The Region 9 Comprehensive Center provides intensive capacity-building services to state education agencies and other education stakeholders in Illinois and Iowa. We help the states, districts, and schools in our region successfully identify, implement, and sustain evidence-based programs and practices, with the goal of improving outcomes for educators and students alike. This work supports states in the implementation of their Every Student Succeeds Act and strategic plans.
Our Work
Current Work
R9CC is collaborating with ISBE to support the development of a 5-year plan for the IL-EMPOWER School Improvement Process that aligns to ISBE’s 2020-2024 Strategic Plan and the State’s ESSA plan. R9CC is continuing to support the development of a learning series for school leaders, identifying strategies to support continuous improvement across departments, and supporting newly hired IECs and the Director of IL-EMPOWER with the onboarding staff.
R9CC is working with ISBE to use their strategic planning process to align and continuously improve statewide efforts for the recruitment, retention, and recognition of effective teachers. Continuing into 2023, R9CC is working to create and maintain a Geographic Information System (GIS) map to support education stakeholders to better understand factors that may be affecting educator shortage challenges and identify and share effective locally developed practices.
R9CC is collaborating with ISBE’s Department of Career and Technical Education and Innovation to determine the percentage of all students, CTE students, and CTE concentrators who earn an Industry-Recognized Credential (IRC). R9CC is also helping ISBE to map out the current data collection process and create a communication plan template that can be used to inform school districts about Illinois Perkins V goals and processes.
R9CC is supporting ISBE and the Director of Wellness in the development of a cross-department logic model with the Student Care department, in addition to supporting the facilitation of convenings, gathering and analyzing wellness initiative data, engaging in collaborative review and interpretation of the data, and supporting the revision of state social and emotional learning standards.
R9CC is working with ISBE to support the development and implementation of a multi-tiered approach to conduct their Resource Allocation Reviews (RARs), assisting in the development of a tool to help districts complete the RAR process, and helping create a community financial meeting toolkit.
R9CC supported ISBE in co-facilitating a stakeholder engagement meeting to receive feedback on the needs of teachers, schools, and districts to ensure they are meeting the literacy development needs of students. R9CC is working to synthesize the information to present a report to determine next steps to support all students.
R9CC is collaborating with the Iowa Department of Education to identify what practices, interventions, or supports Iowa's Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) schools need to make meaningful improvements and exit status. R9CC is working with IDE to gather insights from the former CSI schools and will analyze specific school data to explore what practices, interventions, or supports will prepare CSI schools to make meaningful improvements.
R9CC is collaborating with state and district leaders in Iowa to plan and facilitate a Community of Practice (CoP) for school district leaders focused on effective implementation and sustainability of evidence-based programs and promising practices supported with ARP ESSER funds.