BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1422
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 1422 (Romero)
As Amended April 19, 2010
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :22-4
EDUCATION 9-0
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|Ayes:|Brownley, Nestande, | | |
| |Ammiano, Arambula, | | |
| |Carter, Eng, Miller, | | |
| |Norby, Torlakson | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : 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. Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes the student government of a school that maintains any
of grades 9-12 to establish a committee of high school students
and teachers to develop a survey by which students may provide
feedback to teachers for the purpose of fostering improved
communication between students and teachers and improving
individual classes and teaching methods for future generations of
students; specifies that the survey developed by the committee
shall solicit student opinion on different aspects of a class and
the effectiveness of the teacher; and, authorizes the committee to
annually revise the survey.
2)Specifies the administration of the survey and the survey results
shall conform to all of the following requirements:
a) Teachers annually shall be provided the survey and may
survey the pupils in the classes they teach;
b) Survey responses shall be confidential and shall be made
known only to the teacher whose class is surveyed;
c) No administrator or any other school or district official
SB 1422
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shall view or have access to any survey responses without the
express written consent of the teacher to whom the survey
relates;
d) Survey responses shall not become part of a teacher's
personnel record;
e) The survey and any responses shall not be used for
collective bargaining purposes; and,
f) 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.
EXISTING LAW requires:
1)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.
(Education Code Section 44660 et. seq.)
2)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; and,
specifies that employee performance, instructional techniques,
adherence to curricular objectives, and maintenance of a suitable
learning environment are all among the items evaluated.
(Education Code Section 44660 et. seq.)
3)The evaluation and assessment of the performance of each
certificated employee shall be made on a continuing basis as
follows:
a) At least once each school year for probationary personnel;
b) At least every other year for personnel with permanent
status; and,
c) At least every five years for personnel with permanent
status who have been employed at least 10 years with the school
district, as specified. (Education Code Section 44664)
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FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is keyed non-fiscal.
COMMENTS : According to the author, currently there is no organized
system in public schools for students to provide feedback to
teachers on their instruction methods. The goal is to provide a
secure mechanism for teachers to incorporate, even on a voluntary
basis, student feedback into their own efforts at professional
development and curriculum improvement. Surely this is a reasonable
request of California students, and no one knows what students need
in regards to their personal learning styles better than they do.
This measure will enable teachers to tap into valuable instructional
insight while empowering and engaging students.
The California Association of Student Councils (CASC) is the sponsor
of 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."
Prior legislation: SB 688 (Romero) of 2009, which was held on the
Senate Appropriations Committee Suspense file, 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 (CDE),
in consultation with the CASC, to develop model guidelines for the
teacher evaluation process, to be posted on CDE's Web site by
January 1, 2011.
Analysis Prepared by : Chelsea Kelley / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0005207