56 | Social Education | January/February 2023

Social Education 87 (1)

©2023 National Council for the Social Studies

Illinois Global Scholar:

A Story of Teacher Advocacy

for Student Transformation

Seth Brady and Randy Smith

This past September, not long after school started,

NPR’s Morning Edition aired an interview about a

messages, distinguish fact from opinion, and

reect upon media consumption and production.

A couple of minutes into the piece, host Rachel

Martin asked the professor being interviewed “Are

high school students responsive to this? I mean,

do they get it?” The tone of the question seemed

to tilt Martin’s hand: she appeared skeptical.

Sitting alone in my school’s parking lot, I found

myself answering her question out loud: “I know

at least one high school student who gets it!”

tion now being discussed by two adult profession-

als (see page 61). Braden’s work on the bill wasn’t

an accident or lucky happenstance. Braden’s story

was only possible because of another story of

activism. In that story, a broad coalition driven by

Illinois educators marshaled their time, resources,

and collective wisdom to create the Illinois Global

Scholar Certicate and the powerful model of

inquiry that led Braden and dozens of other stu-

dents to take informed action to effect change.

Telling stories of citizen changemakers high-

lights the impact of ordinary people and reminds

us of the power we hold as citizens in a democ-

racy. Such stories also provide valuable instruction

Seth Brady and Randy Smith, along with Kevin Angell (a

student), speak with Senate Leader and IGS sponsor Kimberly

teacher advocacy.

The Illinois Global Scholar Certicate awards a

seal of merit, on the state-sanctioned transcript, to

students who demonstrate global competency. To

earn this certicate, students must complete eight

globally-focused courses, participate in globally-

focused service learning, engage in global col-

laboration or dialogue, and complete a capstone

taken into action to effect change. School districts

opt in to offer the certicate and, with the support

among states offering global education creden-

tials as it is the only state with a certicate created

by, championed, and managed by volunteer

educators. The educators who drove the certi-

cate forward secured funding, assembled a broad

coalition of stakeholders, drafted legislation, and

mobilized statewide support for the certicate.

The story of Illinois Global Scholar (IGS)

began in 2013 when a handful of educators

(Seth Brady, Cindy Oberle-Dahm, Jon Pazol,

Hina Patel, and Mario Perez) completed

experience in one of several partner countries,

teachers are given a mandate to infuse a global

Members of the Illinois Global Scholar Coalition meet to nalize the Illinois Global Scholar Capstone Performance Assessment.

58 | Social Education | January/February 2023

It was with this mandate that we (co-authors Seth

Brady and Randy Smith) began to brainstorm

about what a global education certicate might

look like in our own school district. As this

brainstorming expanded to include teachers in

other school departments, we soon discovered

widespread interest and support. Teachers in

these departments, along with our assistant

principal, formed a loose coalition, and soon we

shared our vision with faculty at the other high

school in our district. By the time we had created

Though difcult to accept initially, the school

district’s answer made sense. Leadership liked the

interest against limited time, resources, and fund-

ing. District leaders were already grappling with

several ongoing initiatives and didn’t want to take

up bandwidth by adding one more. Despite the

logic, the rejection was devastating and humbling.

We had gathered together a coalition of educa-

tors who saw value in the certicate and were will-

ing to expend their limited bandwidth to see the

program come to fruition. Why couldn’t district

leaders do the same?

Three weeks after our initial rejection from

(a U.S. Department of Education Title VI Outreach

Center); and the Longview Foundation, a private

Members of the Illinois Global Scholar Coalition score student work to establish the interrater reliability of the Illinois Global

Scholar Capstone Performance Assessment.

philanthropic organization committed to expand-

ing global education opportunities across the

country. These organizations provided much more

than funding. They served as partners connecting

build capacity and connected us to a national

network of global educators. With no state-level

global education network, we started with

someone we knew: Dr. Darlene Ruscitti, Regional

Superintendent of Schools for our county. While

we only expected a half-hour meeting, Dr. Ruscitti

enthusiastically embraced the idea and spent

two hours explaining the demographic and geo-

graphic diversity of our state and the importance

of gathering stakeholders that reected this

be accessible to students and districts. She also

mentioned a handful of organizations she felt

would be interested in the certicate we were pro-

posing. After school and occasionally during lunch

wisdom each person had to offer. The approach

also invited people into our process as thought

partners and allowed us to expand our network

with very few cold calls.

