Letter from Wesptort PTA Council

It's important to note that this letter was sent with an attachment to ConnCAN's "Myths about SB24"

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CONNECTICUT SENATE BILL 24:

AN ACT CONCERNING EDUCATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS

KEY SECTIONS PERTINENT TO HIGH-PERFORMING DISTRICTS

Written by:

Jim Marpe, Vice Chair, Westport Board of Education; Secretary/Treasurer, Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE); Member, Performance Evaluation Advisory Council (PEAC) Teacher Work Group

Elaine Whitney, Secretary, Westport Board of Education; Director, Area 6, CABE; Member, PEAC Principal Work Group

Date: March 20, 2012

At the request of the Westport PTA Council, and based on the information we have at this time, we have prepared for the information of interested constituents our best assessment of which parts of Senate Bill 24: An Act Concerning Education Competitiveness are most directly relevant to the delivery of public education in high-performing districts such as Westport.

It is important to note that this assessment and most of the reference documents currently available to the public are based on the original form of the legislation as proposed by Governor Malloy. The bill has been the subject of substantial discussion and debate among a variety of stakeholders as well as legislators and the administration. As such, it is very likely that the text in the bill which will be voted on will be significantly different from that in the original form of the bill.

In terms of schedule, our best indication at this point is that the Education Committee will vote on the bill this coming Monday, March 26th. The deadline for this committee’s action is March 28th. After the Education Committee acts, the full state legislature will vote on the bill.

Much of the bill is targeted to help improve student outcomes in districts with different characteristics and resources from ours and/or with less strong student learning and performance. Major stated goals of the legislation include narrowing the achievement gap – via raising the performance of lower-performing districts – and ensuring that all Connecticut children receive a high-quality education regardless of their personal circumstances. Pre-schools and charter schools receive more emphasis than in prior legislation and additional funding.

Following is a list of the specific sections of S.B. 24 which we believe are most directly relevant to the delivery of public education in Westport and other high-performing districts.

Funding (Sections 1-3)

• Current Educational Cost Sharing (ECS) funding levels are at least maintained for all districts. Westport received $2,014,492 through ECS as the state share of regular and special education costs for the 2011-12 school year. This amount will be the same for 2012-13. Thirty lower-performing districts are targeted for increases in their ECS grants.
• The cap on the Special Education Excess Cost Grant will NOT be removed, affecting all districts. Westport received $810,329 from this grant for the 2011-12 school year. The amount Westport will receive for 2012-2013 is uncertain and depends on the relative expenses of all other districts. The total amount of this funding statewide is expected to be the same for 2012-13. This funding covers a portion of our special education costs for those students whose costs exceed a certain threshold.

Teacher and Administrator Evaluation, Support, Certification and Tenure (Sections 26-31, 37-49)

• The existing three-tier educator certification is changed to Initial, Professional, and Master (from the current Initial, Provisional, and Professional).
• It will be easier for certified teachers and administrators who worked in other states to obtain Connecticut teaching certificates. This will, in turn, make it easier for Connecticut districts to attract strong performers from out of state.
• A new four-level rating system for teacher and administrator evaluations would emphasize student growth and development and include: Below Standard, Developing, Proficient, and Exemplary.
• Teacher and administrator salary schedules would be required to be linked to the evaluation system. Progress on the schedule would require achieving “effective practice.”
• Teacher and administrator tenure must be earned and maintained based on satisfactory evaluation results.
• The teacher and administrator evaluation and support framework was unanimously adopted by PEAC (which includes senior representatives from both major teacher unions, CEA and AFT-CT), was approved in February by the State Board of Education, and is incorporated into the bill.
• The evaluation and support framework encompasses multiple measures of performance, including both objective and subjective measures. A 45% weighting would be given to a set of multiple student learning indicators. Only for those educators who teach a grade and/or subject for which there is an existing state-mandated standardized test, half of this, or 22.5%, would be based on those tests.
• In addition, for those educators who teach a grade and/or subject for which there is an existing state-mandated standardized test, the test results will be adjusted for factors including key characteristics of individual students when considering the performance of the educator.
• S.B. 24 does NOT include any increase in the standardized tests required by the state. In fact, a large part of the work of the PEAC Work Groups over the next several months will involve identifying and/or creating specific measurement tools, methodologies, and/or rubrics to
  provide reliable and objective measures of the incremental value provided by teachers and administrators.
• In a PEAC Work Group this morning, Commissioner Pryor clearly and directly emphasized the critical importance of the SUPPORT element of the framework (i.e., ensuring that feedback is both actionable and focused on the goal of helping all teachers and administrators to become as effective as possible).
• In the same meeting, the Commissioner also reinforced that there will be DISTRICT FLEXIBILITY in establishing specific parameters for evaluation within that framework. It is true that the State Board of Education plans to ultimately approve a state model for evaluation and support guidelines for teachers and another, related one, for administrators, as a resource to those districts which choose to use them. (Recommendations for the specific components of these models will be part of the output of the PEAC Work Groups.) However, the Commissioner reinforced today that each district will be free to develop its own evaluation and support guidelines as long as they are consistent with the framework. The Professional Development and Evaluation Plan (PDEP) currently used very successfully by the Westport Public School District is likely to be a major part of one such set of district-developed guidelines. It is expected that some of the district pilot programs to be run in 2012-2013 for the evaluation and support guidelines will reflect alternative approaches to the state model.

Relief from Unfunded Mandates and Red Tape

• There appears to have been some recent discussion among legislators and the executive branch about the possibility of high-performing districts receiving some degree of relief from unfunded mandates, but it is unclear whether this will happen and, if it does, what form it will take. Our best indication at this point is that there is a possibility that a committee might be set up to explore specific potential opportunities for unfunded mandate relief.
• The Governor has stated that he plans to convene a Red Tape Review Task Force to explore ways to streamline state regulations. Recommendations are planned to be ready in advance of the 2013 legislative session.

RESOURCES

• Commissioner’s Memo Dated 3.14.12 re Evaluation Framework *
• Senate Bill 24 Summary (3 pp.; issued by the Governor’s office) (attached)
• Proposed Tenure Reform Comparison *
• The CAPSS, CAS, CABE, CBIA, CCER, and ConnCAN Joint Statement of Legislative Goals dated February 2012 *
• CABE Talking Points on S.B. 24 *
• Senate Bill 24: Myths & Facts (attached)
• Office of Legislative Review Bill Analysis, SB 24 (53 pp. document providing a detailed summary of the provisions; available at www.ct.gov under the Senate section)
• Senate Bill 24 (138 pp. document LINK TO BILL)

*all resources not attached can be found on PTA Council Page under "Education Bill Resources"

CONTACTS

Connecticut Legislators Representing Part or All of Westport Currently and/or after 1/1/13:

Hon. Sen. Toni Boucher (R), Ranking Member, Education Committee: Toni.Boucher@cga.ct.gov

Hon. Rep. Kim Fawcett (D), Westport/Fairfield Representative: Kim.Fawcett@cga.ct.gov

Hon. Rep. Gail Lavielle (R), Member, Education Committee: Gail.Lavielle@cga.ct.gov

Hon. Sen. John McKinney (R), Senate Minority Leader: John.McKinney@cga.ct.gov

Hon. Rep. Jonathan Steinberg (D), Westport Representative: Jonathan.Steinberg@cga.ct.gov