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Student
Achievement/Teacher Accountability Bill Filed
This
past week, House Study Bill 201 was introduced, concerning an
improvement in student achievement, as well as increased teacher
pay and development. HSB
201 has two main objectives: to improve student success in school;
and to attract and retain high performing teachers, while
rewarding them for improving their skills and knowledge.
This plan, if voted into law will without a doubt, improve
the educational conditions in Iowa.
There
are five key components in the bill:
mentoring and induction for beginning teachers; career path
compensation; rigorous career development; team-based variable pay
based upon student achievement; and the creation of a meaningful
evaluation system.
All
school districts are automatically eligible to receive funding for
the mentoring program, and evaluator training.
In addition, schools will only be eligible to receive their
allocation of the $40 million appropriation and any future
appropriations if they agree to:
·
Commit and expend local moneys to improve student
achievement and teacher quality
·
Implement a mentoring and induction program.
·
Provide additional contract days for purposes of career
development
·
Adopt a career path based upon the demonstrated of
knowledge and skills
·
Adopt a team-based variable pay plan based on student
achievement
Two
years ago, the Legislature approved a Beginning Teacher Induction
Program to encourage mentoring programs.
A total of 18 applicants, representing 40 school districts
in Iowa, have received grants since the beginning of the program.
The bill will provide funding for all districts, making a
two-year mentoring program available to every beginning teacher.
As of July 1, 2003, successful completion of a mentoring
program will be a requirement of licensure beyond a provisional or
beginning license.
The
“Career Path” portion of the bill mandates that schools
choosing to participate in the new program must increase their
minimum teaching salary by $1,000 over the year prior to
participating in the program if the average teacher’s salary is
under $25,000. In
addition,
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second-year
teachers with a salary of less than $26,000 must also receive a
$1,000 increase over the previous year, with higher qualified
teachers receiving fair increases as well.
The
Career Path plan is based on teachers completing their own career
development plans and their evaluations.
The basis for these evaluations under the Iowa Teaching
Standards (ITS) consists of:
·
Content and knowledge
·
Planning and preparation for instruction
·
Instructional delivery
·
Monitoring student learning
·
Classroom management
·
Professional responsibilities
Overall,
HSB 201 will have an extremely positive effect upon Iowa’s K-12
educational system. Many
members of the Iowa Legislature are backing this plan and hope to
see its passage into law very soon.
Republicans
Push Through Responsible De-appropriations Bill
On
Wednesday, March 7, the House approved Senate File 267, containing
$26 million in FY 2001 de-appropriations and revenue transfers. This was a bill that was drafted out of necessity—without
such a bill, Iowa’s General Fund faced the danger of a $300
million debt for fiscal year 2002.
Governor
Vilsack and many of the Democratic members of the Legislature
publicly attacked the deappropriations bill, claiming that fiscal
year 2001 budget cuts would cost the state federal funding, loss of
revenue to the general fund, and unemployment compensation due to
layoffs. However, a
budget deappropriation will not cause any such loss of federal
funding, or layoffs.
While the state is already experiencing harmful dollar
shortages in FY 2001, and without SF 267 Iowa was in serious danger
of an enormous revenue shortfall next year.
Future revenue difficulties would have caused severe damage
to the General Fund and may have forced extensive layoffs in the
future.
As
of today, both the House and Senate have approved SF 267.
This bill has the potential of protecting Iowa’s General
Fund and many of our state workers now and in the future.
The passage of SF 267 lays in the hands of Governor Vilsack-we
all hope that he will add his signature, and get Iowa’s budget on
its way to recovery.
Ways
& Means Update
Bills
assigned in the Ways & Means Committee this week:
No
committee actions this week.
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Week
in Review Archives
