(a) The State Board of Education notes that the General Assembly finds that it is the state’s responsibility:

1. (1) To provide a general, suitable, and efficient system of free public schools to the children of the state as required by the Arkansas Constitution, Article 14, § 1;
2. (2) To provide all public school children with a substantially equal opportunity for an adequate education to meet the state’s duty set forth by the Arkansas Supreme Court in Lake View Sch. Dist. No. 25 v. Huckabee, 351 Ark. 31 (2002);
3. (3) To ensure that all students in the public schools of this state have a substantially equal opportunity to achieve and demonstrate academic readiness, individual academic growth, and competencies through the application of knowledge and skills in core subjects consistent with state academic standards through a student-focused learning system; and

4. (4) That all students in Arkansas public schools be taught by qualified and effective educators and that low-income or minority students not be taught at disproportionate rates by educators who are:

   1. (A) Ineffective;
   2. (B) Inexperienced; or
   3. (C) Teaching a subject for which they are not currently licensed.

(b) The purpose of this part is to establish a comprehensive accountability system that:

1. (1) Provides increasing levels of state assistance to help the local public school district board of directors to meet its burden of providing all public school children with a substantially equal opportunity for an adequate education, while allowing state intervention to occur if the local government chronically fails to meet the burden in spite of the state assistance, to meet the state’s responsibility set forth by the Arkansas Supreme Court in Lake View Sch. Dist. No. 25 v. Huckabee, 351 Ark. 31 (2002) (quoting DuPree v. Alma Sch. Dist. No. 30 of Crawford County, 279 Ark. 340 (1983));
2. (2) Uses multiple measures of student academic achievement and growth;
3. (3) Allows flexibility for public schools and school districts to utilize local decision making while maintaining quality in education; and
4. (4) Empowers the state and public school districts to assess the effectiveness of student-focused education using multiple factors, measures, and indicators of student achievement and school quality rather than relying solely on an annual statewide assessment.

(c) To promote the state’s goal of providing all Arkansas public school students with qualified and effective educators, the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education will support educator effectiveness by implementing state board-approved systems that will:

1. (1) Encourage licensure and career advancement;
2. (2) Provide flexibility to hire well-qualified individuals;
3. (3) Provide personalized, differentiated professional support, growth, and development opportunities for all educators; and
4. (4) Incentivize retention of effective teachers and leaders.

(d)

1. (1) The State of Arkansas cannot be the sole guarantor of each individual student's success.
2. (2) Parents, students, families, educational institutions, and communities, as collaborative partners in education, play an important role in the success of individual students.