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ENROLLED
H. B. 4669
(By Delegates Tabb, Williams, Paxton, Beach,
Crosier, Swartzmiller and LongSPONSOR)
[Passed March 13, 2004; in effect from passage.]
Title Language
AN ACT
to amend the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §18-2E-3g, relating
to requiring establishment of special five-year demonstration
professional development school project; making certain
findings; providing certain powers and duties of state
superintendent with respect to project; requiring reports; and
excluding requirement of specific appropriations.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That
the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §18-2E-3g, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 2E. HIGH QUALITY EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS.
§18-2E-3g. Special demonstration professional development school
project for improving academic achievement.
(a) The Legislature makes the following findings:
(1) Well-educated children and families are essential for
maintaining safe and economically sound communities;
(2) Low student achievement is associated with increased
delinquent behavior, higher drug use and pregnancy rates, and
higher unemployment and adult incarceration rates;
(3) Each year, more students enter school with circumstances
in their lives that schools are ill-prepared to accommodate;
(4) Ensuring access for all students to the rigorous
curriculum they deserve requires effective teaching strategies that
include, but are not limited to, using a variety of instructional
approaches, using varied curriculum materials, engaging parent and
community involvement and support in the educational process, and
providing the professional development, support and leadership
necessary for an effective school; and
(5) The achievement of all students can be dramatically
improved when schools focus on factors within their control, such
as the instructional day, curriculum and teaching practices.
(b) The purpose of this section is to provide for the
establishment of a special five-year demonstration professional
development school project to improve the academic achievement of
all children. The program shall be under the direction of the
state superintendent and shall be for a period of five years
beginning with the two thousand four - two thousand five school
year. The intent of this section is to provide a special demonstration environment wherein the public schools included in
the demonstration project may work in collaboration with higher
education, community organizations and the state board to develop
and implement strategies that may be replicated in other public
schools with significant enrollments of disadvantaged, minority and
under-achieving students to improve academic achievement. For this
purpose, the state superintendent has the following powers and
duties with respect to the demonstration project:
(1) To select for participation in the demonstration project
three public elementary or middle schools with significant
enrollments of disadvantaged, minority and under-achieving students
in each county in which the number of the African American students
is five percent or more of the total second month enrollment;
(2) To require cooperation from the county board of the county
wherein a demonstration project school is located to facilitate
program implementation and avoid any reallocation of resources for
the schools that are disproportionate with those for other schools
of the county of similar classification, accreditation status and
federal Title I identification;
(3) To require specialized training and knowledge of the
needs, learning styles and strategies that will most effectively
improve the performance of disadvantaged, minority and under-
achieving students in demonstration project schools. These powers
include, but not limited to, the authority to craft job descriptions with requirements regarding training and experience
and the right to specify job duties which are related to job
performance that reflect the mission of the demonstration project
school;
(4) To provide specifications and direct the county board to
post the positions for school personnel employed at the
demonstration project school that encompass the special
qualifications and any additional duties that will be required of
the personnel as established in the job descriptions authorized
pursuant to subdivision (3) of this section. The assertion that
the job descriptions and postings are narrowly defined may not be
used as the basis for the grievance of an employment decision for
positions at a demonstration project school;
(5) To direct the department of education, the center for
professional development and the regional educational service
agency to provide any technical assistance and professional
development necessary for successful implementation of the
demonstration school programs, including, but not limited to, any
early intervention or other programs of the department to assist
low performing schools;
(6) To collaborate and enter into agreements with colleges and
universities willing to assist with efforts at a demonstration
school to improve student achievement, including, but not limited
to, the operation of a professional development school program model: Provided, That the expenditure of any funds appropriated for
the state board or department for this purpose shall be subject to
approval of the state board;
(7) To require collaboration with local community
organizations to improve student achievement and increase the
involvement of parents and guardians in improving student
achievement;
(8) To provide for an independent evaluation of the
demonstration school project, its various programs and their
effectiveness on improving student academic achievement; and
(9) To recommend to the state board and the county board the
waiver of any of their respective policies that impede the
implementation of demonstration school programs.
(c) The state superintendent shall make status reports to the
legislative oversight commission on education accountability and to
the state board annually and may include in those reports any
recommendations based on the progress of the demonstration project
that he or she considers either necessary for improving the
operations of the demonstration project or prudent for improving
student achievement in other public schools through replication of
successful demonstration school programs. The state superintendent
shall make a recommendation to the Legislature not later than its
regular session, two thousand ten, for continuation or termination
of the program, which recommendation shall be accompanied by the findings and recommendations of the independent evaluation and
these findings and recommendations shall be a major factor
considered by the superintendent in making his or her
recommendation.
(d)Nothing in this section shall require any specific level
of appropriation by the Legislature.