June 9, 2015, Introduced by Reps. Geiss, Guerra, Gay-Dagnogo, Robinson, Pagan, Neeley, Irwin, Durhal, Garrett, Phelps, Dianda, Love, Chang, Banks and LaVoy and referred to the Committee on Education.
A bill to amend 1976 PA 451, entitled
"The revised school code,"
by amending section 1280 (MCL 380.1280), as amended by 2006 PA 123.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 1280. (1) The board of a school district that does not
want to be subject to the measures described in this section shall
ensure that each public school within the school district is
accredited.
(2) As used in subsection (1), and subject to subsection (6),
"accredited" means certified by the superintendent of public
instruction as having met or exceeded standards established under
this section for 6 areas of school operation: administration and
school organization, curricula, staff, school plant and facilities,
school and community relations, and school improvement plans and
student performance. The building-level evaluation used in the
accreditation process shall include, but is not limited to, school
data collection, self-study, visitation and validation,
determination of performance data to be used, and the development
of a school improvement plan.
(3) The department shall develop and distribute to all public
schools proposed accreditation standards. Upon distribution of the
proposed standards, the department shall hold statewide public
hearings for the purpose of receiving testimony concerning the
standards. After a review of the testimony, the department shall
revise and submit the proposed standards to the superintendent of
public instruction. After a review and revision, if appropriate, of
the proposed standards, the superintendent of public instruction
shall submit the proposed standards to the senate and house
committees that have the responsibility for education legislation.
Upon approval by these committees, the department shall distribute
to all public schools the standards to be applied to each school
for accreditation purposes. The superintendent of public
instruction shall review and update the accreditation standards
annually using the process prescribed under this subsection.
(4) The superintendent of public instruction shall develop and
distribute to all public schools standards for determining that a
school is eligible for summary accreditation under subsection (6).
The standards shall be developed, reviewed, approved, and
distributed using the same process as prescribed in subsection (3)
for accreditation standards, and shall be finally distributed and
implemented not later than December 31, 1994.
(5) The standards for accreditation or summary accreditation
under this section shall include as criteria pupil performance on
Michigan education assessment program (MEAP) tests and on the
Michigan
merit examination under section 1279g, and, until the
Michigan
merit examination has been fully implemented, the
percentage
of pupils achieving state endorsement under section
1279,
but shall not be based solely on
pupil performance on MEAP
tests
or the Michigan merit examination. or on the percentage of
pupils
achieving state endorsement under section 1279. The
standards shall also include as criteria multiple year change in
pupil performance on MEAP tests and the Michigan merit examination.
and,
until after the Michigan merit examination is fully
implemented,
multiple year change in the percentage of pupils
achieving
state endorsement under section 1279. If
it is necessary
for the superintendent of public instruction to revise
accreditation or summary accreditation standards established under
subsection (3) or (4) to comply with this subsection, the revised
standards shall be developed, reviewed, approved, and distributed
using the same process as prescribed in subsection (3).
(6) If the superintendent of public instruction determines
that a public school has met the standards established under
subsection (4) or (5) for summary accreditation, the school is
considered to be accredited without the necessity for a full
building-level evaluation under subsection (2).
(7) If the superintendent of public instruction determines
that a school has not met the standards established under
subsection (4) or (5) for summary accreditation but that the school
is making progress toward meeting those standards, or if, based on
a full building-level evaluation under subsection (2), the
superintendent of public instruction determines that a school has
not met the standards for accreditation but is making progress
toward meeting those standards, the school is in interim status and
is subject to a full building-level evaluation as provided in this
section.
(8) If a school has not met the standards established under
subsection (4) or (5) for summary accreditation and is not eligible
for interim status under subsection (7), the school is unaccredited
and subject to the measures provided in this section.
(9)
Beginning with the 2002-2003 school year, if If at
least
5% of a public school's answer sheets from the administration of
the Michigan educational assessment program (MEAP) tests are lost
by the department or by a state contractor and if the public school
can verify that the answer sheets were collected from pupils and
forwarded to the department or the contractor, the department shall
not assign an accreditation score or school report card grade to
the public school for that subject area for the corresponding year
for the purposes of determining state accreditation under this
section. The department shall not assign an accreditation score or
school report card grade to the public school for that subject area
until the results of all tests for the next year are available.
(10) Subsection (9) does not preclude the department from
determining whether a public school or a school district has
achieved adequate yearly progress for the school year in which the
answer sheets were lost for the purposes of the no child left
behind act of 2001, Public Law 107-110. However, the department
shall ensure that a public school or the school district is not
penalized when determining adequate yearly progress status due to
the fact that the public school's MEAP answer sheets were lost by
the department or by a state contractor, but shall not require a
public school or school district to retest pupils or produce scores
from another test for this purpose.
(11) The superintendent of public instruction shall annually
review and evaluate for accreditation purposes the performance of
each school that is unaccredited and as many of the schools that
are in interim status as permitted by the department's resources.
(12) The superintendent of public instruction shall, and the
intermediate school district to which a school district is
constituent, a consortium of intermediate school districts, or any
combination thereof may, provide technical assistance, as
appropriate, to a school that is unaccredited or that is in interim
status upon request of the board of the school district in which
the school is located. If requests to the superintendent of public
instruction for technical assistance exceed the capacity, priority
shall be given to unaccredited schools.
(13)
A If the department
determines that a school that has
been
unaccredited for 3 consecutive years is subject to or has
failed to achieve the pupil performance standard for 4 or more
consecutive years, then both of the following apply:
(a) The superintendent of public instruction may issue an
order imposing 1 or more of the following measures, as determined
by the superintendent of public instruction:
(i) (a)
The superintendent of public
instruction or his or her
designee shall appoint at the expense of the affected school
district an administrator of the school until the school becomes
accredited.
(ii) (b)
A parent, legal guardian, or person
in loco parentis
of a child who attends the school may send his or her child to any
accredited public school with an appropriate grade level within the
school district.
(iii) (c)
The school, with the approval of
the superintendent of
public instruction, shall align itself with an existing research-
based school improvement model or establish an affiliation for
providing assistance to the school with a college or university
located in this state.
(iv) (d)
The school shall be closed.
(b) The superintendent of public instruction shall issue an
order requiring that the maximum class size in the school for
grades K to 3 shall not exceed 17 pupils per classroom and that the
maximum class size in the school for grades 9 to 12 shall not
exceed 25 pupils per classroom.
(14) The superintendent of public instruction shall evaluate
the school accreditation program and the status of schools under
this section and shall submit an annual report based upon the
evaluation to the senate and house committees that have the
responsibility for education legislation. The report shall address
the reasons each unaccredited school is not accredited and shall
recommend legislative action that will result in the accreditation
of all public schools in this state.
(15) Beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, a high school
shall not be accredited by the department unless the department
determines that the high school is providing or has otherwise
ensured that all pupils have access to all of the elements of the
curriculum required under sections 1278a and 1278b. If it is
necessary for the superintendent of public instruction to revise
accreditation or summary accreditation standards established under
subsection (3) or (4) to comply with the changes made to this
section by the amendatory act that added this subsection, the
revised standards shall be developed, reviewed, approved, and
distributed using the same process as prescribed in subsection (3).
(16) As used in this section, "failed to achieve the federal
pupil performance standard" means that the department has
determined that the school has failed to achieve adequate yearly
progress under the no child left behind act of 2001, Public Law
107-110, or has failed to meet a successor federal standard that
the superintendent of public instruction has identified as being a
standard established by the federal government that is based on
pupil performance and is required to be met in order to receive
full federal funding.