Source: http://www.wvlegislature.gov/bill_status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=HB4236%20SUB%20ENR.htm&yr=2012&sesstype=RS&i=4236
Timestamp: 2018-01-19 08:10:25
Document Index: 281333189

Matched Legal Cases: ['§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18']

HB 4236 Text
Enrolled Version - Final Version House Bill 4236 History
H. B. 4236
AN ACT to amend and reenact §18A-2-12 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; and to amend said code by adding thereto a new article, designated §18A-3C-1, §18A-3C-2 and §18A-3C-3, all relating to establishing a new system of performance evaluations of classroom teachers, principals and assistant principals; exclusions from the definition of professional personnel for certain evaluation purposes; providing findings, purposes, definitions and intent of new provisions; providing for phased implementation and legislative oversight; requiring state board rules and submissions of draft rules to legislative oversight commission; providing minimum provisions of evaluation processes for teachers and principals and specific percentages of evaluation score to be based standards and student performance; providing for evaluations to serve certain purposes, including plans of improvement and personnel actions for unsatisfactory performance; requiring certain employee training prior to implementation of new evaluation processes; providing intent of new comprehensive system of support; requiring the state board to publish guidelines for county boards on design and implementation of comprehensive system of support; restricting certain funding subject to adoption of comprehensive system plan by county that is verified by state board as meeting certain requirements; specifying contents of plan; and providing for transition of appropriations to support execution of plans and use of funds.
That §18A-2-12 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted; and that said code be amended by adding thereto a new article, designated §18A-3C-1, §18A-3C-2 and §18A-3C-3, all to read as follows:
(a) The state board shall adopt a written system for the evaluation of the employment performance of personnel, which system shall be applied uniformly by county boards in the evaluation of the employment performance of personnel employed by the board.
(c) For purposes of this section, "professional personnel", "professional" or "professionals", means professional personnel as defined in section one, article one of this chapter but does not include classroom teachers, principals and assistant principals subject to the evaluation processes established pursuant to the provisions of section two, article three-c of this chapter when the school at which these professional personnel are employed is selected to participate in those evaluation processes as part of the multi-step implementation leading to full statewide implementation by school year 2013-2014.
(d) In developing the professional personnel performance evaluation system, and amendments thereto, the state board shall consult with the Center for Professional Development created in article three-a of this chapter. The center shall participate actively with the state board in developing written standards for evaluation which clearly specify satisfactory performance and the criteria to be used to determine whether the performance of each professional meets those standards.
(e) The performance evaluation system shall contain, but not be limited to, the following information:
(2) The frequency and duration of the evaluations, which shall be on a regular basis and of such frequency and duration as to insure the collection of a sufficient amount of data from which reliable conclusions and findings may be drawn. For school personnel with five or more years of experience who have not received an unsatisfactory rating, evaluations shall be conducted no more than once every three years unless the principal determines an evaluation for a particular school employee is needed more frequently. Until the school or school system at which they are employed is subject to the provisions of article three-c of this chapter, for classroom teachers with five or more years of experience who have not received an unsatisfactory rating, an evaluation shall be conducted or professional growth and development plan required only when the principal determines it is necessary for a particular classroom teacher or when a classroom teacher exercises the option of being evaluated at more frequent intervals;
(4) The standards for satisfactory performance for professional personnel and the criteria to be used to determine whether the performance of each professional meets those standards and other criteria for evaluation for each professional position evaluated. Professional personnel, as appropriate, shall demonstrate competency in the knowledge and implementation of the technology standards adopted by the state board. If a professional fails to demonstrate competency in the knowledge and implementation of these standards, he or she will be subject to an improvement plan to correct the deficiencies; and
(f) A professional whose performance is considered to be unsatisfactory shall be given notice of deficiencies. A remediation plan to correct deficiencies shall be developed by the employing county board and the professional. The professional shall be given a reasonable period of time for remediation of the deficiencies and shall receive a statement of the resources and assistance available for the purposes of correcting the deficiencies.
(k) Nothing in this section may be construed to prohibit classroom teachers from voluntarily posting material on the Internet. Nothing in article three-c of this chapter may be construed to negate the provisions of subsections (i) and (j) of this section.
(1) Processes set forth in this article for evaluation, teacher induction and professional growth is not intended to make up for substandard initial preparation of teachers, but instead is intended to build on a solid foundation created by the teacher preparation programs. Therefore, the Legislature expects the teacher preparation programs to graduate teachers who can perform at a level that increases student achievement. The Legislature expects that the processes set forth in this article will allow a teacher to excel beyond that level in the classroom;
(c) For purposes of this article “professional personnel” includes classroom teachers, assistant principals and principals as defined in section one, article one chapter eighteen-a of this code.
