’higher education system. Absent clear leadership and support, COVID-19 may permanently cripple the institutions that serve our students from historically marginalized communities and negatively alter the life paths of countless Illinoisans. For our state to recover from this crisis, we will need a strong, inclusive workforce and economy. Key to that is education and training.

The pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges for students and institutions, including a sudden shift to remote learning, new barriers to accessing instruction and basic needs, and drastic new costs for colleges and universities. As with K-12, college students without access to devices or high-speed internet are losing ground. Even students with access to their online coursework are likely to learn less, struggle more in related future courses, and have a higher chance of dropping out due to loss of in-person instruction.

The impact goes beyond learning loss. As unemployment skyrockets and family earnings drop, the high cost of postsecondary education in Illinois will further deter college enrollment and completion. National surveys found that in April 2020, 27% of high school seniors were concerned that their first-choice school would no longer be affordable for their family. Students from lower-income households are facing more challenging financial circumstances as both their jobs and family resources are more likely to disappear, threatening with it housing security, food security, and other basic needs. Further, these circumstances will exacerbate mental health challenges and will almost certainly affect completion rates.

Unfortunately, Illinois’ postsecondary institutions have extremely limited resources to respond to increasing student need, as disproportionate cuts to higher education over the last two decades have left many institutions operating on minimal budgets. From 2000-2015, higher education in Illinois saw a 41% decrease in appropriations and an additional billion dollar cut during the 2015-17 budget impasse. These cuts have forced Illinois’ postsecondary institutions to rely more heavily on tuition and fees for funding. Declining enrollment has cut this revenue source as well. This dynamic has created the incentive for some Illinois institutions to recruit out-of-state students’ higher tuition dollars at the expense of access for Illinois students. As the pandemic continues, its impact on our state budget will require state leaders to make very difficult decisions, but not all institutions are guaranteed to survive another wave of additional cuts – particularly those that serve more of our students from low-income households, students of color, and first-generation students.

Across the state, the pandemic poses more significant and disproportionate barriers to Black and Latinx students, students from lower-income households, undocumented students, and others who already face obstacles in their pursuit of postsecondary education. Without deliberate intervention, COVID-19 will have severely inequitable impacts on our students’ postsecondary access and completion and ultimately on wages, employment rates, and other life outcomes – and with these impacts our states’ workforce and tax base for years to come.

What can Illinois do?

As Illinois responds to the impact of COVID-19 on our postsecondary students and institutions, we should keep the following in mind:

• Financial aid is vital to supporting postsecondary access and completion. Financial aid is vital to increasing completion rates, particularly for students from lower income households. Illinois’ need-based financial aid program, the Monetary Award Program (MAP), currently supports 128,865 students, but 82,799 more students do not receive this much-needed financial aid due to underfunding. As more families face financial instability, the number of students needing MAP grants to access and complete postsecondary will only increase – indeed, during the Great Recession the number of MAP-eligible students quadrupled. This support is especially true for undocumented students who cannot access federal aid.

• Emergency grants will be more important than ever to the growing number of students and families facing financial instability. Financial instability will also increase the likelihood that unanticipated costs may impact a student’s ability to continue and complete their higher education. Emergency grants – which are typically small amounts of a few hundred to a thousand dollars – have helped dramatically increase completion rates in institutions across the nation. While some federal dollars have been dedicated to emergency grants for a restricted set of students, emergency funds should be accessible to all, regardless of citizenship status or other barriers.

• Institutions that serve more students of color and students from low-income households also tend to have the fewest resources and state funding, when they need it the most. As Governor Pritzker considers how to use his federal CARES education funds, and as the state looks ahead to future budgets, we are overdue to develop a strategy to ensure funding equity and adequacy in our postsecondary space, as we have done in K-12.

• Current high school seniors entering college in the fall will need immediate action to ensure that processes are supportive. As current seniors enter college with varying levels of support from their final year of high school, we must ensure that all students have a smooth bridge to higher education-- potentially involving targeted academic and social support. In addition, adopting a consistent, multi-measure placement framework for all institutions could help ensure that students are not penalized for academic disruption they could not control and are not inequitably placed into non-credit-bearing developmental education due to COVID-19.

• COVID-19 will inevitably impact students’ social-emotional well-being, increasing the need for mental health supports. Research shows that students with mental health problems are twice as likely to drop out of college, indicating an even higher pressing need for additional mental health supports at this time.  This, too, may be a sensible way to deploy federal funds.

• More federal dollars are needed if we are to adequately support students and institutions. While the federal CARES Act provided ~$440M to Illinois higher education institutions, this is not enough. National leaders are calling on the federal government to provide $50 billion in additional post-secondary resources and further relief from federal loans.  We should all raise our voices in support of additional aid.

We applaud the leadership of Governor Pritzker, the Illinois Board of Higher Education, Illinois Community College Board, and Illinois Student Assistance Commission during this time of crisis. We also commend the hard work our college and university leaders, faculty, and staff are doing to support our students. We know that this moment calls for difficult decisions, and we appreciate the efforts made to date to ensure clarity, consistent guidance and an equity- and student- first position.

Our collective goal must be first to support our students - especially those most vulnerable to the emotional, academic and economic impact of this crisis.  From there, we should work to make our institutions and system stronger, more resilient, and more responsive to student needs.

Sincerely and in partnership,

Robin Steans

President