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The number of years of teaching experience required for the endorsement was four years, and the number of candidates that a principal may mentor in a 12 month period was left at two. While the ISBE staff indicated in its memorandum accompanying the rules that out-of-state candidates should be required to meet the same requirements as participants in Illinois programs, this still did not appear specifically in the rules.
On December 16, 2010, the president of ICPEA testified in front of the Illinois State Board of Education. In his testimony, he thanked the ISBE staff for the changes made in the rules, and still requested that the board consider increasing the number of candidates a principal may mentor to more than two and allowing a system which would enable candidates to begin programs earlier than after four years of teaching. He also again urged specificity regarding the reciprocity issue.
During the time between the Illinois State Board of Education meeting December of 2010 and the final meeting of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) meeting in the second week of April 2011, ICPEA members and member institutions continued to call legislators, write letters, etc. Over 150 letters were received by the ISBE and JCAR members during this time period. In the March 3, 2011 meeting of the ICPEA, the president was again directed by the membership to send another letter to both ISBE and JCAR regarding remaining concerns of the membership. This letter was sent on March 4, 2011. A final letter was sent on April 2, 2011, just days before the JCAR meeting in which the final rules were to be approved. During the final week before the JCAR vote, a small group of JCAR members were able to meet with key legislative members of the JCAR committee and were able to address the group’s remaining concerns one more time. As a result of these final efforts, JCAR directed the ISBE to revise the proposed rules pertaining to years of experience before a candidate could enter an administrative program. The ISBE staff was told to develop rules in this area which would enable candidates to be eligible for certification after four years of teaching experience. The ISBE staff was also instructed to address the out-of-state issue and to propose rules which would require out-of-state universities to comply with the new Illinois requirements.
Many of the higher education institutions in Illinois which prepare principal candidates are in direct competition with one another for students. Prior to the push for reform by ISBE and IBHE, it was not uncommon for some institutions to creatively look for ways to “poach” students from other institutions. However, as a result of what the ICPEA saw as a common threat, the member institutions put aside their differences and began working together more closely than ever before. Public and private institutions teamed up to first work together for reform, along with the major state agencies, and subsequently to fight against backtracking on agreements and unilateral changes in the rules which ICPEA members felt had been agreed upon during an extensive task force process. Personal and institutional relationships were clearly strengthened during the entire reform process, and the ICPEA emerged as an even stronger institution than before. Members are now willing and anxious to engage in collaborative ventures with their professional colleagues across the state. There is little doubt among the ICPEA membership that superintendent preparation programs are next on the docket of ISBE and IBHE. We have learned that we must be eternally vigilant in our dealings with these state agencies. Rather than thinking about “your turf” or “my turf,” we now tend to think in terms of “our turf.”
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