BILL ANALYSIS SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION Gloria Romero, Chair 2009-2010 Regular Session BILL NO: SB 1422 AUTHOR: Romero AMENDED: April 19, 2010 FISCAL COMM: No HEARING DATE: May 5, 2010 URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Kathleen Chavira SUBJECT : Student surveys of teachers KEY POLICY ISSUE Should student surveys of teacher performance and effectiveness be authorized, and if so, what conditions should govern the implementation of such surveys? SUMMARY This bill authorizes the student government of a high school to establish a committee to develop a survey to solicit student opinions of different class aspects and teacher effectiveness, and establishes requirements for the administration and results of the survey. BACKGROUND Current law requires a uniform system of evaluation of all certificated personnel within each school district, requiring each district to adopt objective evaluation guidelines, including standards of expected pupil achievement at each grade level in each area of study. Current law requires the governing board of each school district to evaluate certificated employee performance as it reasonably relates to the progress of pupils toward the established standards. Employee performance, instructional techniques, adherence to curricular objectives, and maintenance of a suitable learning environment are all among the items evaluated under current law. (Education Code 44660 et. seq.) ANALYSIS SB 1422 Page 2 This bill : 1) Authorizes the student government of a school that maintains grades 9-12 to establish a committee of high school pupils and teachers to: a) Develop and administer a pupil survey that: i) Allows pupils to provide feedback to teachers for purposes of improving communication, individual classes, and teaching methods for current and future students. ii) Solicits information on aspects of a class and the effectiveness of the teacher in teaching the class annually revise the survey. b) Authorizes the Committee to annually revise the survey described in (a). 2) Establishes requirements for the administration of the survey and the survey results. More specifically it: a) Requires that the survey be provided to teachers annually so that they may survey the students in the classes they teach. b) Requires that results be kept confidential and made known only to the teacher whose class is surveyed. c) Prohibits any administrator or other school district official from viewing or accessing survey responses without the teacher's written consent and additionally prohibits: i) Use of the survey and any responses for collective bargaining purposes. ii) Inclusion or use of survey responses to influence any existing teacher SB 1422 Page 3 evaluation process in the school or district. STAFF COMMENTS 1) Need for the bill . Currently there is no systematic method by which highschool students can provide feedback to their teachers on their performance, even if only for the teachers' private use as a professional development tool. The California Association of Student Councils (CASC) are sponsoring this measure. At an informational hearing of the Senate Education Committee on February 25, 2009, the CASC Student Advisory Board on Legislation in Education called for "creating opportunities for students to provide feedback to their teachers" using forms that "provide teachers with valuable information regarding what can be done in order to adjust their teaching styles to student needs (and) allow teachers to focus on the specific, relevant subject matters that students need more help with." 2) Prior Legislation . SB 688 (Romero, 2009) would have established a process by which school district governing boards could survey pupils to provide confidential feedback to high school teachers and required the California Department of Education, in consultation with the California Association of Student Councils, to develop model guidelines for the teacher evaluation process, to be posted on the department's Web site by January 1, 2011. Although the bill was heard and passed by this Committee by a vote of 8-0, it was subsequently held under submission in Senate Appropriations Committee. SUPPORT None received. OPPOSITION None received. SB 1422 Page 4