AB379: Bill Text

3. College and career readiness.

4. Gap closure in pupil academic achievement and graduation rates.

5. Pupil engagement in school.

The bill specifies the information about a school or school district that DPI may use to measure performance in each of the above areas.

For a private school participating in a PCP, the bill directs DPI to use for each area only information that pertains to pupils attending the private school under the PCP.

The bill requires DPI to issue an annual accountability report for each school and school district that indicates the school's or school district's overall performance on the following scale:

1. Significantly exceeds expectations.

2. Exceeds expectations.

3. Meets expectations.

4. Meets few expectations.

5. Fails to meet expectations.

The bill directs the Legislative Audit Bureau annually to study DPI's methodology for calculating the performance of schools and school districts and report its findings each January to the appropriate standing committees of the legislature.

Low-performing schools and school districts; interventions

Current law requires a school board and DPI to take certain steps if a school or school district is in need of improvement or among the lowest performing, as follows:

1. If DPI determines that a school district has been in need of improvement for four consecutive school years, the school board must:

a. Employ a standard, consistent, research-based curriculum that is aligned with the state's model academic standards.

b. Use pupil academic performance data to differentiate instruction to meet individual needs.

c. Implement a system of academic and behavioral supports and early intervention for pupils.

d. Provide additional learning time to address the academic needs of pupils who are struggling academically.

2. If DPI determines that a particular public school has been in the lowest performing 5 percent of all public schools in the state in the previous school year and is located in a school district that has been in need of improvement for four consecutive school years, the school board must do the following in the school:

a. Use rigorous and equitable performance evaluation systems for teachers and principals.

b. Adopt a policy establishing criteria for evaluating whether the distribution of teachers and principals within the affected schools relative to the distribution of teachers and principals throughout the school district, based on their qualifications and effectiveness, is equitable. If the school board determines that the distribution is inequitable, the school board must eliminate those policies and constraints that prevent low-performing schools from recruiting, placing, and retaining effective teachers and principals, and provide additional support to teachers and principals.

c. Establish teacher and principal improvement programs.

d. Adopt placement criteria for principals that include performance evaluations and measures of pupil academic achievement.

3. If DPI determines that a school district has been in need of improvement for four consecutive school years, DPI may direct the school board to do one or more of the following in the school district:

a. Implement or modify activities enumerated for low-performing school districts above.

b. Implement a new or modified instructional design.

c. Implement professional development programs.

d. Implement changes in administrative and personnel structures.

e. Adopt accountability measures to monitor the school district's finances or to monitor other interventions.

4. If DPI determines that a public school is located in a school district that has been in need of improvement for four consecutive school years, and that the school has been in need of improvement for five consecutive school years or was among the lowest performing 5 percent of all public schools in the state in the previous school year, DPI may direct the school board to do one or both of the following in the school:

a. Implement a new or modified instructional design.

b. Create a school improvement council to make recommendations to DPI regarding improving the school.

This bill makes various changes to the above provisions, including the following:

School districts

If DPI determines that a school district has performed at the lowest performance level for three consecutive school years, the school board must:

1. Complete a DPI-approved diagnostic review of the school district.

2. Employ a standard, consistent, research-based curriculum that is aligned with the state's model academic standards.

3. Use pupil academic performance data to differentiate instruction in order to meet individual pupil needs.

4. Implement a system of academic and behavioral supports and early intervention for pupils.

5. Provide additional learning time to address the academic needs of pupils who are struggling.

In addition, DPI must direct the school board to do one or more of the following:

1. Modify one or more of the activities performed by the school board, described above.

2. Implement a new or modified instructional design.

3. Implement professional development programs.

4. Implement changes in administrative and personnel structures.

5. Adopt accountability measures to monitor the school district's finances or to monitor other interventions.

The bill provides that on its effective date, DPI must treat the Milwaukee Public Schools as if it had performed at the lowest performance level for the three immediately preceding school years.

Public schools

If DPI determines that a public school, other than a charter school, has performed at the lowest performance level for three consecutive school years, the school board must complete a DPI-approved, diagnostic review of the school and, based on the results of the review, do one of the following:

1. Implement DPI-approved improvement activities that significantly transform the school.

2. Convert the school to a charter school.

3. Close the school.

In addition, if the school board implements DPI-approved improvement activities, DPI must direct the school board to do one or more of the following:

1. Modify one or more of the activities performed by the school board, described above.

2. Implement a new or modified instructional design in the school.

3. Implement professional development programs in the school.

4. Implement changes in administrative and personnel structures in the school.

5. Adopt accountability measures to monitor the school district's finances or to monitor other interventions.

If the school board implements DPI-approved improvement activities, as described above, but the school fails to improve to at least the performance level of "meets few expectations" within three school years, the school board must convert the school to a charter school or close the school.

Charter schools

The bill provides that a contract for the establishment of a charter school must provide that if DPI determines that a charter school has performed at the lowest performance level for three consecutive school years, the school board or other entity that has contracted for the operation of the charter school must require that a remediation plan, approved by the school board or other entity, be implemented by the charter school operator. If the charter school operator implements a remediation plan but the school's performance fails to improve to at least the level of "meets few expectations" within three school years, the school board or other entity must revoke the school's charter. If a charter school's charter is revoked, the bill prohibits it from participating as a private school in a PCP.

