Illinois Association of School Boards

The home page of the Illinois Association of School Boards, this site has information not only on IASB, but on other education-related topics, as well. Among these are public school governance and Illinois school law. The site has its own searching function, which enables the user to find many IASB-sponsored reports and articles relevant to school reform, charter schools, etc.

Illinois Network of Charter Schools

The homepage for the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, an organization that "advocates for legislation to strengthen charter schools, educates the public about the value of charter schools, and supports the dissemination of best practices throughout the system." The site includes an Illinois charter school locater.

Illinois School Report Card

Created by the Illinois State Board of Education, this site contains annual reports on the public schools in the state of Illinois. Each report provides statistical information on school demographics, instructional setting, finances, and academic performance. While schools are not ranked or rated, the report card contains averages at the school, district, and state level. Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed to view the reports.

Illinois State Board of Education: Charter Schools

This site provides information on Illinois charter school laws. In addition, there are links to a directory of state charter schools and the Board's 2004 Annual Report on Charter Schools.

State of Illinois

While this site is the home page for the state of Illinois, its provision of a site-specific search engine makes it a good source of information on various aspects of school reform. Links yielded by using the search function are to announcements and news releases from the state government, and they therefore approach school reform, etc. from a governmental perspective. These links will probably serve as interesting counterpoints to other sites, such as that of the Illinois Education Association.

State of Illinois K-12 Information Technology Plan Revised 2002

This site contains the full document available to those with Acrobat reader. Created by the Illinois State Planning Committee, an organization composed of teachers, principals, librarians, business and community leaders, district and state education administrators and parents and children from all over Illinois, the Plan represents a vision for equitable educational excellence using information technologies to support new models of learning. The plan is made up of four major sections as follow: a review of past action, the need for action, and the progress to date; the policy and action agenda for 2002-2007; a detailed outline of how progress will be gauged; and appendices reviewing national standards. More information of other technology efforts in Illinois can be found at the ISBE eLearning Programs Home Page.