Vision 2030, a plan for the future of Illinois public education, aims to improve student safety, enhance post-high school success and ensure high-quality teachers in the classroom.
Developed by a coalition of educators throughout Illinois, Vision 2030 works to foster students’ interest in their future and in education. Among the many improvements to Illinois education the initiative is working towards, expanding dual-credit partnerships with community colleges is one. Such partnerships allow high school students the opportunity to participate in college programs to gain credits toward a degree before leaving high school. Another recommended change is reforming the Illinois school system to better meet the demands of the modern-day workforce.
District 186 Superintendent Jennifer Gill said some of the initiative’s front-burner issues for this year include reforming the system of assessing how students are learning, or standardized testing, to be more consistent across the state. This means updating testing models to measure student proficiency across multiple grades to better gauge the long-term growth of student performance against national averages. In addition, Vision 2030 wants to keep education funding protected from being financially cut back by Illinois lawmakers.
Beginning in 2014, the initiative started as Vision 2020, a response to the consistent underfunding of Illinois schools. After three years, the initiative was able to gain enough support it led to the Illinois legislature’s passage of the landmark Evidence-Based Funding formula. This formula changed the way schools in Illinois receive funding from the state by looking at the overall cost and need for funding. This means schools in more wealthy areas, which have little need for additional support, receive less state funding than schools in smaller or less wealthy communities.
“We were going through a period where our funding was being (cut) every year and being told you have to figure out how to make it work,” said Dr. Brent Clark, director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators. “This was ongoing, and it was coming to a point that schools were cutting staff, cutting programs. We were just getting into a hole of not being able to deliver for kids what we needed to be delivering. The world’s changing, the world’s advancing, and the schools were kind of like just grinding to a slow death.”
Clark said the long-term, future-focused approach to updating Illinois education may be “the most economically beneficial thing that we can do in a high school for students.” The ability to earn up to a year’s worth of college credits before exiting high school can mean more opportunities for students unsure about their future education.
Gill emphasized the importance of community college as well as the financial and educational flexibility it offers. Having close relationships between high schools and community colleges is a strong investment in pushing students unsure about their future toward higher education. Even if the college credits earned in high school don’t match the degree students are seeking in college, they can be transferred and applied to elective course requirements.
Part of increasing the success of measures put forth by Vision 2030 is spreading the word to Illinois residents about what the initiative wants to accomplish and how it intends to go about implementing changes. Raising awareness can mean support from parents wanting the best education for their children to administrators seeking ways to help their students succeed.
“We want this vision to get out there, to let people know that we’re doing our jobs, and we’re working hard to make sure that we have a better and preferred future for each of our students,” said Gill.
To learn more about Vision 2030, visit IllinoisVision2030.com or www.iasaedu.org.
Logan Bricker is a master’s degree student in the UIS Public Affairs Reporting program working this semester as an intern for Illinois Times.
This article appears in Healthy, wealthy and wise 2025.
