SB2116 amends Section 24A-5 of the Illinois School Code, which governs teacher evaluation plans in school districts. The bill requires each district’s teacher evaluation plan to include a description of the standards in the Illinois Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards and to be aligned with the Illinois Professional Educator Standards. In practical terms, this means district evaluation systems would need to explicitly reference culturally responsive teaching expectations as part of the formal evaluation framework for certified employees.
The bill does not change the basic structure of teacher evaluations, such as how often tenured and non-tenured teachers are evaluated, the rating categories used, or the remediation and dismissal procedures already in law. Instead, it adds a standards-based content requirement to the evaluation plan itself, affecting how districts draft, update, and implement their evaluation policies and how administrators assess teacher performance.
Impact
SB2116 would amend the School Code provision governing evaluation plans for certified employees, requiring school districts to incorporate culturally responsive teaching and leading standards into teacher evaluation plans and align those plans with state professional educator standards. This would affect local school districts, administrators, and teachers by making those standards an explicit part of evaluation policy and practice, but it would not otherwise alter the existing statutory timelines, rating system, or remediation process in Section 24A-5.
Sentiment
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes in the provided materials, the available sentiment is neutral and procedural rather than contested. The bill appears to be framed as an education policy update focused on aligning teacher evaluation plans with existing state standards. No opposition, amendments, or recorded floor or committee debate are included in the materials provided.
Contention
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided transcript or voting history because none were supplied. Potential areas of debate, based on the bill’s subject matter, could include whether adding culturally responsive teaching standards to evaluation plans creates additional administrative burden for districts, whether it changes the substance of teacher accountability, and how those standards would be interpreted and applied in evaluations. However, these concerns are not attributed to any named stakeholders in the provided record.