Appendix - Strong Leaders Strong Schools

APPENDIX A. BILL SUMMARIES

Links to legislation in this report can be accessed via NCSL’s Education Bill Tracking Database (http://www.ncsl.org/IssuesResearch/Education/EducationBillTrackingDatabase/tabid/12913/Default.aspx).

ALABAMA

S.B. 262 Provides professional development training for school superintendents. Requires the School Superintendents of Alabama, a professional organization, to establish and administer a professional development program for all county and city superintendents of education. Provides several requirements, including aligning the professional development training with rigorous standards and school improvement goals. Requires newly elected or appointed superintendents to participate in the School Superintendents of Alabama’s Mentor and Executive Coaching Program, a free, year-long training program for new superintendents serving in member school systems.

S.B. 220 Requires local school boards to develop policies for orientation and ongoing training for board members.

ARKANSAS

S.B. 26, H.B. 1002 Beginning with the 2009 calendar year, requires professional development on the availability requirements and the process of applying for state-sponsored student financial assistance for school superintendents, assistant superintendents, and principals and assistant principals where students are enrolled in grades seven through 12. The professional development hours required under this section will be counted toward the 60 hours of the professional development required for licensed school personnel under the Standards for Accreditation of Arkansas Public Schools and School Districts.

S.B. 290 Appropriates $900,000 to the Department of Education for FY 2009-2010 for the School Support Program, which will provide support to schools or school districts designated by the department as being in school improvement status and provide for general operations of the Arkansas Leadership Academy.

S.B. 291 Appropriates $500,000 to the Arkansas Leadership Academy for the Master Principal Program and $90,000 for bonuses for the Master Principal Program.

H.B. 1034 Strengthens the system of Arkansas educational leadership development by:

Establishing a 13-member School Leadership Coordinating Council to serve as the central body for organizing a state leadership development system between the Department of Education, Department of Higher Education, Department of Workforce Education, the Arkansas Leadership Academy and school districts and other leadership groups;
Recommending a state leadership development system to coordinate all aspects of leadership development based on leadership standards;
Devising a system of gathering data that includes input from practitioners, educational and community leaders, university leaders and faculty, and other interested parties;
Enhancing school leadership and support efforts; and
Helping develop model tools to evaluate school administrators.

H.B. 1272 Requires administrator education programs to include instruction on the importance of parental involvement, successful strategies for encouraging parents to be partners in their child’s education, and the relationship between cultural diversity and parental involvement.

H.B. 1996 Increases the opportunity for school counselors to become school administrators. Counselor eligibility for administrator licensure includes the following criteria:

A current standard teaching license;
A minimum of four years of experience as a school counselor;
A graduate degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education; and
Completion of the appropriate program of study for an initial administrator license.

CALIFORNIA

S.B. 1 c Appropriates $1.554 million from Title II, Part A, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for the Administrator Training Program.

A.B. 1 d Appropriates $1.554 million from Title II, Part A, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for the Administrator Training Program.

COLORADO

S.B. 259 Appropriates $75,000 for the School Leadership Academy Program.

H.B. 1065 Creates the Educator Identifier System and Pilot Program to assign unique identifiers to educators (teachers and principals). Data collected cannot be used to negatively sanction individual educators or educator preparation or professional development programs. The system will be used to:

Provide information for studying the teacher gap;
Study educator training programs, professional development programs, and mobility and retention issues;
Improve teachers and learning, including the use of data to recognize, reward and develop the careers of individual educators; and
Gather information about the number and percent of teachers and principals rated at each performance level in each local education agency’s teacher and principal evaluation system.

DELAWARE

S.B. 149 Aligns the standards for denying and revoking licenses of private school teachers, specialists and administrators with those for public school teachers, specialists and administrators.

FLORIDA

S.B. 2600 Appropriates from the General Revenue Fund $179,839 for the Florida Association of District School Superintendents Training and $36,927 for the Principal of the Year. Appropriates from the Federal Grants Trust Fund an additional $25,691 for the Florida Association of District School Superintendents Training and $5,275 for the Principal of the Year.

