SB 1422 Senate Bill

BILL NUMBER: SB 1422	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  APRIL 19, 2010

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Romero

                        FEBRUARY 19, 2010

    An act relating to education.   An act to
add Article 5 (commencing with Section 52760) to Chapter 11 of Part
28 of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Education Code, relating to
teachers. 



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 1422, as amended, Romero.  Race to the Top. 
 Teachers: pupil survey.  
   Existing law requires the governing board of each school district
to evaluate and assess certificated employee performance as it
reasonably relates to the progress of pupils toward the standards of
expected pupil achievement and the state adopted academic content
standards, the instructional techniques and strategies used by the
employee, the employee's adherence to curricular objectives, and the
establishment and maintenance of a suitable learning environment.
 
   This bill would authorize the student government of a school
maintaining any of grades 9 to 12, inclusive, to establish a
committee of pupils and teachers to develop a survey by which pupils
may provide feedback to teachers. The survey would be required to
solicit pupil opinion on different aspects of a class and the
effectiveness of the teacher of the class. The survey would be
provided annually to teachers who would survey the pupils in the
classes they teach. Survey responses would be confidential and made
known only to the teacher whose class is surveyed. Administrators and
school or district officials would be prohibited from viewing or
having access to any completed pupil survey without the express
written consent of the teacher to whom the survey relates. The
surveys would be prohibited from becoming part of a teacher's
personnel record, from being included in or used to influence the
existing teacher evaluation process, and from being used for
collective bargaining purposes.  
   The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
provides for a competitive education grant program that is known as
the Race to Top program and is designed to encourage and reward
states that are implementing specified educational objectives.
 
   Existing law states the Legislature's intent to implement
education reforms to, among other things, ensure that California is
positioned to be successful in the Race to the Top competition and
authorizes the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the President
of the State Board of Education to enter into a memorandum of
understanding with a local educational agency for the purposes of
implementing the Race to the Top program. The governing board of a
school district, county office of education, or the governing body of
a charter school or its equivalent to implement, is required, except
as specified, to implement for any school identified by the
Superintendent as persistently lowest-achieving, one of 4
interventions for turning around lowest-achieving schools described
in federal regulations and guidelines for the Race to the Top
program. A persistently lowest-achieving school implementing
specified intervention models is authorized to participate in a
school-to-school partnership program by working with a mentor school
that has successfully transitioned from a low-achieving school to a
higher-achieving school.  
   This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation with respect to the Race to the Top program. 
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   SECTION 1.    Article 5 (commencing with Section
52760) is added to Chapter 11 of Part 28 of Division 4 of Title 2 of
the   Education Code   , to read:  

      Article 5.  Pupil Survey of Instruction


   52760.  (a) The student government of a school maintaining any of
grades 9 to 12, inclusive, may establish a committee of pupils and
teachers to develop a survey by which pupils may provide feedback to
teachers for the purpose of fostering improved communication between
pupils and teachers and improving individual classes and teaching
methods for future generations of pupils. The survey developed by the
committee shall solicit pupil opinion on different aspects of a
class and the effectiveness of the teacher of the class. The
committee annually may revise the survey.
   (b) The administration of the survey and the survey results shall
conform to all of the following requirements:
   (1) Teachers annually shall be provided the survey and may survey
the pupils in the classes they teach.
   (2) Survey responses shall be confidential and shall be made known
only to the teacher whose class is surveyed.
   (3) No administrator or any other school or district official
shall view or have access to any survey responses without the express
written consent of the teacher to whom the survey relates.
   (4) Survey responses shall not become part of a teacher's
personnel record.
   (5) The survey and any responses shall not be used for collective
bargaining purposes.
   (6) The survey responses shall not be included in, nor shall they
be used to influence the existing teacher evaluation process, if any,
in a school or district in which the survey is conducted. 

  SECTION 1.    It is the intent of the Legislature
to enact legislation with respect to the Race to the Top program.