Report Title:

Professional Development Schools; Appropriation

 

Description:

Appropriates funds to establish and continue professional development schools in public schools. Requires DOE to allocate funds by means of competitive grants. (SD 1)

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1670

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

H.D. 2

STATE OF HAWAII

S.D. 1

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

making an appropriation for the establishment and continuation of professional development schools.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, a national organization with nineteen partner states, including Hawaii, is focused on improving student learning by ensuring that there is a caring, competent, and qualified teacher in every classroom.

Over the past year, with the lieutenant governor as its chairperson, the Hawaii Policy Group of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, composed of a representative group of educational stakeholders, has collaborated on research-based recommendations to improve teaching in Hawaii. The recommendations encompass five key areas:

(1) Establishing and implementing standards for students and teachers;

(2) Teacher preparation and professional development;

(3) Teacher recruitment and placing qualified teachers in all classrooms;

(4) Encouraging and rewarding teaching knowledge and skill; and

(5) Creating schools that are organized for student and teacher success.

One thing was clear: aside from home and societal factors, teacher quality is, without a question, the most influential factor in student achievement. Standards-based reform has a greater chance of success when teacher quality is addressed and given our highest priority. We must equip our teachers with the resources and skills necessary to ensure that all students attain their full potential.

By establishing professional development schools in Hawaii, in which the public school enters into formal agreements with teacher education programs that address standards-based education and teacher preparation, our teachers will be equipped with the resources and skills necessary to ensure that all students attain their full potential.

As reported by the Hawaii Teacher Education Coordinating Committee of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, research on professional development schools indicates that:

(1) Students enrolled in professional development schools perform better than other students on common measures of student learning in basic subjects such as language arts and mathematics;

(2) Teachers prepared in professional development schools are better able to elicit student learning than those assigned traditional internships;

(3) Teachers prepared in professional development schools are more familiar with the practices required by today's schools than those who obtain clinical experience in other ways;

(4) Professional development conducted by professional development schools is more closely integrated with preservice education;

(5) Administrators report that they prefer to hire teachers whose clinical training occurred in a professional development school;

(6) Universities benefit from teachers who are prepared in professional development schools because these teachers help enable students to perform more successfully at the university level;

(7) School districts benefit from professional development schools because they reduce recruiting costs, retraining costs, legal fees, and professional development needs;

(8) School districts benefit from professional development schools because they are useful sources of research information concerning the quality of new programs;

(9) Students in professional development schools experience more hours of adult attention than students in other schools; and

(10) Better teachers make better schools.

It is the purpose of this Act to appropriate funds to support the creation and continued development of professional development schools in Hawaii's public schools.

SECTION 2. (a) There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $1 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2001-2002 and the sum of $1 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2002-2003 for the establishment and continued development of professional development schools in Hawaii public schools.

(b) For the purposes of this Act, "professional development schools" means those public schools, consortia of schools, or departments within schools that have entered into formal agreements with approved teacher education programs to address:

(1) Standards-based education;

(2) Teacher preparation; and

(3) Professional development.

(c) The department of education shall allocate the funds appropriated to professional development schools by means of competitive grants. A grant application shall include a description of how the professional development school will meet the professional development school standards of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and the department's six images of success:

(1) Standards-based learning;

(2) Professionalism and the capacity of the system;

(3) Quality of student support;

(4) Coordinated team work;

(5) Responsiveness of the system; and

(6) Focused and sustained action.

Five per cent of the funds appropriated for the establishment and continued development of professional development schools shall be set for program administration, including an annual professional development school conference.

Subject to available resources, grants may be awarded for up to a five-year period and may be renewed every five years. Professional development schools shall present annual reports to the department and shall present findings at the annual professional development schools conference.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2001.