GEORGIA

H.B. 455 Starting July 1, 2010, educators with a leadership degree who are not working in a leadership position will be paid on a different salary schedule than educators who hold a leadership degree and are working in a leadership position. For the 2009-2010 school year only, the law also extends by one month, to May 15, 2009, the time each local school system can offer contracts to teachers and other personnel.

ILLINOIS

S.B. 187 Amends the School Code with respect to administrative certificates. Allows for a chief school business official endorsement if, among other conditions, the certificate holder has two years of university-approved practical experience (as an alternative to requiring two years of administrative experience in school business management).

H.B. 737 Amends the School Code to provide that principals hired on or after July 1, 2008, can participate in a second year of mentoring through the new principal mentoring program if sufficient funding exists. Removes a provision requiring completion of a survey of progress. Requires the state superintendent to annually determine whether appropriations are sufficient. Provides that the State Board of Education is to use a competitive process to select statewide entities to receive funds appropriated to provide a program (instead of the State Board adopting rules for entities seeking to provide a program). Provides that the “master principal designation program” is also to be known as the Illinois Distinguished Principal Leadership Institute, effective immediately.

S.B. 1276 Amends the School Code. Subject to appropriation, requires that any individual, with exceptions, who begins serving as a superintendent in Illinois on or after July 1, 2009—and who has not previously served as a school district superintendent in Illinois—to participate in a new superintendent mentoring program established by the State Board of Education, for the duration of his or her first two school years as a superintendent. Provides for program requirements and a survey of progress.

S.B. 1828 Creates the P-20 Longitudinal Education Data System Act. Requires the State Board of Education, the Illinois Community College Board and the Board of Higher Education to jointly establish and maintain a longitudinal data system by entering into one or more agreements that link early learning, elementary and secondary school student unit records with institution of higher learning student unit records. Subject to appropriation, the data system must establish a system to evaluate teacher and administrator preparation programs using student academic growth as one component of evaluation. Requires procedures and a system to evaluate the relationship between education programs and results and employment fields, employment locations and employment results. In addition, subject to appropriation, the data warehouse must include a teacher and administrator identifier system that can match students to early learning, elementary and secondary teachers and elementary and secondary administrators. The teacher and student data links cannot be used to make decisions about teacher pay or benefits unless the district and the district’s bargaining representative have agreed. The data also cannot be used by a district as part of an evaluation, unless all parties agree.

H.B. 2206 Appropriates $135 million from Title II, Part A, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for teacher and principal training.

H.B. 2675 Amends school code to require that administrative certificates be issued to those who satisfactorily pass a test of basic skills, an assessment of professional teaching and a test of subject matter knowledge (instead of only a test of basic skills and subject matter knowledge). Anyone who has passed another state’s test of basic skills as a condition of certification or admission to a teacher preparation program is required to pass the Illinois test of basic skills. Provisions removed:

A person who holds a valid and comparable out-of-state certificate is not required to take the tests of basic skills and subject matter knowledge;
Requires a provisional certificate holder to pass the examinations set forth by the State Board of Education within nine months; and
Failure to pass the tests of basic skills and subject matter knowledge shall result in cancellation of a provisional certificate.

IOWA

S.F. 470 Appropriates $225,733 to the Department of Education for FY 2009-2010 for administration of the Beginning Administrator Mentoring and Induction Program.

MASSACHUSETTS

H.B. 4129 Appropriates $50,637,588 from Title II, Part A, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for teacher and principal training and recruiting.

MAINE

S.B. 458 Encourages alternative compensation models for teachers and school administrators. Requires the Department of Education to review alternative compensation models in other states that allow performance-based compensation, including bonuses for teachers and school administrators. Requires the Department of Education review the requirements of the federal Teacher Incentive Fund program and other federal grant programs under which funds can be used to establish alternative compensation models for educators. The department also will prepare and submit an application for federal grant funds from the federal Teacher Incentive Fund and any other applicable federal programs to develop a state-based alternative compensation grant program for school administrative units. In addition, the Department of Education will establish an application process whereby school administrative units can apply to participate in the alternative compensation grant program.

MONTANA

S.B. 173 Clarifies the ability of school districts to share superintendents and principals.

