Community Caring Conference

 Agency Working For You

Around 50 concerned parents, community leaders, teachers and district Superintendents from across the county attended the Community Conversation on Education on December 15th at the Radisson Hotel in Moline. The event was sponsored in partnership with the Community Caring Conference and Chicago based, Advance Illinois.

Advance Illinois is a statewide, independent nonprofit organization whose main objective is to help ensure our state’s public schools prepare every child to compete in a global economy. Advance Illinois goal is to help organizations across Illinois develop strategies to help every student be ready for work, college, and democratic citizenship.

CCC has expanded its mission during the past few years and extended its reach beyond community-based crime prevention into also supporting and organizing for successful education throughout every level of our area.

There were several conversations about the current condition of the State of Illinois educational system as well as reports on the progress of our local schools. A hot topic for that evening was the “Race to the Top” funding that will be offered by the Federal Government this year.

The US Department of Education is making $4.35 billion in competitive funds available for a handful of states that are prepared to take dramatic steps to improve student achievement and close achievement gaps.  Advance Illinois is pushing for some of that money for Illinois schools.

While everyone walked away with a better understanding of the Race to the Top and also articulated our districts views on the funding; through our conversations we also left with a sense of satisfaction that our school districts have always stepped up to meet local challenges and aggressively worked towards improving our public education system.