Advance Illinois
The Issue
Education achievement in Illinois is mediocre at best and the state has one of the largest achievement gaps in the country. In 2007, the Joyce Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation began to explore whether a new statewide education advocacy organization could help reinvigorate Illinois’ education policymaking environment and boost community support for reform. Launched in fall 2008, Advance Illinois is a new, independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to making Illinois education second to none in the world by promoting education policies to help all Illinois students graduate ready for college, careers and citizenship.
What We Did
Over the course of nearly a year, Education First, together with the Boston Consulting Group, the Joyce Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, researched effective practices and staffed a steering committee and launch team of prominent Illinois leaders. This diverse group designed and launched Advance Illinois from top-to-bottom. Visit www.advanceillinois.org to learn more. Click the link at the bottom of the page to download the inaugural report we developed.
Education First analyzed goals, opportunities, challenges and strategies for this new organization, emphasizing education policy options to dramatically raise achievement and attainment; organizational strategy, positioning and communications; and governance. Education First led the design of the organization’s theory of change, researched and suggested policy priorities that were adopted by the new organization, advised on the recruitment of the board of directors and executive director, identified communications needs and contractors, developed the organizational by-laws, secured 501(c)3 nonprofit status, created the organization’s detailed four-year budget and developed funding proposals that have secured nearly $5 million in start-up funding.
In collaboration with the new executive director, Education First also prepared the organization's first major report, a case-making analysis of why Illinois education performance must improve dramatically if Illinois and its residents are to prosper. Click the link at the bottom of the page to download the full policy report and special stimulus opportunities insert we developed.
The Outcome
Advance Illinois launched officially in November 2008 with a board that includes a former governor, a former U.S. speaker of the house, a former U.S. secretary of commerce, a former state senate majority leader, the CEO of State Farm, the CFO and president of the Boeing Company, the CEO of TDW and additional prominent education, grassroots and civic leaders.
Why It Matters
Just 20 percent of white ninth-graders and a mere 10 percent of kids of color in Illinois can expect to finish college in their 20s. A statewide policy environment that has not prioritized K–12 public education in the last several years contributes to this growing education crisis. Statewide education-advocacy organizations in other states have helped turn the tide and make education policy the top priority of state decisionmakers; Advance Illinois has the potential to help transform education policymaking and performance in Illinois.