The Illinois Safe Schools Alliance (the Alliance) has released “Visibility Matters 2010,” an update to the first statewide report card on LGBTQ presence in higher education and teacher preparation in Illinois. This report examines the inclusion of sexual orientation (SO) and gender identity (GI) in university policies related to anti-discrimination and in student codes of conduct, and for SO and GI specifically in teacher education and social work preparation programs. Sixty percent, or 36 of the state’s sixty teacher education preparation programs, received a failing grade of F. Fifty-two percent, or 11 of the state’s 21 social worker preparation programs, received a D or an F.
Professor Erica Meiners, Professor of Education and Women’s Studies at Northeastern Illinois University and member of the Pre-Professional Project of the alliance that authored the report, said in a press release that ” [w] e evaluated these programs based on the web because prospective teacher education/social work students research potential programs via the internet and want to know how programs include and address LGBTQ communities.”
“Three universities received A’s in teacher preparation (DePaul, Illinois Wesleyan and University of Illinois at Chicago) —up from just one (UIC) last year,” said Shannon Sullivan, executive director of the alliance.
Since the first Visibility Matters report was released in 2009, the group has seen some major changes at some universities. The 2010 report features the success stories of Illinois State University (ISU) and DePaul University. “At ISU,” explained associate professor Paula Ressler, “our leadership took the report very seriously. They consulted with professors and students and immediately worked to update our university-wide non-discrimination policy to include gender identity—which had been a glaring lack due to Illinois state law. We still have a lot of work to do to ensure full inclusion, but our leadership has been very motivated by this report.”
The full report, “Visibility Matters 2010: Higher Education and Teacher/Social Work Preparation in Illinois: A Web-based Assessment of LGBTQ Presence,” is available online at www.illinoissafeschools.org.