(a) The intent of the Legislature is to allow for a multi-step statewide implementation of performance evaluations for professional personnel pursuant to this section consistent with sound educational practices and resources available resulting in full state-wide implementation by no later than the school year 2013-2014. Beginning with the schools included in the evaluation processes for professional personnel piloted by the Department of Education during the 2011-2012 school year, additional schools or school systems shall be subject to the provisions of this article in accordance with a plan established by the state board to achieve full statewide implementation by no later than the school year 2013-2014. For schools and school systems subject to the provisions of this article, the provisions of this article shall govern when they are in conflict with other provisions of this chapter and chapter eighteen of this code. Specifically, the provisions of this article govern for the performance evaluation of classroom teachers, principals and assistant principals employed in these schools and school systems. To the extent that this article conflicts with the provisions of section twelve, article two of this chapter relating to professional personnel performance evaluations, this article shall govern. The state board shall submit a report on its plan for the phased implementation of this article to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability at the Commission’s July interim meeting in each year of the phased implementation. The report shall include an update on the implementation of this article including, but not limited to the evaluation process and a list of the schools and school systems subject to the provisions of this article. To assist the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability in monitoring the implementation of this article, the state board shall report to the Commission upon its request throughout the implementation process, including but not limited to, reports on the results of surveys of teachers and principals on the implementation and use of the new evaluation system, the adequacy of the professional development given to employees on the purposes, instruments and procedures of the evaluation process, the time consumed by the evaluation process and the various tasks required for employees of different levels of experience, the aggregate results of the evaluations and any recommendations for changes in the process or other aspects of the duties of affected employees to improve the focus on the core mission of schools of teaching and learning.
(b) Before July 1, 2013, the state board shall adopt a legislative rule in accordance with article three-b, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, for evaluating the performance of each professional person each year. The state board shall submit a draft of the proposed rule to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability by February 15, 2013, and a final draft proposed rule prior to adoption. The rule shall provide for performance evaluations of professional personnel to be conducted in accordance with this section in each school and school system beginning with the 2013-14 school year.
(c) (1) The process adopted by the state board for evaluating the performance of classroom teachers shall incorporate at least the following:
(A) Alignment with the West Virginia professional teaching standards adopted by the state board that establish the foundation for educator preparation, teacher assessment and professional development throughout the state;
(B) Employment of the professional teaching standards to provide explicit and extensive measures of the work of teaching and what teachers must know and be able to do and provide evaluative measures of educator performance;
(C) The use of two pieces of evidence at two points in time over the instructional term to demonstrate student learning as an indicator of educator performance; and
(D) The use of school’s school-wide student learning growth as measured by the state-wide summative assessment as an evaluative measure of all educators employed in the school.
(2) Eighty percent of the evaluation shall be based on an appraisal of the educator’s ability to perform the critical standard elements of the professional teaching standards. The appraisal shall include conferences with the evaluator reinforced through observation. Fifteen percent of the evaluation shall be based on evidence of the learning of the students assigned to the educator in accordance with paragraph (C), subdivision (1) of this subsection, and five percent of the evaluation shall be based on student learning growth measured by the school-wide score on the state summative assessment in accordance with paragraph (D), subdivision (1) of this subsection.
(d) (1) The process adopted by the state board for evaluating the performance of principals and assistant principals shall include at least the following:
(A) Alignment with the West Virginia professional leadership standards adopted by the state board establishing the responsibility of principals for the collective success of their school including the learning, growth and achievement of students, staff and self;
(B) Employment of the professional leadership standards to provide explicit and extensive measures of the work of school leadership focused on the continuous improvement of teaching and learning. The process shall include conferences and goal setting with the superintendent or his or her designee and the use of a survey of stakeholders to assist in identifying the needs and establishing the goals for the school and the principal. The survey shall be distributed to at least the following stakeholders: Students, parents, teachers and service personnel. The evaluative measures shall include the use of data, evidence and artifacts to confirm the principal’s performance on achieving the goals established by the principal and superintendent;
(C) The use of two pieces of evidence at two points in time over the instructional term to demonstrate the growth in student learning at the school; and
(D) The use of the school’s school-wide student learning growth as measured by the state-wide summative assessment as an evaluative measure of all educators employed in the school.