NEVADA

A.B. 563 Appropriates $100,000 in fiscal years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 for additional training opportunities for educational administrators.

NORTH CAROLINA

S.B. 202 Provides that a teacher who becomes an assistant principal without a break in service shall be paid monthly at least as much as he or she would earn as a teacher employed by that local school administrative unit.

NEW MEXICO

H.B. 2 Appropriates $200,000 to develop a statewide instructional leadership institute. The law also provides that the secretary of public education, in collaboration with the Department of Finance and Administration, Office of Education Accountability, will ensure that all principals and assistant principals have been evaluated under the highly objective uniform statewide standard and have the necessary professional competencies for their position. The secretary of public education will withhold from the public school distribution funding for the minimum salary of any principal or assistant principal who has not been evaluated.

S.B. 123 Includes school administrators in the uniform statewide educator accountability reporting system. Requires that:

Candidates for school administrator positions be measured and tracked from pre-entry to post-graduation;
Administrator preparation programs submit data to the Public Education Department to be included in the educator accountability reporting system;
The same measures and indicators of program success applicable to teacher preparation programs be applied to administrator preparation programs; and
Data on administrator preparation programs be included in the annual statewide educator accountability report.

S.B. 133 Reduces from seven to six the number of teaching years required for an administrator license by removing the one-year requirement to be a level 3-A teacher. Requires a post-baccalaureate degree or certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards for eligibility for a level 3-B school administrator license. Also creates a four-year, nonrenewable level 3-B provisional license for school principals in districts with a shortage of qualified candidates.

NEW YORK

A.B. 8903 Extends mayoral control over New York City schools until June 2015. The law, among other provisions, requires the city to hold hearings in local communities before schools are shut down, grants more power to district superintendents and requires more parental involvement. The oversight board, the Panel for Educational Policy, will have final approval on every contract of more than $1 million.

OHIO

H.B. 1 Requires the State Board to align its standards and qualifications for a principal license with the standards for principals adopted by the State Board, based on recommendations of the Educator Standards Board.

Transfers the duty to approve teacher preparation programs from the State Board to the chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents and expands that duty to include approval of preparation programs for other educators and school personnel. The chancellor, jointly with the superintendent of public instruction, must 1) establish metrics and preparation programs for educators and other school personnel and the higher education institutions that offer the programs, and 2) provide for inspection of the institutions. Within one year after the provision’s effective date, the chancellor, based on the new metrics and preparation programs developed with the superintendent, must approve institutions with preparation programs that maintain satisfactory training procedures and records of performance, as determined by the chancellor. The chancellor must notify the State Board of the metrics and preparation programs and the approved institutions of higher education, which the State Board must publish with the standards and qualifications for educator licensure.

The new metrics and preparation programs must be aligned with the State Board’s standards and qualifications for educator licensure and the requirements of the Ohio Teacher Residency Program.

The metrics and preparation programs also must ensure that educators and other school personnel are adequately prepared to use the value-added progress dimension, which measures student academic gain attributable to a particular teacher or school and is a factor in the performance ratings assigned to school districts and buildings on the annual report cards.

The Educator Standards Board also must 1) investigate and make recommendations to create, expand and implement school district and building leadership academies; 2) develop model teacher and principal evaluation instruments and processes based on the board’s standards for teachers and principals; and 3) monitor compliance with all standards required by the act and make recommendations for corrective action if the standards are not met. (The board formerly did this for teacher and principal standards.)

OKLAHOMA

H.B. 1467 To implement comprehensive reading reform and systemic change, the Oklahoma Commission for Teacher Preparation will award one-year grants for professional development in elementary school reading for teachers, principals and instructional leaders in public schools that serve students in grades K through three. The grants are renewable for two additional years.

TEXAS

H.B. 4435, H.B. 3 Clarifies that participation in the school leadership pilot program is targeted to principals who were employed at a campus rated academically unacceptable in the preceding school year and removes a provision that previously required such principals’ replacements to participate in and complete the program.

