(110 ILCS 180/130-5)

Sec. 130-5. Findings; policies.

(a) The General Assembly finds the following:

(1) Teachers are the single most important in-school factor in supporting student outcomes and success; yet, Illinois is suffering from a profound teacher shortage across the State.

(2) To reverse this shortage, Illinois needs to develop and invest in a robust and diverse educator pipeline, addressing any barriers or gaps that limit high quality candidates, particularly candidates of color, from becoming teachers.

(3) Illinois loses many high quality, diverse educator candidates in postsecondary programs due to confusion or lack of course transfer credits and course articulation from Illinois's 2-year to 4-year institutions.

(4) Lack of alignment and transferability of course credits may often force candidates to spend additional time and money to earn a degree or lead to an inability to complete a degree.

(5) In 1993, the Board of Higher Education, the Illinois Community College Board, and the Transfer Coordinators of Illinois Colleges and Universities brought together faculty from public and independent, associate, and baccalaureate degree-granting institutions across the State to develop the Illinois Articulation Initiative (IAI).

(6) The goal of IAI is to facilitate the transfer of courses from one participating college or university to another in order to complete a baccalaureate degree.

(7) The Student Transfer Achievement Reform (STAR) Act, as mandated by subsection (b) of Section 25 of the Act, is designed to facilitate transfer among Illinois public institutions, particularly for students with a completed Associate of Arts or an Associate of Science degree.

(8) While Illinois is a leading state for college completion rates for adult learners and transfer students from community colleges, it needs to increase the number of high-quality postsecondary teaching credentials to meet the demands of our schools and education workforce.

(9) With the rising costs of higher education for Illinois students and families, the State needs to ensure to the maximize extent possible that community college courses will transfer with full credit for the student and be accepted at an Illinois public or private institution as they pursue a baccalaureate degree in education.

(10) Illinois can do this by improving transitions all along the education pipeline; for postsecondary education, this means strengthening articulation through stable funding and the expansion of transfer tools, such as Transferology and the IAI through development of an objective measure of transfer and acceptance of credits in education degrees.

(11) The IAI Education Pathway can be modeled off of existing IAI major pathways like Early Childhood Education and Criminal Justice.

(b) The General Assembly encourages the Board of Higher Education, the State Board of Education, and the Illinois Community College Board, as part of the IAI, to do the following:

(1) The Board of Higher Education, the State Board of Education, and the Illinois Community College Board are encouraged to jointly establish a task force for a Major Panel in Education and identify respective recommended major courses that would be accepted as credit toward the education major at the receiving institutions.

(2) As part of the report on the status of the Illinois Articulation Initiative pursuant to Section 25 of the Illinois Articulation Initiative Act, the Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board are encouraged to include in the annual report to the General Assembly, the Governor, and the Illinois P-20 Council the progress made on the task force on the Education Major Panel.

(3) The Board of Higher Education, the State Board of Education, and the Illinois Community College Board are encouraged to further promote and encourage the enrollment of minority students into educator preparation programs, such as the annual information session about the Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship program pursuant to subsection (q) of Section 50 of the Higher Education Student Assistance Act.

(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)