LM May 2026

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IASA in partnership with ECRA Group is offering professional development sessions to gain a deep and nuanced understanding of the new accountability system, and how to align local district practices for maximum impact. As a precursor to the sessions, IASA sat down with Dr. John Gatta, CEO of ECRA Group and technical advisor to IASA to learn more about how participants will benefit. This session is based on original ECRA research. Can you describe the research ECRA conducted? The new accountability system is a complex set of rules based on a hierarchy of both student-level and school-level benchmarks, resulting in multiple pathways to accountability designations. ECRA analyzed every school’s data across the state to better understand the relationship between school profile data and final designations. Based on this research, we are able to provide a custom school improvement playbook for each school to maximize the likelihood of receiving a favorable accountability designation. Can you give an example of an insight ECRA learned from its research that will benefit schools and be covered more deeply in the session? The new accountability system functions differently within the grade ranges K-5, 6-8, and 9-12. A different playbook is needed within each of the three grade ranges to optimize your designation. This is mostly attributed to the rigor of underlying student-level benchmarks within the system not being consistent across grade levels. For example, based on current benchmarks, EL progress has very little influence within the system for 6-8 schools and 9-12 schools. HEADLINES d What school administrators need to know about the new Illinois accountability system Based on your research, how would you distill down for school leaders the behavior of the new accountability system? While the optimal school improvement playbook will be unique for each school, generally speaking, the road to Exemplary goes through Proficiency while the road to Commendable goes through Growth. If you are aiming for an Exemplary rating, high proficiency is the most likely path. If you are aiming for Commendable, typical growth is the most likely path.