Choice schools

If DPI determines that a private school participating in a PCP has performed at the lowest level for three consecutive school years, the bill requires the private school to notify its accrediting agency of the determination. If the private school's performance fails to improve to at least the level of "meets few expectations" within three school years of DPI's determination, DPI must issue an order barring the private school from participating in a PCP. A private school barred from participating in a PCP may not reopen as a charter school.

Charter schools; contracts

Under current law, an entity authorized to establish an independent charter school may do so itself or by contracting with a third party. This bill allows charter schools to be established by contract only.

Currently, school districts, and private schools participating in a PCP, are subject to various requirements relating to the transfer of a pupil's records when the pupil transfers to another school. This bill subjects independent charter schools to the same requirements.

For further information see the state and local fiscal estimate, which will be printed as an appendix to this bill.

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

AB379,1 Section 1. 20.255 (1) (e) of the statutes, as affected by 2013 Wisconsin Act 20, is amended to read:

AB379,6,5 20.255 (1) (e) Student information system. As a continuing appropriation, the amounts in the schedule for the student information system under s. 115.28 (12) 115.383.

AB379,2 Section 2. 20.255 (1) (he) of the statutes, as created by 2013 Wisconsin Act 20, is amended to read:

AB379,6,10 20.255 (1) (he) Student information system; fees. All moneys received from fees charged as authorized under s. 115.28 (12) (b) 115.383 (3) (c) to be used for the student information system established under s. 115.28 (12) (a) 115.383 (1).

AB379,3 Section 3. 115.001 (1) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB379,7,2 115.001 (1) Charter school. "Charter school" means a school under contract with a school board under s. 118.40 or with one of the entities an entity under s. 118.40 (2r) (b), or a school established and operated by one of the entities under s. 118.40 (2r) (b).

AB379,4 Section 4. 115.28 (12) (title) of the statutes is renumbered 115.383 (title).

AB379,5 Section 5. 115.28 (12) (a) of the statutes, as affected by 2013 Wisconsin Act 20, is renumbered 115.383 (1), and 115.383 (1) (a) and (c), as renumbered, are amended to read:

AB379,7,12 115.383 (1) (a) Develop a proposal for a multiple-vendor student information system for the standardized collection of pupil data. The proposal shall allow schools and school districts to use their vendor of choice and include reporting requirements that can reasonably be met by multiple vendors. The state superintendent may not establish a student information system unless the proposal is approved by the joint committee on finance under subd. 2 par. (b).

AB379,7,18 (c) If the proposal is approved under subd. 2. par. (b), the state superintendent shall ensure that information about pupils enrolled in charter schools and about pupils enrolled in private schools participating in a parental choice program under s. 118.60 or 119.23, including their academic performance and demographic information, aggregated by school district, school, and teacher, is collected and maintained in the student information system.

AB379,6 Section 6. 115.28 (12) (ag) (intro.) of the statutes, as affected by 2013 Wisconsin Act 20, is renumbered 115.383 (2) (intro.) and amended to read:

AB379,8,4 115.383 (2) (intro.) If the student information system is established under par. (a) sub. (1), each school district, charter school, and private school using the system under par. (a) sub. (1) shall include in the system the following information for each teacher teaching in the school district or school who completed a teacher preparatory education program described in sub. s. 115.28 (7) (a) or (e) 2. and located in this state or a teacher education program described in sub. (7) (e) 2. and located in this state on or after January 1, 2012, or, for each teacher teaching in a private school participating in a parental choice program under s. 118.60 or 119.23, who obtained a bachelor's degree from an institution located in this state on or after July 1, 2010:

AB379,7 Section 7. 115.28 (12) (ag) 1. and 2. of the statutes are renumbered 115.383 (2) (a) and (b) and amended to read:

AB379,8,9 115.383 (2) (a) The name of the teacher preparatory program or teacher education program the teacher attended and completed or the name of the institution from which the teacher obtained a bachelor's degree.

AB379,8,11 (b) The term or semester and year in which the teacher completed the teacher education program described in subd. 1 or obtained a bachelor's degree.

AB379,8 Section 8. 115.28 (12) (b) of the statutes, as affected by 2013 Wisconsin Act 20, is renumbered 115.383 (3) (a) and amended to read:

AB379,8,18 115.383 (3) (a) If the student information system is established under par. (a), sub. (1), the state superintendent shall ensure that within 5 years of the establishment of the system under par. (a), every school district and every charter school, other than a charter school established under s. 118.40 (2r), is using the system, and that.

AB379,9,2 (b) Beginning in the 2014-15 school year, the state superintendent shall ensure that every charter school established under s. 118.40 (2r) and every private school participating in a parental choice program under s. 118.60 or 119.23 is either using the system under par. (a) sub. (1) or is using a system that is interoperable with the system under par. (a). The commercially available, capable of providing the information required under s. 115.39, able to obtain pupil identification numbers under sub. (5), and compatible with the most recent version of the Schools Interoperability Framework.