Report Title:

Implementation of Statewide Education Performance Standards

 

Description:

Facilitates the implementation of Statewide Education Performance Standards by making school data more comprehensive and user friendly, and by providing each school with curriculum developers and teacher mentors. (SD1)

 

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

528

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

S.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

  

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to education.

 

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

SECTION 1. Section 302A-201, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§302A-201 Statewide performance standards. (a) The board shall establish statewide performance standards and the means to assess the standards based upon the recommendations in the final report of the performance standards commission established pursuant to Act 334, Session Laws of Hawaii 1991; provided that the board may review and modify the performance standards, as the board deems necessary, to reflect the needs of public school students and educational goals adopted by the board.

(b) The board shall appoint a performance standards review commission, to be convened at the beginning of the 1997-1998 school year, and every four years thereafter, to assess the effectiveness of the performance standards. The commission shall include representatives of the Hawaii State Parent, Teacher, Student Association; the Hawaii State Student Council; the superintendent; the dean of the college of education of the University of Hawaii; and the professional education community. The commission may request the assistance of such department or school staff as may be necessary to facilitate its review.

(c) The commission shall review the implementation of the performance standards by the board and the schools to determine whether the standards should be modified. In making this determination, the commission shall seek public input by holding public forums to discuss the implementation and effectiveness of the performance standards. The commission shall submit a report of its findings and recommendations regarding the effectiveness of the standards and the need for modification of the standards to the board and the legislature prior to the convening of the 1999 regular session. The board shall consider and implement the modifications beginning with the 1999-2000 school year.

(d) To assist in the implementation of the statewide performance standards, the department of education shall provide curriculum developers for each school to assist principals with the implementation process and analyze test data to determine compliance with the performance standards, and establish a teacher mentor program to assist teachers in the ongoing training and supervision of the curriculum process in each school."

SECTION 2. Section 302A-1004, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) The department shall implement a comprehensive system of educational accountability to motivate and support the improved performance of students and the education system. This accountability system shall:

(1) Include student accountability; school or collective professional accountability; individual professional accountability for teachers, principals, and other employees; and public accounting for other significant partners to the education process (including, but not limited to, parents, community members, businesses, higher education, media, and political leadership);

(2) Link authority and adequate resources to responsibility;

(3) Define clear roles for all parties and lines of responsibility and mutual obligation and develop a collaborative process with stakeholders, including representatives of appropriate bargaining units, parents, administration, and students;

(4) Involve fair and adequate assessment against agreed upon goals[;] and provide data that is user friendly;

(5) Invoke a full and balanced set of appropriate consequences for observed performance, including rewards and recognition for those schools that meet or exceed their goals, assistance to those that fall short, and sanctions for those that given adequate assistance and ample time, continue to fail to meet goals;

(6) Involve:

(A) A statewide student assessment program that provides annual data on student, school, and system performance at selected benchmark grade levels in terms of student performance relative to statewide content and performance standards and embodies high and rigorous expectations for the attainment of all students; and

(B) An annual assessment in core subjects for each grade level, as conducted by each school;

(7) Involve a comprehensive school profile or report card for each school, which shall include, but not be limited to, student performance measures, school attendance, drop-out rates, [and] parental involvement[.], and demographic information identifying by ethnic group and gender the number and percentage of:

(A) Each ethnic group;

(B) School dropouts by grade level;

(C) In-grade retentions;

(D) Students failing courses;

(E) Absences and suspensions;

(F) Expulsions;

(G) Exceptional students as defined in section 302A-101;

(H) Students with successful high school completion within four and five years of entering high school; and

(I) Graduates entering college.

Ethnic group shall be determined by the ethnic identification selected among options by the parents of elementary school students and by identification selected among options by intermediate and high school students. These reports shall be made available annually to the board, the governor, the legislature, school staff, the parents, and the general public;

(8) Involve a computer program designed to track comprehensive individual student profiles from kindergarten through twelfth grade;

(9) Establish an explicit link between the comprehensive school profile or report card for each school by requiring that results of the school profile or report card be used by school administrators to measure student achievement and improve the school;

[(8)] (10) Require that teachers and administrators engage in the continuous professional growth and development that ensure their currency with respect to disciplinary content, leadership skill, knowledge, or pedagogical skill, as appropriate to their position. This requirement may be established by the department in terms of credit hours earned or their equivalent in professional development activity certified by the department as appropriate in focus and rigor; and

[(9)] (11) Establish an explicit link between professional evaluation results and individual accountability through professional development of the knowledge, skill, and professional behavior necessary to the position, by requiring that results of the professional evaluation be used by the department to prescribe professional development focus and content, as appropriate.

Beginning with the 2001-2002 school year, the department shall submit to the legislature, the governor, and the board of education at least twenty days prior to the convening of each regular legislative session a report of the specifics of the design of the comprehensive accountability system, as well as the fiscal requirements and legislative actions necessary to create the accountability system."

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2001-2002, for data collection, hiring of curriculum developers and teacher mentors, and other activities facilitating the implementation of statewide education performance standards.

SECTION 4. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 5. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.