Legal Resources | Education Code |  EC  52056  

High Achieving/Improving Schools Program   

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(a) The High Achieving/Improving Schools Program is hereby established. Commencing in June 2000, and every June thereafter, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with approval of the State Board of Education, shall rank all public schools based on the Academic Performance Index established pursuant to Section 52052. The schools shall be ranked by the value of the API in decile categories by grade level of instruction provided and shall include three categories: elementary, middle, and high school. The schools shall also be ranked by the value of the API when compared to schools with similar characteristics. Commencing in June 2001, the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall also report the target annual growth rates of schools and the actual growth rates attained by the schools. For purposes of this section, similar characteristics include, but are not limited to, the following characteristics, insofar as data is available from the State Department of Education's data: pupil mobility, pupil ethnicity, pupil socioeconomic status, percentage of teachers who are fully credentialed, percentage of teachers who hold emergency credentials, percentage of pupils who are English language learners, average class size per grade level, and whether the schools operate multitrack year-round educational programs. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall annually publish these rankings on the Internet.

(b) All schools shall report their ranking, including a description of the components of the API, in their annual school accountability report card pursuant to Sections 33126 and 35256.

(c) Following the annual publication of the API and school rankings by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the governing board of each school district shall discuss the results of the annual ranking at the next regularly scheduled meeting. The governing board is strongly encouraged to include in the discussion an examination by school, grade, and subgroup enumerated by and in accordance with subclause (II) of clause (v) of subparagraph (C) of paragraph (2) of subsection (b) of Section 6311 of Title 20 of the United States Code, of scores on the tests administered pursuant to the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program set forth in Article 4 (commencing with Section 60640) of Chapter 5 of Part 33.

(d) If the average STAR test score of the school is below the 50th percentile, or if the test scores of more than 25 percent of the pupils of a school are below the 50th percentile, the school district governing board may do both of the following:

(1) Conduct an assessment of the reasons for the performance results of the school, by grade.

(2) Adopt an improved performance plan that includes methods determined by the district to have been used by schools with similar pupil populations elsewhere in the district or state and significantly higher pupil scores. If it is deemed not feasible to adopt those methods, the plan shall explain why an alternate approach is preferable. If a school district governing board adopts an improved performance plan, it shall reevaluate the plan at each future annual meeting described by subdivision (c), until STAR test scores reach a level above those specified in this subdivision.

(Amended by Stats. 2003, Ch. 45, Sec. 1.)

Reference:

20 USC 6311

Education Code 33126

Education Code 35256

Education Code 52052

Education Code 60640