THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

"Our taskforce is composed of researchers and scholars from Illinois universities," states 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. "We 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."

For Visibility Matters 2010 we are pleased to report that three universities received As in teacher preparation ( DePaul, Illinois Wesleyan and University of Illinois at Chicago ) —up from just one ( UIC ) last year, " stated Shannon Sullivan, Executive Director of the Alliance. "We also expanded the report to include social work preparation programs, as these personnel are key to students' success in school. Social work preparation programs fared a bit better in terms of LGBTQ inclusion: within the twenty-one programs, there were four As and three Bs." "Although all social work programs are required to include content on LGBTQ issues, there exists great variability in how that is done and to what extent content is included," added Diane Zosky, Associate Professor/MSW Program Coordinator at Illinois State University.

"This project," states Therese Quinn, Associate Professor of Education at the School of the Art Institute and member of the Pre-Professional Project, "aims to educate universities and colleges across Illinois that LGBTQ visibility and policies matter. We welcome amendments to this report. We are not interested in failing grades as an end-point; instead, this report shows where institutions can improve."

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 Paula Ressler, Associate Professor of English Education and a member of the Pre-Professional Project, "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 report offers a number of recommendations to improve grades, to strengthen policies and to increase LGBTQ visibility. Stacey Horn, Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago ( the only teacher preparation program to receive an A in both reports ) , acknowledges that, "We expect teacher education programs to address all components of diversity — race, gender, ethnicity — and that sexual orientation and gender identity are also important aspects of the diversity picture."

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 .