SECTIONS 53200-53203 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 53200-53203

53200. For purposes of this article, the following definitions
apply:
(a) "Low-achieving school" means a school described in subdivision
(a) of Section 53201.
(b) "Persistently lowest-achieving school" means a school
identified pursuant to subdivisions (a) to (f), inclusive, of Section
53201.

53201. The Superintendent and the state board shall establish a
list of schools according to the following:
(a) Identify any Title 1 school in improvement, corrective action,
or restructuring.
(b) Identify the lowest 5 percent of the schools in subdivision
(a) as measured by the academic achievement of all pupils in a school
in terms of proficiency on the state's assessment under Section 1111
(b)(3) of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (20
U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.) in reading/language arts and mathematics,
combined pursuant to subdivision (h).
(c) Identify any secondary school that is eligible for, but that
does not receive, Title I funds and is in the lowest 5 percent of
secondary schools as measured by the academic achievement of all
pupils in a school in terms of proficiency on the state's assessment
under Section 1111(b)(3) of the federal Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.) in reading/language arts
and mathematics, combined pursuant to subdivision (h).
(d) Add to the schools identified pursuant to subdivisions (a) to
(c), inclusive, any high school that has had a graduation rate, as
defined in Section 200.19(b) of Title 34 of the Code of Federal
regulations, that is less than 60 percent in each of the previous
three years.
(e) To the extent allowable under federal law, exclude from the
schools identified pursuant to subdivisions (a) to (d), inclusive, a
school that meets any of the following, except as provided in
subdivision (f):
(1) The school is a county community school operated pursuant to
Chapter 6.5 (commencing with Section 1980) of Part 2 of Division 1 of
Title 1.
(2) The school is a juvenile court school operated pursuant to
Article 2.5 (commencing with Section 48645) of Chapter 4 of Part 27.
(3) The school provides educational services exclusively to
individuals with exceptional needs as defined in Section 56026.
(4) The school has experienced academic growth of at least 50
points over the previous five years as measured by the Academic
Performance Index, using the most recent data available.
(f) Notwithstanding subdivision (e), a school that meets any of
the criteria in subdivision (e) shall not be excluded from the
schools identified pursuant to subdivisions (a) to (d), inclusive, if
both the Superintendent and the state board find cause not to
exclude the school.
(g) To the extent allowable under federal law, a community day
school, operated pursuant to Article 3 (commencing with Section
48660) of Chapter 4 of Part 27, may be excluded from the schools
identified pursuant to subdivisions (a) to (d), inclusive, if both
the Superintendent and the state board find cause to exclude the
school.
(h) For the purposes of identifying the lowest 5 percent of the
schools pursuant to subdivisions (b) and (c), the Superintendent and
the state board may use a methodology consistent with the methodology
used to calculate the Academic Performance Index in order to create
composite results across content areas and grade levels in
reading/language arts and mathematics pursuant to subdivisions (b)
and (c), unless the Superintendent and the state board develop a more
appropriate methodology to meet the requirements of subdivisions (b)
and (c).
(i) Prior to the implementation of subdivision (h), the
Superintendent and the state board shall notify the appropriate
policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature.

53201.5. The Superintendent shall notify the governing board of a
school district, county superintendent of schools, or the governing
body of a charter school or its equivalent, that one or more of the
schools in its jurisdiction have been identified as a persistently
lowest-achieving school.