After several months, we managed to engage

several dozen educators, most of the Title VI

Centers in our state, professors and others in

higher education, business leaders, and non-prot

organizations. These stakeholders helped us

see value in the certicate we hadn’t seen. Prior

Members of the Illinois Global Scholar Coalition and Dr. Lydia Kyei-Blankson (far le) at a meeting to assess the Capstone

Performance Assessment for interrater reliability.

60 | Social Education | January/February 2023

ing a global workforce, as a critical component

of STEM education, as a means to bolster Illinois

agriculture and agribusiness sectors, as a means

of attracting foreign investment to our state, as an

opportunity to build community and foster toler-

ance, and much more.

In addition to expanding the purpose and

appeal of the certicate, coalition building also

connected us with people such as Shawn Healy,

Donna McCaw, and Mary O’Brian who had the

Illinois Global Scholar workshops. The goal of

these workshops was to reach consensus on

certicate requirements and begin the process of

developing a robust assessment of global compe-

tency. Though these goals would be reached, the

process took time and effort as questions related

to equity, access, and rigor surfaced during work-

shop deliberations. Would the certicate require

a minimum grade point average? Would schools

that were less well-resourced be able to admin-

about the certicate. This consensus building

didn’t mean everyone present got everything they

wanted. For example, prior to the workshops one

of our most important partners, the Illinois State

Board of Education (ISBE) indicated that it would

not support a certicate program that included a

four-year world language requirement because

less than half of the schools in Illinois offered a

fourth-year course. Members of the Illinois Council

of Teaching Foreign Languages strongly objected.

global scholar looks like, knows and can do. Once

this vision was established, the team developed

a set of tasks that would allow a student to

demonstrate these characteristics, and routed

state and national standards to these tasks. In the

end, the workshops resulted in a set of certicate

requirements as well as a draft of the capstone

performance assessment. Though this assessment

would be rened through several pilot studies,

expert validation, interrater reliability measures,

Though the legislative rules would eventually

total over 40 pages, limiting the initial bill to two

pages was strategic in that it narrowed the bill

to its essential elements, allowing legislators to

focus on the substance rather than the minutia of

With a draft bill created, the team decided

to sponsor a bill in each chamber of the Illinois

General Assembly. With sponsors established, we

mobilized our coalition and began to systemati-

cally seek the support of all of the legislators

in our state. We made phone calls, sent emails,

solicited and wrote institutional letters of sup-

port, and even met many legislators in person.

including members of both party’s leadership.

In preparation for committee hearings, we asked

our coalition to create lists of stakeholders who

would be willing to le witness slips and found

hearings were scheduled, we sent out encourag-

ing emails with detailed instructions on how to le

witness slips. We took students to the state capitol

to testify and meet with legislators directly. When

district, which had originally passed on our

In the course of two years, we had overcome

several obstacles, built a broad coalition, reached

to move a bill through the Illinois Legislature.

And once this was achieved, we ended where

we began: with students. Students in our own

school, some of whom played a role in the bill’s

as the Inquiry to Action Process.

Students begin the Inquiry to Action Process by

developing an actionable question addressing a

global issue in a specic context. They then launch

an investigation and conduct research that seeks

to identify the wide range of factors that contrib-

ute to a given issue. Students then draft an artifact

and then rene the artifacts in light of feedback

from on-the-ground experts who students them-

selves must locate. Finally, students take these arti-

own-adventure game in which the player is a

Doctors Without Borders doctor experiencing an

Ebola outbreak. Rooted in the student’s research

on Ebola, the player of the game has to make

choices and experience the consequences of

their choices. Having had this game reviewed by

volunteers and Doctors Without Borders doctors

in Sierra Leone, the game was deployed in class-

rooms in Sierra Leone, with a pre-test and post-

test demonstrating that the playing of the game

62 | Social Education | January/February 2023

a Public Service Announcement in the Bangla

language to help an NGO teach Bangladeshis

create policies and ideas that address

barriers to participation.

Educators occupy a unique position in their com-

munities. They stand at the intersection of local,

state, and federal policy and are entrusted to pre-

pare students to become active engaged citizens

in their communities. Though equipping teachers

with the skills and knowledge needed to advocate

ing profession.