House Bill 393

AN ACT TO REQUIRE THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO DISCONTINUE USING THE STATEWIDE EDUCATOR EVALUATION PROCESS KNOWN AS THE "MISSISSIPPI STATEWIDE TEACHER APPRAISAL RUBRIC (M-STAR)"; TO REQUIRE EACH SCHOOL BOARD TO IMPLEMENT A TEACHER EVALUATION SYSTEM FOR EDUCATORS EMPLOYED IN THE LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT; TO REQUIRE A SCHOOL DISTRICT TO OBTAIN APPROVAL OF ITS POLICY ESTABLISHING AN EVALUATION SYSTEM FROM THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION; TO REQUIRE THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO PREPARE A MODEL POLICY THAT MAY BE ADOPTED BY LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI: SECTION 1. (1) Beginning with the 2015-2016 school year, the State Department of Education shall discontinue the use of the statewide educator evaluation process known as the "Mississippi Statewide Teacher Appraisal Rubric (M-STAR)," and it shall be the duty of the school board of each school district in the state to adopt and implement a teacher evaluation system.

(2) (a) Beginning in the 2015-2016 school year, the school board of each local school district shall adopt and implement a policy establishing an evaluation system designed to measure teacher effectiveness for all licensed teachers employed in that district. The evaluation system established under the policy must be designed to promote continuous professional improvement in instructional personnel in order to improve achievement at the individual, school and district levels. In addition, the evaluation system must include a process for monitoring and evaluating the effective and consistent use of evaluation criteria by employees having evaluation responsibilities and the overall effectiveness of the evaluation system itself in improving instruction and student learning.

(b) Before implementing an evaluation system established under a policy pursuant to this subsection, the school board shall submit the policy to the State Department of Education for its approval of the evaluation system. If the department does not approve the evaluation system, the policy must be returned to the school board indicating the policy's deficiencies with recommendations for correcting those deficiencies to the satisfaction of the department.

(c) The State Department of Education shall prepare a model policy establishing a teacher evaluation system which a local school board, in its discretion, may adopt and follow.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2015.