0.7 Hunt, j., grivetti, j., & Morford, l. (october 2011). your turf  (Page 4/5)

Intense negotiations were conducted over the rules for period of weeks after the legislation was passed. Two members of the Illinois Council of Professors of Educational Administration (ICPEA) were involved in these negotiations, along with Representative Roger Eddy, State Superintendent Christopher Koch, and members of the ISBE staff. One concession grated by ISBE was that the public comment period on the rules was to be extended to November 22, 2010. The ICPEA representatives felt that the negotiations had led to agreements on modifications in the internship experience as well as a number of other issues. They felt that most of the other recommendations previously recommended by the “Working to Prepare Illinois School Leaders” task force would remain in place. When the new rules were ultimately posted for public review and comment, many elements were different from what the ICPEA representatives felt had been negotiated, and a number of new and very prescriptive elements had been added. This led to a brief, but intense period of political action on the part of the state’s public and private universities involved in the preparation of principals. This activity was spearheaded by the ICPEA.

Icpea political action

As stated in the introduction of this paper, it was clear from the outset that the ISBE and IBHE had the desire to drastically reduce the number of individuals receiving principal level administrative certification in Illinois. Over the course of the redesign process, it became clear that most of the public and private universities would probably be able to meet the newly proposed curricular changes. Therefore, if the numbers were to be reduced, this would most likely have to be accomplished through the rules relating to the internship process. When the proposed new rules were posted in the late fall of 2010, there were several elements which were certain to soon reduce the number of individuals receiving administrative certification.

On October 20, 2010 the ICPEA president sent out a call to action to all of the ICPEA members, representing 32 public and private universities, to write letters from their institutions, and individually, to the rules committee of ISBE and to the members of the JCAR committee of the Illinois General Assembly. The president also subsequently sent out a draft letter, on behalf of ICPEA, for the membership to review and react to prior to the organization’s November 20, 2010 meeting in Chicago.

Specific rationale was given for each of the proposed changes listed above, and solutions were also proposed in each of the areas. When the ICPEA group met in Chicago on November 20, 2010, the president’s letter was approved, with one minor addition. It was approved, with no nays nor abstentions, by the representatives of all 15 universities present. The president subsequently emailed the letter to the rules committee of ISBE and to the JCAR committee prior to the November 22 ^nd deadline.

First isbe response to political action

The Illinois State Board of Education was slated to review the public testimony on the proposed principal preparation rules during its meeting on Thursday, December 16, 2010 in Springfield, Illinois. Revised newly proposed rules were posted on the ISBE website late in the week prior to the meeting. The following changes were recommended to the Illinois State Board of Education by the ISBE staff: