LM Feb 2022

Region 9 Comprehensive Center Is Here to Support Illinois Schools

By Dr. Aaron Butler Director of the Region 9 Comprehensive Center

instructional strategies? Equitable family and community engagement? How to use ESSER or other Title funds? Whether it is these critical topics or other topics, the Region 9 team has a national network of experts and resources to share. We also are excited to elevate success stories about improving the quality of education for students in Illinois and Iowa. Do you have a program that you would like to share with us? Please reach out! Who’sOnTheRegion9Team? The Region 9 Comprehensive Center aims to approach our support for states and districts with equity serving as the heartbeat of our work. Our team is passionate about helping all students have equitable access to high-quality teachers and leaders and high-quality, equitable educational opportunities. Our team includes former teachers, principals, superintendents and researchers with content expertise in a variety of K–12 topic areas. In addition, the Region 9 Comprehensive Center is part of the national Comprehensive Center Network, which includes hundreds of experts in a variety of fields. WhyShouldYouFollowUs? Do you need tools and resources to help you be more productive in your role? We have those! Sign up for our monthly newsletter, follow us on Twitter and bookmark our website where we share useful tools and resources that have been developed and used to successfully support the work of state, district and school leaders free for your use. Some of our recent blogs have tackled teacher shortages, missing and unreliable data due to COVID-19, and using federal funds to support academic recovery. We’d love to tackle issues important to you, so please reach out with your needs via our contact form.

Hello Illinois Superintendents! My name is Aaron Butler, and I have the privilege of serving as the Region 9 Comprehensive Center director. I am excited and humbled to have the opportunity to serve the students, teachers and educational leaders across Illinois and Iowa as part the national Comprehensive Center Network. There is so much that I want to share about both the center and education- related challenges facing our states, but today I will give you a brief rundown of how Region 9 can support you. What Is TheRegion9ComprehensiveCenter? The Region 9 Comprehensive Center is a regional technical assistance center focused on providing high- quality, capacity-building services to state, district and school leaders in Illinois and Iowa. We are operated by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) through a 5-year cooperative grant from the U.S. Department of Education. That funding means we are able to help our partners identify, implement and sustain effective evidence-based practices that will improve education for students and communities at no cost to them. We support key priorities, connect our partners to expertise and resources and elevate success stories from our region. First, the center focuses on supporting the capacity of state agencies, districts and schools to make measurable progress in areas of importance to Illinois and Iowa. The Region 9 Comprehensive Center can connect state, district and school leaders across Illinois and Iowa to leading experts and resources in the education field. Are you interested in learning more about teacher recruitment, retention, and recognition? Social and emotional learning

Aaron Butler, PhD, is a principal technical assistance consultant at the American Institutes for Research. Dr. Butler has more than 20 years of experience supporting school improvement in public education and is a former teacher and administrator.

16 LM February 2022