SECTIONS 44666-44669 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 44666-44669

44666. (a) The Legislature finds that a primary goal of every
public school should be the creation of effective and productive
learning environments for pupils. Increasing the educational
effectiveness and productivity of public schools may require new ways
of organizing instructional and adminstrative staff which increase
the collective investment of all schoolsite educators in the success
of their school. The Legislature also finds that innovation and
change are frequently discouraged by undue administrative and
organizational rigidity. The Legislature intends that the school
district's role in working with schoolsites be characterized by
setting clear goals, providing sites the flexibility to achieve those
goals, offering high quality technical assistance and support, and
holding sites accountable for performance. The Legislature supports
shifting from a rule-based system to a performance-based system of
accountability. Those educators closest to pupils should be free,
within limits, to create learning environments appropriate to their
circumstances. The Legislature declares its intent not to diminish
the leadership roles of school districts and site-level
administrators. However, the Legislature does intend to encourage
schools to foster more professional collaboration where teachers and
principals, as an educational team, are responsible for creating the
conditions that make more effective teaching and learning possible,
and where schoolsite educators as a group have responsibility for the
functioning and performance of their school.
It is the further intent of the Legislature to encourage and
foster a shift in public school administration from a system that
rigidly controls and directs what goes on at the next lowest level,
to a system that guides and facilitates professionals in their quest
for more productive learning opportunities for their pupils.
(b) The Legislature further finds and declares all of the
following:
(1) Hierarchical decisionmaking has tended to reduce the
effectiveness and productivity of teachers in educating pupils. A
more collaborative decisionmaking process may result in more
effective teaching and pupil learning.
(2) A true profession should offer individuals the opportunity for
growth in their careers and in their professional lives.
(3) Professional growth brings with it additional responsibilities
and accountability, and taking greater responsibility allows the
professional to achieve enhanced status and higher salary, and to
make a contribution to the profession.
(4) The current staffing structures and compensation structures in
California school districts that emphasize seniority in setting
teacher salaries and uniformity in teachers' roles do not adequately
reward teaching excellence, exceptional achievement, or the
assumption of additional educational responsibilities by teachers.
Neither do they provide an incentive for teachers to continue to
pursue excellence.
(5) The establishment of advanced career opportunities for
teachers, in conjunction with greater teacher involvement in
schoolsite management, should increase the variety and responsibility
of a teacher's work. It should also provide: (A) a mechanism for
restructuring salary schedules to recognize experience, additional
work and responsibility; and (B) the opportunity for
performance-based contracts with teachers or groups of teachers.
(6) Advanced career opportunities for teachers should also provide
an incentive for teachers to remain in teaching, upgrade their
skills, and improve the instructional program.

44667. (a) It is the intent of the Legislature to encourage school
districts to plan and implement alternative models of school-based
management projects, or advanced career opportunities for classroom
teachers projects, or a combination of both, for one or more schools
in the district. Further, it is the intent of the Legislature that
school district governing boards and administrators work with
classroom teachers and teacher bargaining units to develop and
strengthen procedures that increase teachers' decisionmaking
authority in responsibilities that affect their ability to teach.
These procedures may include, but need not be limited to, the
following:
(1) Selection of new teachers and administrators.
(2) Evaluation of teacher and administrator performance.
(3) Selection of curricular areas for improvement.
(4) Tailoring and coordination of curriculum and instruction
across grade levels and within departments at the schoolsite level.
(5) Establishment of pupil discipline policies.
(6) Design and conduct of staff development programs and policies.
(7) Assignment of pupils and scheduling of classes.
(8) Schoolwide problem solving and program development.
(9) Organization of the school for effective instruction.
(10) Development of procedures designed to institutionalize
teacher involvement in decisionmaking.
(11) Determining the roles and functions of teachers,
administrators, and classified employees at the school site.
(12) Development of alternative methods of teacher compensation
that reward teaching excellence, exceptional achievement or the
assumption of additional educational responsibilities.
(13) Establishment of policies to decentralize district
decisionmaking by providing schoolsite administrators and teachers
with greater budget authority including the allocation of fiscal,
personnel, and other resources at the schoolsite.
(b) Participation of school discticts in the programs established
pursuant to this article shall be on a voluntary basis. A school
district shall be eligible to participate only upon the approval of
participation by both the governing board of the district and the
exclusive representative of certificated employees of the district.

44667.2. It is the intent of the Legislature that each school
district's school-based management proposal shall include the
following:
(a) A plan for involving parents in the planning, implementation,
and evaluation of school restructuring efforts.
(b) A plan for staff development that shall be made available to
participating school personnel in order to assist in restructuring
elements specified in the district proposal.
(c) A plan for regularly assessing the progress of participating
schools in meeting the goals identified in their funding proposal.
Assessment plans shall include provisions for the collection of
information on various school-level indicators including pupil
performance, detentions, pupil and teacher absenteeism, and staff
turnover. Districts are encouraged, as well, to establish a process
of onsite quality reviews with the objective of evaluating the
quality of instruction, leadership, staff development, and the
planning and decisionmaking processes at participating schools.

44668. (a) "Advanced career opportunities for classroom teachers"
means a compensation system developed jointly by the governing board
of a school district and the exclusive representative of certificated
employees for one or more of the schools in the district that may
include the following components:
(1) Extended contract days.
(2) Additional pay for additional duties or responsibilities.
(3) Differentiated staffing.
(4) Additional pay for meeting contracted performance goals.
(b) Each Advanced Career Opportunity Program shall include the
following components:
(1) Fair selection procedures for job enlargement activities.
(2) An evaluation procedure developed jointly by the governing
board of the district and the exclusive representative of
certificated employees that provides for periodic, fair, objective,
and consistent evaluation of educator performance for purposes of
placement and career advancement.
(3) A plan for the periodic review of the district's Advanced
Career Opportunity Program.

44669. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for the
purposes of implementing a program established pursuant to this
article, the State Board of Education may waive any part, article, or
section of this code, or any regulation adopted by the State Board
of Education that implements this code upon request by a governing
board of a school district on a districtwide basis or on behalf of
its schools or programs, if the governing board does both of the
following:
(1) Provides written documentation that the exclusive
representative of certificated employees concurs with the request.
Failure of the exclusive representative of certificated employees to
concur in the waiver request shall constitute cause for its denial.
(2) Demonstrates that the waiver request is necessary to implement
the proposed pilot project.
(b) Subdivision (a) does not apply to Section 51513 or Part 26
(commencing with Section 46000), other than Section 46206.