In 2018, the Illinois Legislature passed SR 1647 and HR 1017, which direct the Illinois P-20 Council to acknowledge the significant disparities in college completion and postsecondary attainment rates for low-income and first generation college students and students of color across Illinois, and to update the State’s postsecondary attainment goal “to include equity-focused targets aimed at closing institutional racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps.” The P-20 Council directed its College and Career Readiness Committee to take on this task. The CCR Committee has since convened workgroups comprising of over 80 diverse representatives to develop a framework for the targets, analyze data on postsecondary enrollment and completion, identify approaches for stakeholder engagement, and explore institutional and statewide strategies to achieve the targets and close gaps across the groups of interest.

On Thursday, May 30th at 12pm, join Emily Rusca, Director of State Policy and Strategy at Education Systems Center who will be sharing updates from the Equity Targets Workgroup with ILEA institutions, as well as soliciting feedback from ILEA institutions on their insights as they have gone through the process of developing their Equity Plans. In particular, Education Systems Center hopes to understand what potential State policy windows or incentives might help reduce barriers and incentivize successful interventions at the institutional level in order to drive more equitable postsecondary attainment.