CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois created a panel tasked with helping increase high school graduation rates under a trio of education bills Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law on Wednesday.

The Commission for High School Graduation Achievement and Success will look at alternative education programs to help keep at-risk students in class. The group has to present its findings to Quinn and lawmakers by Nov. 1.

"The number one job of state government ... is education," Quinn said during a bill-signing event at a middle school on Chicago's South Side.