Lake Bluff School District 65 will join the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) in providing a unique opportunity for teachers, students, and parents across the state to have a role in improving their schools. Between Feb. 1 and the end of March 2013, teachers, students and parents will be asked to take a 15-minute research-based survey to help identify strengths and weaknesses in their school’s climate and learning conditions.
To take the survey, click on the box in the top right corner at https://illinois.5-essentials.org/2012. The survey will remain open until March 31, 2013. If you have any questions, please call 5Essentials Client Services at 1-866-440-1874. Illinois 5Essentials generates data that helps schools target resources and make decisions that help accelerate learning and test score gains. Illinois 5Essentials also demonstrates that teachers and students can play a crucial role in school reform: What they share about their schools reliably predicts whether those schools are likely to improve or stagnate. The Illinois 5Essentials Survey (Organizing Schools for Improvement) provides a comprehensive assessment of school organizational culture with actionable reports to help drive school improvement on five indicators or “essentials.” Based on 20 years of research conducted by the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research in more than 400 schools, these 5Essentials have been shown to be strongly predictive of school improvement. Schools strong in 3 to 5 of the Essentials are 10 times more likely to improve student learning than schools weak in 3 to 5 of the Essentials. The five essentials are: • Effective Leaders • Collaborative Teachers • Involved Families • Supportive Environment • Ambitious Instruction Strength on components within the Essentials also correlates with increased teacher retention, student attendance, college enrollment, and high school graduation. The Illinois 5Essentials Survey, required to be implemented this school year by legislation passed in 2011, represents the first attempt by a state to administer a statewide survey of learning conditions to teachers, students, and parents. For more information about the Illinois 5Essentials Survey, or to view sample school reports, please visit https://illinois.5-essentials.org. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact 5Essentials Client Services at 1-866-440-1874 or 5essentials@uchicago.edu. UChicago Impact at the University of Chicago is providing Illinois 5Essentials to schools statewide on behalf of the Illinois School Board of Education.
Press Announcement Preliminary Information for Parents Parent Notification of Survey and Opt-out Form