Introduced Version
House Bill 4495 History
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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
H. B. 4495
(By Delegates Poore, Doyle, Fragale,
Hatfield, Marshall, Moore, Moye,
Shott, Skaff, Spencer and D. Walker)
[Introduced
February 15, 2010
; referred to the
Committee on Education.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §18-2E-3g of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to special demonstration
professional development school projects; and State
Superintendent of Schools' reporting requirements to the
Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-2E-3g of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted 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 2004-2005 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) Beginning in January 2011, on or before the first day of
the Regular Session of the Legislature, and every year thereafter,
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 report independently on
each project or program which shall identify the number of students
participating in such projects or programs, the staffing levels
utilized in support of such projects or programs, and 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.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require the State
Superintendent of Schools to report annually to the Legislative
Oversight Commission on Education Accountability regarding special
demonstration professional development school projects and to
specify certain types of information to be provided in the report.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.