CARTER, DOUGHERTY (Co-sponsors), DAVIS (122), THOMPSON (72), DAYS AND BOYKINS.
Read 1st time January 27, 2000, and 1000 copies ordered printed.
ANNE C. WALKER, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To amend chapter 166, RSMo, relating to permanent funds and trusts for education by adding thereto one new section relating to the Missouri incentive award program.
Section A. Chapter 166, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 166.520, to read as follows:
166.520. 1. The department of elementary and secondary education shall develop a "Missouri Incentive Award Program" which, subject to appropriations, shall give monetary awards on a per-pupil basis to schools which demonstrate meaningful increases in achievement and effort, as determined pursuant to this section and any rules promulgated pursuant to this section.
2. Meaningful increases in school achievement shall be determined on the basis of the school's improvement on scores in math, reading and science on the Missouri assessment program, or its successor statewide assessment test, as compared to the school's baseline average test score. For purposes of this section, a school's baseline average test score shall be that school's average score for the 1998-1999 school year. Baseline average test scores shall be recalculated following the third year in which the prior baseline average test score is used. The department of elementary and secondary education shall determine by rule what percentage or level of increase is necessary for a school to attain a meaningful increase pursuant to this subsection.
3. Meaningful increases in school effort shall be determined by increases in school attendance rates for any school, or in graduation rates in the case of a secondary school, from the baseline school attendance rate or graduation rate. For purposes of this section, a school's baseline attendance rate or graduation rate shall be the attendance or graduation rate from the 1999-2000 school year. Baseline attendance and graduation rates shall be recalculated following the third year in which the prior baseline average rates were used. The department shall determine by rule what percentage or level of increase is necessary for a school to attain a meaningful increase pursuant to this subsection.
4. Meaningful increases in either category described in subsection 2 or 3 of this section, or the maintenance of a consistently high level of excellence over a three-year period in both categories described in subsection 2 or 3 of this section, as determined by the department, shall entitle a school to a monetary award ranging from seven dollars and fifty cents to twenty-five dollars per student, as determined on a sliding improvement scale promulgated by the department for such monetary awards.
5. Each school entitled to an award pursuant to this section shall form an improvement committee, which shall be approved by the department, and which shall be made up of school board members, administrators, teachers and parents. A school district in which more than one school is entitled to receive an award pursuant to this section may, if both the school board and the principal of each entitled school agrees, form one such committee to act on behalf of all approved schools in the district. The committee shall determine the uses to which the monetary awards granted pursuant to this section shall be put, provided that fifty percent of such money shall be spent on costs of instructional programs designed to improve school achievement and that the remaining fifty percent shall be spent on administration, teachers and staff. The determination of the use of expenditures by the committee shall be subject to final approval by the department before the department disburses any such moneys.
6. No rule or portion of a rule promulgated pursuant to this section shall take effect unless such rule has been
promulgated pursuant to chapter 536, RSMo.
Missouri House of Representatives