Bill Text: MI SB0846 | 2009-2010 | 95th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Education; examinations; social studies as part of sixth grade MEAP program; eliminate. Amends secs. 1 & 2 of 1970 PA 38 (MCL 388.1081 & 388.1082).
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-09-21 - Referred To Committee On Education [SB0846 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2009-SB0846-Introduced.html
SENATE BILL No. 846
September 21, 2009, Introduced by Senator SWITALSKI and referred to the Committee on Education.
A bill to amend 1970 PA 38, entitled
"An act to provide for assessment and remedial assistance programs
of students in reading, mathematics and vocational education,"
by amending sections 1 and 2 (MCL 388.1081 and 388.1082), section 2
as amended by 2005 PA 31.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 1. A statewide program of assessment of educational
progress and remedial assistance in the basic skills of students in
reading,
mathematics, language arts and/or and, subject to section
2(6), other general subject areas, is established in the department
of
education. which This program shall do all of the following:
(a) Establish meaningful achievement goals in the basic skills
for students, and identify those students with the greatest
educational need in these skills.
(b) Provide the state with the information needed to allocate
state funds and professional services in a manner best calculated
to equalize educational opportunities for students to achieve
competence
in such these basic skills.
(c) Provide school systems with strong incentives to introduce
educational
programs to improve the education of students in such
these basic skills and model programs to raise the level of
achievement of students.
(d) Develop a system for educational self-renewal that would
continuously evaluate the programs and by this means help each
school to discover and introduce program changes that are most
likely to improve the quality of education.
(e) Provide the public periodically with information
concerning
the progress of the state system of education. Such
programs
shall extend current department of education efforts to
conduct
periodic and comprehensive assessment of educational
progress.
Sec. 2. (1) The statewide assessment program of educational
progress shall cover all students annually in at least 2 elementary
and middle school grade levels in public schools. If the federal
government requires assessments at additional grade levels under
the no child left behind act of 2001, Public Law 107-110, the
superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that this state
complies with those requirements.
(2) The superintendent of public instruction shall develop and
conduct the assessment program and may utilize the assistance of
appropriate testing organizations or testing specialists. Beginning
with assessments conducted in the 2005-2006 school year, all of the
following apply to the assessment program:
(a) The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that
any contractor used for scoring an assessment instrument supplies
an individual report for each student that will identify for the
student's parents and teachers whether the student met expectations
or failed to meet expectations for each standard, to allow the
student's parents and teachers to assess and remedy problems before
the student moves to the next grade.
(b) The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that
any contractor used for scoring, developing, or processing an
assessment instrument meets quality management standards commonly
used in the assessment industry, including at least meeting level 2
of the capability maturity model developed by the software
engineering institute of Carnegie Mellon university for the 2005-
2006 school year assessments and at least meeting level 3 of the
capability maturity model for subsequent assessments.
(c) The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that
any contract it enters into for scoring, administering, or
developing an assessment instrument includes specific deadlines for
all steps of the assessment process, including, but not limited to,
deadlines for the correct testing materials to be supplied to
schools and for the correct results to be returned to schools, and
includes penalties for noncompliance with these deadlines.
(d) The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that
the assessment instruments meet all of the following:
(i) Are designed to test students on grade level content
expectations in all subjects tested for each grade level tested.
(ii) Comply with requirements of the no child left behind act
of 2001, Public Law 107-110.
(iii) Are consistent with the code of fair testing practices in
education prepared by the joint committee on testing practices of
the American psychological association.
(iv) Are factually accurate. If the superintendent of public
instruction determines that a question is not factually accurate
and should be removed from an assessment instrument, the state
board and the superintendent shall ensure that the question is
removed from the assessment instrument.
(3) The assessment program shall assess competencies in the
basic skills and collect and utilize other relevant information
essential to the assessment program.
(4) Based on information from the assessment program, the
public schools shall identify students who have extraordinary need
for assistance to improve their competence in the basic skills and
shall identify students who have demonstrated extraordinary
competence in multiple subject areas who should be recommended for
advancement.
(5) Information from the assessment program shall be given to
each school as soon as possible to assist it in its efforts to
improve the achievement of students in the basic skills.
(6) If the assessment program provides for assessments for
students in grade 6, the assessments for grade 6 shall not include
a social studies component.
