SECTIONS 52056-52058 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 52056-52058

52056. (a) The High Achieving/Improving Schools Program is hereby
established. Commencing in June 2000, and every June thereafter, the
Superintendent of Public Instruction, with approval of the State
Board of Education, shall rank all public schools based on the
Academic Performance Index established pursuant to Section 52052. The
schools shall be ranked by the value of the API in decile categories
by grade level of instruction provided and shall include three
categories: elementary, middle, and high school. The schools shall
also be ranked by the value of the API when compared to schools with
similar characteristics. Commencing in June 2001, the Superintendent
of Public Instruction shall also report the target annual growth
rates of schools and the actual growth rates attained by the schools.
For purposes of this section, similar characteristics include, but
are not limited to, the following characteristics, insofar as data is
available from the State Department of Education's data: pupil
mobility, pupil ethnicity, pupil socioeconomic status, percentage of
teachers who are fully credentialed, percentage of teachers who hold
emergency credentials, percentage of pupils who are English language
learners, average class size per grade level, and whether the schools
operate multitrack year-round educational programs. The
Superintendent of Public Instruction shall annually publish these
rankings on the Internet.
(b) All schools shall report their ranking, including a
description of the components of the API, in their annual school
accountability report card pursuant to Sections 33126 and 35256.
(c) Following the annual publication of the API and school
rankings by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the governing
board of each school district shall discuss the results of the annual
ranking at the next regularly scheduled meeting. The governing board
is strongly encouraged to include in the discussion an examination
by school, grade, and subgroup enumerated by and in accordance with
subclause (II) of clause (v) of subparagraph (C) of paragraph (2) of
subsection (b) of Section 6311 of Title 20 of the United States Code,
of scores on the tests administered pursuant to the Standardized
Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program set forth in Article 4
(commencing with Section 60640) of Chapter 5 of Part 33.
(d) If the average STAR test score of the school is below the 50th
percentile, or if the test scores of more than 25 percent of the
pupils of a school are below the 50th percentile, the school district
governing board may do both of the following:
(1) Conduct an assessment of the reasons for the performance
results of the school, by grade.
(2) Adopt an improved performance plan that includes methods
determined by the district to have been used by schools with similar
pupil populations elsewhere in the district or state and
significantly higher pupil scores. If it is deemed not feasible to
adopt those methods, the plan shall explain why an alternate approach
is preferable. If a school district governing board adopts an
improved performance plan, it shall reevaluate the plan at each
future annual meeting described by subdivision (c), until STAR test
scores reach a level above those specified in this subdivision.

52056.5. Commencing with the 2000-01 fiscal year, a school that
fails to meet annual state growth targets established pursuant to
Section 52052 may, as determined by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction with the approval of the State Board of Education, be
subject to the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program
pursuant to subdivisions (e) and (f) of Section 52053, and Sections
52053.5, 52054, 52054.5, 52055, and 52055.5.

52057. (a) The State Board of Education shall establish a Governor'
s Performance Award Program to provide monetary and nonmonetary
awards to schools that meet or exceed API performance growth targets
established pursuant to Section 52052, and demonstrate comparable
improvement in academic achievement by all numerically significant
ethnic and socioeconomically disadvantaged subgroups within schools.
Monetary awards shall be awarded only to schools whose API scores
meet or exceed their API growth target as established pursuant to
Section 52052 or increase by five points, whichever is greater, and
in which all numerically significant subgroups' scores meet or exceed
80 percent of the school's API growth target as established pursuant
to Section 52052 or increase by four points, whichever is greater.
For purposes of this section, an ethnic or socioeconomically
disadvantaged subgroup of at least 100 pupils constitutes a
numerically significant subgroup, even if the subgroup does not
constitute 15 percent of the total enrollment at a school.
(b) All schools, including schools participating in the Immediate
Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program are eligible to
participate in the Governor's Performance Award Program. The manner
and form in which the monetary and nonmonetary awards are given shall
be established by the Superintendent of Public Instruction and
approved by the State Board of Education. The monetary awards shall
be made available on either a per pupil or per school basis, not to
exceed one hundred fifty dollars ($150) per pupil who received a
score on the assessments described in subdivision (b) of Section
60640 and subject to funds appropriated in the annual Budget Act. A
school that continues to show improvement in successive years is
eligible to receive annual bonuses.
(c) In addition to or in substitution of monetary awards, the
Superintendent of Public Instruction may establish, upon approval by
the State Board of Education, nonmonetary awards that may include,
but are not limited to, classification as a distinguished school,
listing on a published public school honor roll, and public
commendations by the Governor and the Legislature. In addition to any
other criteria that are used to determine whether a school shall be
classified as a distinguished school, the Superintendent of Public
Instruction may consider the performance of a school on the physical
performance tests administered pursuant to Section 60800.
(d) A governing board of a school district or a county board of
education with one or more schools under its jurisdiction that are
eligible to receive an award from the Governor's Performance Award
Program may request on behalf of those schools that the State Board
of Education waive all or any part of any provision of this code, or
any regulation adopted by the State Board of Education, controlling
any of the programs listed in clause (i) of subparagraph (B) of
paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 54761 and Section 64000.
The board may grant the request if the waiver does not result in a
decrease in the instructional time otherwise required by law or
regulation or an increase in state costs and is determined to be
consistent with subdivision (a) of Section 46300. The waiver shall be
granted for no more than three consecutive fiscal years. A governing
board of a school district or a county board of education may
request a renewal for schools under their jurisdiction that still
meet the eligibility criteria.
(e) The waiver granted pursuant to subdivision (d) of Section
52057 may also provide the governing board of a school district or a
county board of education with maximum flexibility, on the part of
eligible schools within the districts, in the expenditure of any new
or existing categorical funds not otherwise prohibited under state or
federal law to enable the school to continue improvement in pupil
performance.

52058. Each school district with schools participating in the
Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program established
pursuant to Section 52053 shall submit to the Superintendent an
evaluation of the impact, costs, and benefits of the program as it
relates to the school district and the schools under its jurisdiction
that are participating in the program and whether or not the schools
met their growth targets, with an analysis of the reasons why the
schools have or have not met those growth targets. Costs to develop
and submit the evaluation shall be funded with resources provided
pursuant to Article 3 (commencing with Section 52053). The evaluation
shall be submitted by November 30, subsequent to the first full year
of action plan implementation by participating schools, and on
November 30, of each year thereafter.