HCS HB 1817 -- ACCOUNTABILITY FOR PERFORMANCE AND PRIORITY
SCHOOLS

SPONSOR:  Franklin

COMMITTEE ACTION:  Voted "do pass" by the Committee on
Education-Elementary and Secondary by a vote of 21 to 1.

This substitute requires the Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education to identify high-achieving schools as
performance schools and specify the waivers of rule applicable to
those schools.  Schools or districts that are academically
deficient, unaccredited or provisionally accredited, or that
achieve none of the student performance standards established for
accreditation will be identified as priority schools and must
submit an accountability compliance statement that identifies
areas of deficiency and provides a strategy to address the
deficiencies and must disclose the deficiencies on the school
report card.  These schools must also enforce their discipline
policies.  The strategy must, among other requirements, align
curricula to address deficiencies, develop individual academic
agreements for any student not receiving special education
services who scores at the lowest level of proficiency on the
statewide assessments and require such students in grades 9 to 11
to retake the assessment, focus professional development funds on
the areas of greatest academic need, improve teacher and
administrator effectiveness, and reallocate resources.  The
academic agreement spells out the responsibilities of the
student, teacher, administrator, and parent or other adult who
takes educational responsibility and requires the parent to make
a good faith effort to meet with the teacher, who is given the
authority to call for a review of the agreement when necessary.

Plans to improve teacher and administrator effectiveness exempt
individuals who meet any of several requirements, including
national board certification, mentors in approved programs, and
those who achieve qualifying scores in professional assessments.
Nonexempt individuals must complete a mentoring program, a
training program for assessment scorers, or work toward national
board certification.  Resource reallocation programs must include
one of a number of specified elements, such as extended learning
time, smaller learning communities, or home visits by teachers.
A schedule for submission of the accountability compliance
statements is set out in the substitute, and the department may
withhold state aid from districts that do not meet the standards
and timelines for the statements established by the substitute.

FISCAL NOTE:  Cost to General Revenue of $86,400 in FY 2003, FY
2004, and FY 2005.

PROPONENTS:  Supporters say that the next logical step in
ensuring accountability is to concentrate on individual schools
and on provisionally accredited districts, especially in light of
the recent federal education bill.  The bill supplies a focus for
bringing resources to bear on struggling schools by furnishing a
menu of best practices and has elements that address student and
parental accountability.  Some proponents expressed reservations
about the amount of paperwork that might be required of teachers,
and others urged that full funding of the schools would be
necessary for the bill to fulfill its potential.

Testifying for the bill were Representative Franklin; Russell
Thompson, State Board of Education; Missouri PTA; Office of the
Governor; St. Louis Board of Education; Kansas City Federation of
Teachers; Missouri National Education Association; Missouri State
Teachers Association; Missouri School Board Association; and
School Administrators Coalition.

OPPONENTS: There was no opposition voiced to the committee.

Becky DeNeve, Senior Legislative Analyst

Missouri House of Representatives
Last Updated October 11, 2002 at 9:02 am