UTAH

H.B. 264 Requires a local school board to develop an educator evaluation program consistent with criteria specified by the State Board of Education to support, monitor and maintain the educator evaluation program and provide ongoing evaluation of career educators. Provides mentors for provisional educators.

VIRGINIA

H.B. 1600 Appropriates $1 million over two years from the general fund for a Center for Teacher Quality and Educational Leadership at Old Dominion University. The center will serve as a professional development facility. Its focus will be on improving teacher quality and educational leadership through intensive, research-based professional development for teachers and administrators in school divisions that have not met all standards for Virginia Standards of Learning accreditation and the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.

WASHINGTON

H.B. 1244 Appropriates from the general fund $300,000 for FY 2008, $1 million for FY 2009, $700,000 for FY 2010, and $900,000 for FY 2011 for development of a leadership academy for school principals and administrators. The superintendent of public instruction is to contract with an independent organization to design, field test and implement a state-of-the-art education leadership academy that will be accessible throughout the state. Initial development of academy activity content is to be supported by private funds. The independent organization is to report semiannually on amounts committed by foundations and others to support program development and implementation. Leadership academy partners, with varying roles, are to include state-level organizations for school administrators and principals, the superintendent of public instruction, the professional educator standards board, and others identified by the independent organization.

Appropriates from the general fund $530,000 for FY 2010 and $530,000 for FY 2011 for the leadership internship program for superintendents, principals and program administrators.

Appropriates $105,754,000 from Title II, Part A, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for preparing, training and recruiting high-quality teachers and principals.

Appropriates from the general fund $1.579 million for FY 2010 and $1.579 million for FY 2011 for the Washington state Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) regional partnership activities coordinated at the Pacific Science Center. Activities include instructional material purchases, teacher and principal professional development, and school and community engagement events.

Funds also are appropriated for a principal support program. The office of the superintendent of public instruction may contract with an independent organization to administer the program. The program is to include: a) development of an individualized professional growth plan for a new principal or principal candidate; and b) participation of a mentor principal who works over a one- to threeyear period with the new principal or principal candidate to help build the skills identified as critical to the success of the professional growth plan. Within the amounts provided, $25,000 per year is to be used to support additional participation of secondary principals.

For national board certified teachers, a bonus of $5,000 per teacher is authorized, beginning in the 2007-08 school year and adjusted for inflation in each school year thereafter in which Initiative 732 cost- of-living adjustments are provided. National board certified teachers who become public school principals will continue to receive this bonus for as long as they are principals and maintain the national board certification.

H.B. 2261 Beginning July 1, 2011, requires the Office of Financial Management, with assistance from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, to convene a working group to recommend the details of an enhanced salary allocation model that aligns educator certification with the compensation system. Recommendations from the working group must include:

Reducing the number of tiers in the salary allocation model;
Accounting for geographic and labor market adjustments;
Defining the role and types of bonuses;
Equalizing salaries over a set period of years; and
Providing fiscal estimates to implement the recommendations, including permanently grandfathering current staff on the current schedule.

The working group also must conduct or contract for a comparative labor market analysis of salaries and other compensation for specified groups of educators and school staff. The group will make an initial report to the Legislature by Dec. 1, 2012.

WEST VIRGINIA

H.B. 109 a Creates a process for designing as an innovation zone a school, a group of schools, a subdivision or department of a group of schools, or a subdivision or department of a school. Requires the State Board of Education to promulgate a rule to implement the innovation zone provisions. In exchange for greater accountability, schools with approved innovation zone status will be provided with greater control over important educational factors that affect student achievement. These factors include curriculum, personnel, organization of the school day and year, technology use, and delivery of educational services to improve student learning. The bill also provides principals and teachers at schools approved by the State Board of Education as innovation zones with greater flexibility and control to institute creative and innovative practices. The schools also will be better able to meet the needs of a diverse population of students by removing certain policy, rule, interpretive and statutory constraints.

H.B. 2010 Appropriates $79,250 to the State Department of Education for principal mentorship.

H.B. 3208 Establishes a review committee under the State Board of Education to approve training and training organizations for county school board members and to determine whether county school board members have satisfied annual training requirements.

APPENDIX B. LEADERSHIP CAREER CONTINUUM

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