The bill implements recommendations from the Accountability, Accreditation, Student Performance, and Resource Inequity Task Force, focusing on academic opportunities, assessment improvements, and school accountability.
Key Provisions of the BillState Assessments and Student Evaluation
Shorter Assessments:
The Department of Education (DOE) must divide state assessments into shorter, age-appropriate sections.
Multilingual Assessments:
At the request of a local education provider, the DOE must develop versions of state assessments in subjects like reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies in languages other than English and Spanish.
Encouraging Student Participation:
The DOE must guide schools on strategies to encourage student participation in state assessments.
Changes to Performance Indicators
College Entrance Exams:
These exams will be included in the Student Academic Achievement Performance Indicator, instead of the Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness Indicator.
New Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness Indicator:
Starting in the 2026-27 school year, this indicator will be divided into two sub-indicators:
College and Career Readiness Before Graduation
Postsecondary Progress
Combined Student Group Calculation:
The DOE must count student groups only once when calculating performance indicators to provide more accurate assessments.
Support for Low-Performing Schools
Schools placed on Priority Improvement or Turnaround Plans will receive additional support from the DOE.
Statewide Accountability and Transparency
Study on Academic Inequities and School Improvements:
The DOE must research academic opportunities, inequities, and best practices in schools to improve accountability and accreditation.
Statewide Education Accountability Dashboard:
The DOE must create a public dashboard to track education accountability metrics.
Performance Reports on Assessment Participation:
The DOE must provide reports on student participation rates in state assessments.
These reports must be accessible to families, students, and community members.
Educator Professional Development & Instructional Innovation
Encourages Innovative Solutions:
Schools and districts are encouraged to implement new professional development strategies and instructional transformation methods.
Schools that adopt these strategies may qualify for grants from the School Transformation Grant Program.
Changes to performance indicators to provide a more accurate picture of student readiness.
Stronger support for underperforming schools through additional resources.
Increased accountability and transparency via public dashboards and performance reports.
Encourages innovation in teaching and professional development with grant incentives.
Summary
The accountability, accreditation, student performance, and
resource inequity task force (task force) studied and made recommendations on academic opportunities, inequities, promising practices in schools, and improvements to the accountability and accreditation system. The bill implements the recommendations of the task force. The bill: •
Requires the department of education (department) in collaboration with schools of a school district, district charter schools, institute charter schools, and school districts (local education providers) to divide state assessments into shorter sections with age-appropriate time frames to evaluate students;
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Requires the department to develop, at the request of a local education provider, versions of the state assessments for reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies in languages other than English and Spanish;
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Requires the department to provide guidance to local education providers and the state charter school institute (institute) on encouraging student participation in state assessments;
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Requires the department to include college entrance exams in the student academic achievement performance indicator instead of the postsecondary and workforce readiness performance indicator;
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Requires the department, beginning in the 2026-27 school year, to measure the postsecondary and workforce readiness performance indicator on 2 performance sub-indicators: The college and career readiness before graduation sub-indicator and the postsecondary progress sub-indicator;
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Requires the department to calculate the performance indicator measurements by combined student group so student groups are counted only once;
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Creates additional supports for local education providers and the institute if they are placed on a priority improvement or turnaround plan;
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Requires the department, in consultation with the technical advisory panel and other advisory groups with relevant expertise, to study academic opportunities, inequities, and promising practices in schools and improvements to the state accountability and accreditation system;
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Requires the department to create a statewide education accountability dashboard and review and make recommendations to the state board of education on developing a performance report for local education providers and the institute based on the percentage of students who do and do not participate in state assessments and providing the performance report to families, students, and community members in a transparent and accessible manner; and •
Encourages local education providers and the institute to adopt solutions to providing educator professional development and transforming instruction in public schools in order to receive a grant award from the school transformation grant program.