(2) Eighty percent of the evaluation shall be based on an appraisal of the principal’s or the assistant principal’s ability to perform the critical standard elements of the professional leadership standards and achieve the goals established for the principal and the school. Fifteen percent of the evaluation shall be based on evidence of the learning of the students assigned to the school in accordance with paragraph (C), subdivision (1) of this subsection, and five percent of the evaluation shall be based on student learning growth measured by the school-wide score on the state summative assessment in accordance with paragraph (D), subdivision (1) of this subsection.
(3) Serve as the basis for establishing priorities for the provision of county-level professional development when aggregate evaluation data from the county’s schools indicates an area or areas of needed improvement;
(j) Prior to implementation of the evaluation process pursuant to this section at a school, each affected employee shall be given training to ensure that the employees have a full understanding of the purposes, instruments and procedures used in evaluating their performance. Thereafter, this training shall be held annually at the beginning of the employment term.
(a) The intent of the Legislature is to allow for a multistep statewide implementation of a comprehensive system of support for building professional practice of beginning teachers, specifically those on the initial and intermediate progressions, consistent with sound educational practices and resources available. In this regard, it is the intent of the Legislature that the transition of schools and school systems to a comprehensive system of support that includes support for improved professional performance targeted on deficiencies identified through the evaluation process will be implemented concurrent with the first year that a school or system receives final evaluation results from the performance evaluation process pursuant to section two of this article. Further, because of significant variability among the counties, not only in the size of their teaching force, distribution of facilities and available resources, but also because of their varying needs, the Legislature intends for the implementation of this section to be accomplished in a manner that provides adequate flexibility to the counties to design and implement a comprehensive system of support for improving professional performance that best achieves the goals of this section within the county. Finally, because of the critical importance of ensuring that all teachers perform at the accomplished level or higher in the delivery of instruction that at least meets the West Virginia professional teaching standards and because achieving this objective at a minimum entails providing assistance to address the needs as indicated by the data informed results of annual performance evaluations, including the self-assessed needs of the teachers themselves, the Legislature expects the highest priority for county, regional and state professional development will be on meeting these needs and that the transition to a comprehensive system of support for improving professional practice will reflect substantial redirection of existing professional development resources toward this highest priority.
(c) For schools and school systems subject to the provisions of this article, the provisions of this article govern when they are in conflict with section two-b, article three of this chapter relating to beginning teacher internships, or in conflict with other provisions of this chapter and chapter eighteen of this code. (d) Effective for the school year beginning July 1, 2013, and thereafter, a county board is not eligible to receive state funding appropriated for the purposes of this section or any other provision of law related to beginning teacher internships and mentor teachers unless it has adopted a plan for implementation of a comprehensive system of support for improving professional practice, the plan has been verified by the state board as meeting the requirements of this section and the county is implementing the plan. The plan shall address the following:
(4) The manner in which the county will use the data from the educator performance evaluation system to serve as the basis for establishing priorities for the provision of county-level professional development when aggregate evaluation data from the county’s schools indicates an area or areas of needed improvement;
(5) If a county uses master teachers, mentors, academic coaches or any other approaches using individual employees to provide support, supervision or other professional development or training to other employees for the purpose of improving their professional practice, the manner in which the county will select each of these individual employees based on demonstrated superior performance and competence as well as the manner in which the county will coordinate support for these employees: Provided, That the employment of persons for these positions shall adhere to the posting and other provisions of section seven-a, article four of this chapter utilizing subsection (c) of said section seven-a to judge the qualifications of the applicants. If the duties of the position are to provide mentoring to an individual teacher at only one school, then priority shall being given to applicants employed at the school at which those duties will be performed;
(7) The manner in which the county will adjust its scheduling, use of substitutes, collaborative planning time, calendar or other measures as may be necessary to provide sufficient time for professional personnel to accomplish the goals of this section as set forth in the county’s plan; and
(e) Effective the school year beginning July 1, 2013, and thereafter, appropriations for beginning teacher mentors and any new appropriation which may be made for the purposes of this section shall be expended by county boards only to accomplish the activities as set forth in their county plan pursuant to this section. Effective the school year beginning July 1, 2013, and thereafter, no specific level of compensation is guaranteed for any employee service or employment as a mentor and such service or employment is not subject to the provisions of this code governing extra duty contracts except as provided in subdivision (5), subsection (c) of this section.
(f) The Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability shall review the progress of the implementation of this article and may make any recommendations it considers necessary to the Legislature during the 2013 regular legislative session.