1. (A) The State Department of Education shall develop a system for providing services and technical assistance to districts that shall include academic assistance and assistance with finances. The State Superintendent of Education shall report the design of the system to the General Assembly no later than December 31, 2016. Every year thereafter, the Superintendent shall report on the progress of the system in regard to assistance provided to the local school districts and data documenting the impact of the assistance on student academic achievement and on high school graduation rates.
2. (B) In addition to the provisions of subsection (A), the State Department of Education shall monitor the professional development of teachers, staff, and administrators in districts it determines are underperforming to ascertain what improvements and changes are necessary in accordance with the provisions of the Education Accountability Act. The department also shall monitor the operations of school boards in underperforming districts in order to determine if they are operating efficiently and effectively. These improvements and changes must be communicated to the school districts and other parties or entities involved.

HISTORY: 2016 Act No. 241 (H.4939), Section 2, eff June 5, 2016.

Code Commissioner's Note

This section was codified at the direction of the Code Commissioner.

Editor's Note

2016 Act No. 291, provides as follows:

"Student surveys

"SECTION 1. The State Department of Education and the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement (CERRA), working in collaboration with the Commission on Higher Education, shall survey students enrolled in the state's colleges of education. This survey shall be administered to those college students who have been fully admitted into their institution's teacher education program. At a minimum, the survey shall include questions inquiring as to whether students have ever considered teaching in a rural and economically challenged district. Students must be asked what incentives, if any, would cause them to move to, and work in, such a district. The State Department of Education and CERRA may include additional questions in the survey as considered useful. Results of the survey must be reported to the General Assembly by December 1, 2016.

"Additionally, the Department of Education, CERRA, and the Commission on Higher Education together shall explore a practical and effective means of obtaining similar survey information from students in other programs at the state's institutions of higher learning as a means of planning and promoting teaching career information and employment options and in accordance with the general intentions of Section 13-1-1840 of the 1976 Code. A report summarizing the recommendations for this survey must be submitted to the General Assembly by February 1, 2017, to include whether the focus should be on students in the state's two-year as well as four-year institutions, and whether improvements facilitating transfer and articulation into teacher education programs could enhance recruitment into the teaching profession.

"Time effective

"SECTION 2. This joint resolution takes effect upon approval by the Governor [June 5, 2016]."