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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