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Grants of $50,000 and grants of $75,000 to Illinois school districts and education agencies for programs that will help to retain and develop teacher leaders. Applicants must complete pre-qualification requirements prior to applying for the grant. Priority will be given to proposals for improving culturally responsive practices and promoting diversity among teacher leaders. Proposals that include cross-collaboration or partnerships with other education entities are preferred.

ISBE is seeking innovative approaches to recruiting, preparing, and utilizing teacher leaders as agents of change in PreK-12 public school districts. Districts, schools, or faculty members of state-approved teacher leadership programs who are interested in empowering schools or districts to build a network of exceptional instructional leaders are invited to propose research projects centered on a problem of practice focusing on teacher leadership. ISBE is interested in proposals for new, innovative approaches or expansion upon research-based teacher leader practices that show promise for success in recruiting, preparing or developing teacher leaders.

Proposals shall include a description of an identified local problem of practice, including data and research to support the work, detail investigative measures that will be undertaken to better understand the problem at hand, and propose actionable solutions or approaches (including ways in which they will be enacted) for remedying the problem. Example problems of practice to explore may include, but are not limited to:
- Creating teacher leader pipeline models that will be sustainable and increase student achievement and growth;
- Redefining school culture to migrate educators from manager-as-leader models to instructional leader models;
- Growing the diversity within teacher leadership or developing teacher leadership in high-need communities (urban or rural, high concentration of students that are classified as English Learners, special education, or live in poverty);
- Designing an assessment tool that can be used by districts to award teacher leader endorsements via demonstration of specific competencies (per Illinois School Code Section 21B-25(E);
- Developing collaborative adult communities of practice within a school to promote peer-to-peer learning and increase teacher support and retention;
- Improving outreach and collaboration with families and the community in order to support student learning;
- Developing best-practices guides about how to utilize and integrate both human capital and financial resources (Title II, School Improvement Grants, etc.) to better compensate teacher leaders within districts.

A teacher leader is an individual with the capacity and skills to:
1) Harness the collective knowledge of teachers to have a positive impact on teaching and learning and school and student success;
2) Promote shared governance and leadership in schools by working effectively with the principal and other adults in the school, with a consistent focus on student learning and achievement;
3) Model excellence in teaching with a strong foundation in improving the climate of the school and classroom, curriculum, instruction, assessment and intervention;
4) Provide guidance, coaching, mentoring, influence, direction and support to teachers to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning; and
5) Promote and influence change to improve school and student outcomes.