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




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           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  




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                         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.







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