Education and Schools

A new law aims to create a safer school environment for students.

District 87 is looking to fill a vacancy on its school board following Mary Yount’s resignation.

The Unit 5 school district is on track to end this fiscal year with a $12.8 million deficit. That's part of the tentative $192 million total budget for 2019-2020. 

Rising costs and a projected drop in revenue are leaving District 87 schools with a projected $2 million deficit for the 2019-20 school year.

Illinois State University plans to establish a new innovation institute with a $1 million gift it received from two alums.

Illinois Wesleyan is hoping an expanded menu of minors will attract more college-bound students to the private university.

Starting in the fall, Wesleyan will offer six new minors: actuarial science, statistics, film studies, French and Francophone studies, Italian studies and religious diversity.

Provost and Dean of Faculty Mark Brodl said students and faculty all expressed interest in adding these new programs. He sees a dual benefit.

The Unit 5 Finance Committee met Wednesday night for preliminary discussions on how to address the district’s growing education fund deficit.

Heartland Community College said high school students across central Illinois have saved $4.9 million in community college tuition and fees with dual credit courses through their high schools over the last five years. Sixteen high schools participate in the program with HCC.

District 87 is giving its paraprofessionals pay raises to get them closer to the $15 per hour they will get under the state's minimum wage law in 2025.

Unit 5’s six returning school board members took oaths of office and elected board officers Wednesday night.

Illinois lawmakers are considering a variety of bills that would change the requirements to earn a teaching certificate.

Right now, to become a licensed teacher in Illinois, you have to pass at least three tests.

There's an old saying that the hardest animal to kill is a school mascot. But Illinois lawmakers are taking a look at possibly thinning the herd.

Illinois has some school districts operating with only elementary grades, some with only high school grades, some with fewer than a hundred children — a total of 852 school districts. That's more than any other state except California and Texas, both of which have more than twice our population.

Does it matter?

The state needs to rethink professional development for teachers and make it even easier to become a sub if it wants to reverse a worsening educator shortage, according to a new report.

The Illinois Board of Education says it is switching to a new standardized test this month for third through eighth graders across the state.

School districts increasingly use e-learning days to allow students to complete their schoolwork from home when the weather’s bad.