Yorkville 115 throws support behind state’s Vision 2030

The Yorkville School District 115 board adopted a resolution supporting Vision 2030, a roadmap for policy guidelines several school districts want the state to prioritize in enhancing academic opportunities.

Superintendent Matt Zediker said supporting the roadmap empowers school districts to inform state legislators how to provide the right policies to best chart pathways for future student success.

“It helps us look at the future of eduction, like access to pathways and career and technical education for our high school students as we think about the ever-changing workforce,” Zediker said. “Vision 2030 wants to ensure there’s sustainable, dependable funding for our districts. We also are focusing on the state’s accountability system for our districts.”

Zediker said this includes looking at standardized tests and how they dictate the district’s goals with student attainment and student growth.

The academic blueprint was spearheaded by eight statewide education associations to create a framework of legislative goals and policy changes to improve public education.

The main prioritizations of Vision 2030 include policies for predictable funding, including for capital projects and safety needs, pension reforms, and ways to increase teacher retention. It also champions future-focused learning, which includes more college and career exploration in the curriculum, and shared accountability, which updates measurements of student proficiency and success.

Vision 2030 continues the district-supported Vision 2020, which helped change the state’s funding model for schools to evidence-based funding.

“That funding model is a much more equitable way to take a look at what school districts need and to make sure we are on the way to fully funding our districts and our students,” Zediker said.

Zediker said the plan should also address school scorecard priorities which assess everything from attainment in English, math, and language arts, to chronic absenteeism.

“We want the state to really look at this to ensure we are telling the right story in terms of our students, student attainment, student growth, and how our districts are performing,” Zediker said. “The way Illinois set the standards for our students in terms of proficiency on those assessments is actually a higher bar than in many other states. When a student is ‘proficient’ in reading at the third-grade level, that actually means they’re at the 70th percentile for success in college. In other states, that might be ‘exceeds standards’ instead of ‘proficient.’ This message can be hard to explain to the community.”

Some of the statewide partners who developed Vision 2030 include the Illinois Association of School Administrators, the Illinois Association of School Boards, and the Illinois Association of School Business Officials.

Several school systems throughout the state joined Yorkville 115 in supporting the Vision 2030 legislative initiative, including the Batavia School District 101.