Kat Theodore, Ph.D., August 2024
A quest is a difficult journey to achieve a goal. In a quest story, an invitation to the quest is given to a hero who travels far and wide, overcoming many obstacles along the way to victoriously complete the quest. After completing the quest, the hero experiences a transformation from lessons learned.
Today, we share the story of the real-life quest of the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) literacy team on their journey to create the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan. It highlights the path that the ISBE literacy team took to finalize their comprehensive literacy plan, including the partners who assisted them, the collaboration with stakeholders who guided the writing and revisions, the challenges encountered along the way, and the important keys that were discovered to help with discerning the right course of action.
Context: The Call to the Quest
Recognizing an urgent need to improve students’ literacy outcomes, the Illinois General Assembly enacted legislation in May 2023 requiring ISBE to develop a comprehensive state literacy plan in consultation with education stakeholders on or before January 31, 2024. The law also charged ISBE with considering evidence-based research and culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogical approaches.
Without immediate action, the gateway to academic success and positive life outcomes would remain closed for far too many Illinois students. Fewer third grade students have been meeting proficiency in English language arts (ELA) on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness than when compared to pre-pandemic rates. For example, fifty percent of third graders did not meet the learning standards in ELA compared to pre-pandemic rates of sixty percent. Additionally, the 2022 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) scores for Illinois fourth grade students revealed that 38% of these students scored below basic reading proficiency. In Illinois, as with many states in the nation, these results pointed to the need to promote and support effective implementation of evidence-based literacy instruction.
The Quest Begins: Engaging the Perspectives of Diverse Stakeholders
Reacting to the proposed January 31, 2024, deadline, an ISBE team of four embarked on the quest to develop the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan even before the General Assembly passed and signed the legislation. Literacy experts and technical assistance providers from the Region 9 Comprehensive Center supported ISBE’s team through the journey toward a new state literacy plan.
On October 25, 2022, anticipating the new legislation, ISBE and R9CC hosted a State Literacy Summit to hear stakeholders’ diverse perspectives and better understand the supports and resources needed to provide all Illinois students with access to and support in literacy development. The stakeholders included participants from 49 organizations, including 20 school districts, nine institutes of higher education, and multiple statewide associations. Listening was the first key used to unlock a successful quest. Participants expressed that they appreciated the Literacy Summit because they could share their perspectives with ISBE. At an ISBE board meeting, one participant stated, “Thanks for making the summit happen, and I appreciate how we were allowed to share and collaborate."
R9CC’s Approach in Supporting the Illinois State Literacy Summit
ISBE’s need to gather and understand the diverse perspectives of various stakeholders guided R9CC actions and strategies. R9CC
- Acted as a thought partner for ISBE
- Supported planning and facilitation for the Illinois State Literacy Summit
- Summarized discussions and identified the key themes and needs that participants shared in the report, Literacy Stakeholder Engagement Meeting, October 25, 2022: Summary of Themes.
Writing Committee’s First Draft of the Comprehensive Literacy Plan
ISBE formed writing teams from twenty Illinois educators and stakeholders to prepare first drafts of the plan’s sections in Spring 2023. To lay the plan’s foundation, writing teams developed first drafts by June 2023 using the themes and information gathered from the stakeholders who attended the Literacy Summit. This work was the second key to ISBE’s successful quest—the power of the people with the pen. As Kirsten Parr, ISBE project lead for Standards and Instruction noted, “We put the pen in the hands of the stakeholders to write our comprehensive literacy plan.”
The Heart of the Quest: Stakeholder Feedback Sessions
Having relied on feedback from the Literacy Summit to guide initial drafting of the state plan, ISBE—with R9CC’s support—would now journey forth to gather feedback from as many stakeholders as possible. ISBE strove to develop an Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan that everyone could proudly commit to. ISBE invited feedback from community members during two rounds of listening sessions and virtual focus groups. These meetings fostered acceptance of the plan and allowed stakeholders to not only voice their hopes and needs but also see their feedback implemented in the plan’s successive drafts. In addition, the meetings provided the third key, a map to guide decision making to inform changes in course depending on feedback.
ISBE listened to all stakeholders’ perspectives, creating an open dialogue of mutual respect in which ideas could flow freely to support revisions of the comprehensive literacy plan. The result was that stakeholders felt their recommendations and concerns were heard while providing feedback. Several stakeholders praised the engagement and feedback process:
- “This was an awesome experience! Thanks for listening and sharing together.”
- “Thank you so much for this opportunity. I really enjoyed it and learned so much from all of you. Thank you ALL!!!”
- “Thank you again for giving us the chance to have a voice in this process. This was an awesome experience! Thanks for listening and sharing together.”
R9CC’s Role in Supporting the Listening Tours
R9CC supported two rounds of feedback sessions of the first (Round 1) and second (Round 2) drafts of the comprehensive literacy plan. The first round, conducted in June and July 2023, included four 3-hour, in-person regional listening sessions, two virtual listening sessions, and twenty 90-minute focus groups with community members, advocates, and representatives from 14 professional organizations. The second round, in Fall 2023, included seven 2-hour, in-person listening sessions and three focus groups.
R9CC supported ISBE before, during, and after these sessions by helping ISBE to design the listening tours then compiling feedback and identifying key themes from each round of feedback through qualitative analysis.
To sift through and incorporate the enormous amount of feedback ISBE received, R9CC literacy specialists thematically organized the feedback to facilitate revisions. Organizing the feedback into themes was the fourth key of the quest, a torch to light the path for revisions of the comprehensive literacy plan and to create other sections, such as a glossary of key terms. Based on themes identified, R9CC created the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan Community Feedback reports for the first and second rounds of feedback. ISBE used these reports to develop a memo to the board that included their proposed revisions for the literacy plan.
Challenges
As with all quests, ISBE faced challenges during the process of gathering feedback. One challenge was navigating the "Reading Wars," an ongoing debate about how to approach early reading instruction. One side believes that early literacy instruction should focus on building foundational knowledge and skills through systematic phonics instruction. The other side advocates for a whole language approach—a focus on the meaning of a text with word-level instruction embedded in story reading.
ISBE’s feedback sessions helped reconcile the evidence-based approach in the draft comprehensive literacy plan with some stakeholders’ concerns about that approach and, by doing so, develop a literacy plan that provides guidance within the parameters of local control.
The thoughtful design of the feedback sessions helped stakeholders understand positions and recommendations, moving the work forward. Keeping an eye on the why—the goal of improving outcomes for students of Illinois—carried ISBE and R9CC through this process, which supported their resolve to complete the quest.
Quest Accomplished: Impact
After challenges, hard work, perseverance, and support, Illinois received Board approval for the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan on January 24, 2024. Many stakeholders praised the process; one said, “I see that my thoughts and ideas mattered in this plan.” R9CC helped ISBE develop a responsive plan that supports districts and schools in improving the quality of literacy instruction and literacy outcomes for Illinois’ students. R9CC continues to serve as a thought partner for the ISBE team as it disseminates the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan and develops implementation resources and tools.
Dr. Erica Thieman, ISBE Director of K-12 Curriculum and Instruction stated, “We could have not achieved this without the support of R9CC.”
Epilogue
This isn’t the end of the quest, but there are already lessons to learn for the future. The quest for the Illinois Literacy Comprehensive Plan offers a roadmap for fostering engagement to navigate polarizing issues such as the Reading Wars. Strategies include qualitative research methodologies, iterative revision processes informed by stakeholder input, and guidance supportive of local control.
The listening sessions and focus groups that the R9CC supported will continue as an ISBE model for future stakeholder engagement. Thus, this quest has transformed ISBE and how it conducts its work to offer guidance and support for districts and schools.
Lessons Learned
- Focus on your “why.” Student literacy achievement data guided ISBE’s thoughts and actions, helping the team calmly face challenges.
- Listen to as many stakeholders as possible. ISBE cultivated collaborative policy-making environments and supports within the context of local control. ISBE started by putting the pen in the hands of the stakeholders, empowering them to set guiding values and content for the comprehensive literacy plan and encouraging them to embrace it.
- In local control states, you can provide guidance.
- Leverage partnerships to maximize resources and reach. ISBE collaborated with R9CC, to increase buy-in, expand capacity, and elevate resource access.