Bill Summary for S 860 (2013-2014)

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Summary date: 

May 27 2014

Bill Information:

View NCGA Bill Details2013-2014 Session
Senate Bill 860 (Public) Filed Tuesday, May 27, 2014
AN ACT TO EXTEND THE TESTING WINDOW FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL SEMESTER COURSES; TO INCREASE THE WEIGHT OF SCHOOL GROWTH IN SCHOOL PERFORMANCE GRADES; TO DELAY IMPLEMENTATION OF CONTRACTS FOR CERTAIN TEACHERS; AND TO PROVIDE FLEXIBILITY FOR THE TERMS OF PRINCIPAL CONTRACTS.
Intro. by Tarte.

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Bill summary

Amends GS 115C-174.12 to require the State Board of Education's policies concerning annual assessments of student achievement require that all annual assessments and all final exams for courses be administered within the final 10 instructional days of the school year for year-long courses and within the final 15 (was, five) instructional days of the semester. 

Amends GS 115C-83.15(d) to require the State Board of Education to use EVAAS to calculate the school performance score by adding the school achievement score and the school growth score (was, limited to those schools exceeding or not meeting expected school growth). Provides that the school achievement score accounts for 50 percent (was, 80 percent) and the school growth score accounts for 50 percent (was, 20 percent) of the total. Provides that if a school has met expected growth and inclusion of the school's growth score reduces the school's performance score and grade, a school may choose to use the school achievement score solely to calculate the performance score and grade (was, different treatment of the percentages for schools meeting expected growth depending on whether the school achievement score was above or below 80 percent).

Amends SL 2013-360 to provide that, concerning teacher contracts, beginning September 1, 2013, to June 30, 2014, at the start of the 2014-15 school year, all superintendents must review, over the course of the school year, the performance and evaluations of all classroom teachers, including performance and evaluations from prior school years, who have been employed by the local board for at least three consecutive years. 

Amends GS 115C-287.1 to require all persons employed as school administrators to be employed under the statute. Defines school administrator as including a principal, assistant principal, a supervisor, or a director whose major function includes supervision of teaching or any other part of the instructional program. Provides that the initial contract between a school administrator and a local board of education is one (was, two) to four years. Subsequent contracts are also for a term of one to four years (was, for a term of four years).  Makes conforming changes to GS 115C-325, GS 115C-325.1, GS 115C-333, and GS 143B-146.8. 

Effective when the act becomes law and applies beginning with the 2014-15 school year.