Reference is to Printer's Date 05/24/16-S.
Amend the bill, as and if amended, by deleting all after the enacting words and inserting:
/ SECTION 1. Section 59-1-425(A) of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 260 of 2006, is amended to read:
"(A) Each A
local school district board of trustees of the State
shall have has the authority to
establish an annual school calendar for teachers, staff, and
students. The statutory school term is one hundred ninety days
annually and shall must consist of a
minimum of one hundred eighty days of instruction covering at
least nine calendar months. However, beginning with the
2007-2008 2017-2018 school year,
the opening date for students must not be before the
third Monday in August fifteenth, except for
schools operating on a year-round modified school calendar.
Three days must be used for collegial professional development
based upon the educational standards as required by Section
59-18-300. The professional development shall
must address, at a minimum, academic achievement
standards including strengthening teachers' knowledge in their
content area, teaching techniques, and assessment. No more than
two days may be used for preparation of opening of schools and
the remaining five days may be used for teacher planning,
academic plans, and parent conferences. The number of
instructional hours in an instructional day may vary according
to local board policy and does not have to be uniform among the
schools in the district."
SECTION 2. Section 59-18-325(C) of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 200 of 2014, is amended to read:
"(C)(1)
To maintain a comprehensive and cohesive assessment
system that signals a student's preparedness for the next
educational level and ultimately culminates in a clear
indication of a student's preparedness for postsecondary success
in a college or career and to satisfy federal and state
accountability purposes, the Executive Director of the
State Fiscal Accountability Authority, with the advice and
consent of the special assessment panel, shall direct the
procurement of a summative assessment system for the 2014-2015
school year, and subsequent years as provided in item (3). The
procurement must be completed before September 30,
2014. State Department of Education shall procure
and maintain a summative assessment system. The summative
assessment must be administered to all students in grades three
through eight, and if funds are available, administered
to students in grades nine and ten. The summative
assessment must assess students in English/language arts and
mathematics, including those students as required by the federal
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and by Title I of
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. For purposes of this
subsection, 'English/language arts' includes English, reading,
and writing skills as required by existing state standards. The
assessment must be a rigorous, achievement assessment that
measures student mastery of the state standards, that provides
timely reporting of results to educators, parents, and students,
and that measures each student's progress toward college and
career readiness. Therefore, the assessment or assessments must
meet all of the following minimum requirements:
(a)
compares performance of students in South Carolina to
other students' performance on comparable standards in other
states with the ability to link the scales of the South Carolina
assessment to the scales from other assessments measuring those
comparable standards;
(b)
be a vertically scaled, benchmarked, standards-based
system of summative assessments;
(c)
measures a student's preparedness for the next level of
their educational matriculation and individual student
performance against the state standards in English/language
arts, reading, writing, and mathematics and student growth;
(d)
documents student progress toward national college and
career readiness benchmarks derived from empirical research and
state standards;
(e)
establishes at least four student achievement levels;
(f)
includes various test questions including, but not limited
to, multiple choice, constructed response, and selected
response, that require students to demonstrate their
understanding of the content;
(g)
be administered to all students in a
paper-based computer-based format
in 2014-2015, in either a paper-based form or
computer-based format in 2015-2016, and to all students in a
computer-based format by school year 2016-2017
except for students with disabilities as specified in the
student's IEP or 504 plan, and unless the use of a computer by
these students is prohibited due to the vendor's restrictions on
computer-based test security, in which case the paper version
must be made available; and
(h)
assists school districts and schools in aligning
assessment, curriculum, and instruction.
(2)(a)
Additionally, the Executive Director of the
State Fiscal Accountability Authority, with the advice and
consent of the special assessment panel, also must direct the
procurement of a college and career readiness assessment that
meets the requirements of subsection (A). The procurement must
be completed before September 30, 2014. In addition to WorkKeys,
the assessment must be administered to all students entering the
eleventh grade for the first time in the 2014-2015 school
year. Beginning in the 2017-2018 school year, each
school district shall administer the statewide summative
assessment, with the exception of alternative assessments, for
grades three through eight during the last twenty days of school
as determined by the district's regular instructional calendar,
not including make-up days.
(b)
Statewide summative testing for each student may
not exceed seven days each school year, with the exception of
students with disabilities as specified in their IEPs or 504
plans.
(c)
The State Board of Education shall promulgate
regulations outlining the procedures to be used during the
testing process to ensure test security, including procedures
for make-up days, and to comply with federal and state
assessment requirements where necessary.
(d)
In the event of school closure due to extreme
weather or other disruptions, or significant school or district
technology disruptions that prevent the administration of
assessment, the local school district may request that the
department provide a paper-based administration to complete
testing within the last twenty days of school.
(3)
In school years 2014-2015, 2015-2016, and
2016-2017, The department must procure and
administer the assessments procured by
the State Fiscal Accountability Authority in
English/language arts and mathematics in grades three through
eight, and if funds are available, in grades nine and
ten. The department also must administer the state-developed and
adopted administer assessments in science and
social studies to all students in grades four through
eight, and the college readiness assessment and WorkKeys
assessment to all students in grade eleven. If the Education
Oversight Committee approves of the assessments pursuant to
Section 59-18-320 after the 2016-2017 assessment, the
assessments also may be administered in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019.
