South Carolina General Assembly
113th Session, 1999-2000

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Bill 4924


Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter


                    Current Status

Bill Number:                      4924
Type of Legislation:              General Bill GB
Introducing Body:                 House
Introduced Date:                  20000413
Primary Sponsor:                  Davenport
All Sponsors:                     Davenport
Drafted Document Number:          l:\council\bills\psd\7190jm00.doc
Residing Body:                    House
Current Committee:                Education and Public Works Committee 21 
                                  HEPW
Subject:                          Teachers' basic skills, system for 
                                  remediation of provided; Schools and School 
                                  Districts, Teachers


                        History

Body    Date      Action Description                     Com     Leg Involved
______  ________  ______________________________________ _______ ____________
House   20000413  Introduced, read first time,           21 HEPW
                  referred to Committee


              Versions of This Bill

View additional legislative information at the LPITS web site.


(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A BILL

TO AMEND TITLE 59, CHAPTER 25, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO EDUCATION AND SCHOOL TEACHERS, BY ADDING ARTICLE 9 SO AS TO PROVIDE A SYSTEM FOR THE REMEDIATION OF TEACHERS' BASIC SKILLS WHICH ARE DETERMINED TO BE SUBSTANDARD.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Title 59, Chapter 25 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"Article 9

Teachers' Basic Skills; Remediation

Section 59-25-910. (A) Teachers shall remain on school premises each school day from 7:45 a.m., unless assigned at an earlier time for special duty, until 4:45 p.m. During this period each teacher shall devote his or her time toward the following, in addition to those duties otherwise required by law or regulations, or both:

(1) planning;

(2) working with students who are having problems in the basic areas of reading, mathematics, and writing. Remediation skills shall be conducted one-on-one, teacher-to-student, with paper and pencil, rather than computers;

(3) attending grade level meetings to share with fellow teachers activities and ideas to improve teaching skills;

(4) attending staff development meetings whereby outstanding teachers and education coordinators work with teachers who have difficulty teaching reading, mathematics, and writing.

(B) In the event a curriculum coordinator determines that a teacher is having difficulty in one or more of the basic areas of teaching, the curriculum coordinator may assign that teacher to another school or to another teacher in his or her home school for the purpose of learning how to teach the basic areas of teaching.

Section 59-25-920. (A) In the event a pupil's parent or legal guardian finds it necessary to employ a private tutor to improve the pupil's reading, mathematics, or writing skills, or all such skills, the school district shall reimburse the parent or legal guardian the costs charged by the tutor.

(B) the pupil's parent or legal guardian shall be allowed to request that the pupil's teacher be observed in the classroom to ensure that the teacher is capable of teaching the subject matter. In the event it is determined that the pupil's teacher is not capable of teaching the subject matter, the teacher shall be required to attend classes to improve his or her teaching skills.

Section 59-25-930. School districts shall recruit retired teachers for the purpose of observing, in a classroom setting, the teaching skills of active teachers. The school districts shall ensure that all such retired teachers utilized for this purpose received high evaluations during their active teaching careers. These retired teachers shall be authorized to go into classrooms where they are observing in order to work with the observed, active teachers who exhibit less-than-satisfactory teaching skills and may make recommendations to the observed teachers to improve teaching skills. All such recommendations must be implemented by the observed teachers with less-than-satisfactory teaching skills.

Section 59-25-940. (A) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, every new teacher-hiree shall work during a probationary period of three years from the date of being hired as a teacher. During the probationary period, each new teacher-hiree must be monitored by the school's principal, curriculum coordinator, and retired teacher-observers. If any areas of weaknesses are noted by the principal, curriculum coordinator, or retired teacher-observer, the teacher-hiree on probation shall be required to attend after-school workshops, as well as summer workshops, provided by the school district to improve teaching skills. The school district shall assign the teacher-hiree on probation to work with a retired teacher-observer in any instance where weaknesses in basic skills are found on the part of the teacher-hiree. In the event that a teacher-hiree does not overcome such weaknesses during the three-year probationary period, such teacher shall not be issued a contract to teach in any public school in the State after the expiration of the probation.

(B) Teachers who have taught under contract in the State's public schools longer than the three years mentioned in subsection (A) of this section are subject to the same requirements mandated by that subsection for new teacher-hirees.

(C) School administrators shall be held accountable to school district officials for allowing teachers who exhibit weaknesses in basic skills to continue teaching and may be reassigned or terminated in that event.

Section 59-25-950. School districts shall establish remediation programs for teachers whose basic skills in teaching have been determined, in accordance with this article, to be unsatisfactory. These remediation programs may extend across school district boundaries, upon agreement of the school districts involved. In establishing the remediation programs mandated by this article, the school districts of the State shall develop a data base with the names of teachers who have been determined to have superior teaching skills. The school districts are authorized to send teachers with poor teaching skills into the classrooms of teachers with superior skills for the purpose of observing and receiving hands-on practice teaching. Any teacher with superior skills whose classroom is visited by a teacher with poor skills, in accordance with this section, may evaluate the visiting teacher as to his or her teaching skills. This evaluation must be considered by school district officials in determining whether or not to renew the teaching contract of the evaluated teacher at the end of the three-year's probation."

SECTION 2. This act takes effect one hundred twenty days after approval by the Governor.

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