In December 2010, following the successful passage of Race to the Topinspired legislation, there was a historic opportunity to pass an additional series of education reforms. The Chamber engaged with our educational advocacy partners – Advance Illinois, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Business Roundtable, and the Illinois Chamber of Commerce – to learn more about the proposed legislation. We placed the passage of education reform at the top of our legislative agenda.

The Chamber joined the state’s Performance Counts coalition and held back-to-back monthly briefings at our Legislative Committee meetings with representatives of Advance Illinois and the Illinois Education Association. We encouraged our local school officials and other chambers to get involved and support the reform effort.

Legislation passed the General Assembly and was soon signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn in June 2010.

Once fully implemented, the landmark law will:

• Make performance a primary criterion in layoffs, recalls and teaching assignments
• Tie tenure and certification to performance
• Put students’ well-being at the center of contract negotiations by changing the process for a teachers’ strike to occur
• Streamline the dismissal process for tenured teachers
• Collect detailed information of learning conditions
• Empower parents and community leaders with information by increasing the relevancy of state report cards
• Ensure strong and effective school board oversight through the enhanced training of elected officials