Formative assessments must continue to be adopted, selected, and
administered pursuant to Section 59-18-310.
(4)(a) The
special assessment panel must be composed of the following
individuals or their designee:
(i)
the Chairman of the State Board of Education;
(ii) the
Chairman of the Education Oversight Committee;
(iii) the
Chairman of the Board of Directors for the South Carolina
Chamber of Commerce;
(iv) the
Chairman of the South Carolina Commission on Higher
Education;
(v) the
Chairman of the South Carolina Technical College System Board;
and
(vi) the
State Superintendent of Education.
(b) A panel
member who is authorized to designate a person to serve on the
board in his stead only may make the designation if he intends
for the designee to serve continuously instead of intermittently
with himself or another designee.
(c) The
assessment panel must receive input from educators, parents,
higher education officials, and business and community leaders
on the components of a comprehensive and cohesive assessment
system. The assessment panel must convene within two weeks of
the effective date of this act, at the request of the Executive
Director of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority. The panel
must complete its duties in a timely manner which enables the
Executive Director of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority
to procure the assessments by September 30, 2014. Upon the
procurement of a summative assessment system, the special
assessment panel is dissolved. The department is
responsible for ensuring the procurement of the ACT Plus Writing
and WorkKeys assessments. All public high schools and, where
necessary, career centers, annually shall administer the
WorkKeys assessment and the ACT to all eleventh grade students.
For the purposes of this section, 'eleventh grade students'
means students in the third year of high school after their
initial enrollment in the ninth grade. Valid accommodations must
be provided according to the student's IEP/504 plan. If a
student also chooses to use the results of the college readiness
assessment for post-secondary admission or placement, the
student, his parent, or his guardian must indicate that choice
in compliance with the testing vendor's deadline to ensure that
the student may receive allowable accommodations consistent with
the IEP or 504 plan that may yield a college-reportable
score.
(5)(a) The
cost of procuring the assessments pursuant to items (1) and (2),
and any costs associated with the performance of the special
assessment panel's duties must be borne by the Department of
Education.
(b) Staff
support to the Executive Director of the State Fiscal
Accountability Authority and the special assessment panel must
be provided by the Department of Education, Division of
Accountability, Office of Assessment. In addition, if requested
by the Executive Director of the State Fiscal Accountability
Authority or the special assessment panel, the Department of
Education, the Education Oversight Committee, the State Board
for Technical and Comprehensive Education, and the Commission on
Higher Education, must provide assistance to implement the
provisions of this subsection. If funds are
available, the State shall provide a two-year college or
four-year college readiness assessment or the WorkKeys
assessment to all twelfth grade students at no cost to the
students.
(6)
If the Education Oversight Committee approves of
the assessments pursuant to Section 59-18-320 after the
2017-2018 assessment, the assessment also may be administered in
2018-2019 and 2019-2020. Formative assessments must continue to
be adopted, selected, and administered pursuant to Section
59-18-310.
(67) Within
thirty days after providing student performance data to the
school districts as required by law, the department must provide
to the Education Oversight Committee student performance results
on assessments authorized in this subsection and end-of-course
assessments in a format agreed upon by the department and the
Oversight Committee. The Education Oversight Committee must use
the results of these assessments in school years 2014-2015
and, 2015-2016, and 2016-2017 to
report on student academic performance in each school and
district pursuant to Section 59-18-900. The committee may not
determine state ratings for schools or districts, pursuant to
Section 59-18-900, using the results of the assessments required
by this subsection until after the conclusion of the
2015-2016 2016-2017 school year;
provided, however, state ratings must be determined by the
results of these assessments beginning in the
2016-2017 2017-2018 school year. The
Oversight Committee also must develop and recommend a single
accountability system that meets federal and state
accountability requirements by the Fall of 2016
2017. While developing the single accountability system that
will be implemented in the 2017-2018 school year, the Education
Oversight Committee shall determine the format of a transitional
report card released to the public in the fall of 2016 and 2017
that will also identify underperforming schools and districts.
These transitional reports will, at a minimum, include the
following: (1) school, district and statewide student assessment
results in reading and mathematics in grades 3 through 8; (2)
high school and district graduation rates; and (3) measures of
student college and career readiness at the school, district,
and statewide level. These transitional reports will inform
schools and districts, the public, and the Department of
Education of school and district general academic performance
and assist in identifying potentially underperforming schools
and districts and in targeting technical assistance support and
interventions in the interim before ratings are issued.
(7)
The Department of Education must
submit a plan for approval and implementation to the Board of
Education to mitigate the impact that changes in assessments are
projected to have on teacher evaluation systems. If such an
impact can be reasonably mitigated by delaying evaluations, the
department shall seek a waiver if necessary for federal
approval. (8)
When standards are subsequently revised, the
Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and the
Education Oversight Committee shall approve assessments pursuant
to Section 59-18-320."
SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor. /
Renumber sections to conform.
Amend title to conform.