53202. (a) For purposes of implementing the federal Race to the Top
program established by Sections 14005 and 14006 of Title XIV of the
federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law
111-5), the governing board of a school district, county
superintendent of schools, or the governing body of a charter school
or its equivalent, shall implement, for any school identified by the
Superintendent as persistently lowest-achieving pursuant to
subdivision (b) of Section 53200, unless the Superintendent and the
state board determines, to the extent allowable under federal law,
that the school has implemented a reform within the last two years
that conforms to the requirements of the interventions required by
the Race to the Top program and is showing significant progress, one
of the following four interventions for turning around persistently
lowest-achieving schools described in Appendix C of the Notice of
Final Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, Selection Criteria for
the Race to the Top program published in Volume 74 of Number 221 of
the Federal Register on November 18, 2009:
(1) The turnaround model.
(2) The restart model.
(3) School closure.
(4) The transformation model.
(b) Prior to the governing board meeting to select one of the four
interventions described in subdivision (a), the governing board of a
school district, county superintendent of schools, or the governing
body of a charter school or its equivalent, with one or more
persistently lowest-achieving schools shall hold at least two public
hearings to notify staff, parents, and the community of the
designation and to seek input from staff, parents, and the community
regarding the option or options most suitable for the applicable
school or schools in its jurisdiction. At least one of those public
hearings shall be held at a regularly scheduled meeting, if
applicable, and at least one of the public hearings shall be held on
the site of a school deemed persistently lowest-achieving.
(c) In addition to meeting the requirements specified in Appendix
C of the Notice of Final Priorities, Requirements, Definitions,
Selection Criteria for the Race to the Top program published in
Volume 74 of Number 221 of the Federal Register on November 18, 2009,
a persistently lowest-achieving school implementing the turnaround
or transformation model may participate in a school-to-school
partnership program by working with a mentor school that has
successfully transitioned from a low-achieving school to a
higher-achieving school.
(1) For purposes of this article, a mentor school is a school that
meets either of the following:
(A) The school has exited Program Improvement pursuant to the No
Child Left Behind Act.
(B) The school has increased, in the statewide rankings based on
the Academic Performance Index, by two or more deciles over the last
five years, using the most recent data available.
(2) The principal and, at the discretion of the principal, the
staff of a mentor school shall provide guidance to a persistently
lowest-achieving school to develop a reform plan for the school using
the required elements of the turnaround or transformation model, and
provide guidance and advice on how the mentor school was able to
transform the culture of the school from low-achieving to
higher-achieving and how that transformation could be replicated at
the school implementing a turnaround or transformation model.
(3) To the extent that federal funds are made available for this
purpose pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 53101, the mentor
school shall receive funds for serving as a mentor school. As a
condition for receipt of funds, the principal, and at the principal's
discretion, the staff, of a mentor school shall meet regularly with
the assigned persistently lowest-achieving school for a period of at
least three years.

53203. (a) The regional consortia authorized under Section 52059,
in collaboration with the department, from funds provided for this
purpose pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 53101, shall provide,
at a minimum, technical assistance and support to local educational
agencies with one or more persistently lowest-achieving schools to
assist with the implementation of the duties specified for any of the
four interventions for persistently lowest-achieving schools
pursuant to Section 53202.
(b) Funds for the regional consortia shall be distributed based on
the number of persistently lowest-achieving schools identified
pursuant to this section and the pupil enrollment of these schools.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature that the regional
consortia coordinate the duties described in subdivision (a) with the
duties performed pursuant to Section 52059 as it relates to schools
and districts identified in program improvement pursuant to the
federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et
seq.).
(d) The areas of technical assistance and support pursuant to this
section may include, but are not limited to, any of the following:
(1) Identifying strategies that are designed to recruit, place,
and retain staff with the skills necessary to meet the needs of the
pupils at the school, including financial incentives, increased
opportunities for promotion and career growth, and more flexible work
conditions.
(2) Identifying strategies that provide increased instructional
time.
(3) Implementing any of the professional development activities
authorized in the state's plan or application submitted for the
federal Race to the Top program.
(4) Developing a new governance structure that may include the
establishment of a new turnaround office, located within the local
educational agency or the department, that a school implementing the
turnaround model will report to.
(5) Developing social-emotional and community-oriented services,
including strategies for parental involvement and services that can
be located at the schoolsite.
(6) Identifying, reviewing, and recommending quality charter
school operators, charter management organizations, or education
management organizations that can operate a persistently
lowest-achieving school.
(7) Identifying higher-achieving schools in the school district,
including charter schools, to relocate pupils attending a school that
is scheduled for closure.
(8) Developing, in consultation with teachers and principals, a
rigorous, transparent, and equitable evaluation system for teachers
and principals that includes the use of pupil growth data and other
factors such as multiple observation-based assessments that all
schools implementing the turnaround or transformation model may use.
(9) Identifying strategies to identify and reward school leaders,
teachers, and other staff who, in implementing the transformation
model, have increased pupil achievement and high school graduation
rates and have identified and removed those, who, after ample
opportunities, have been provided for them to improve their
professional practice, have not done so.
(10) Identifying and approving mentor schools pursuant to
subdivision (c) of Section 53202. The regional consortia shall first
seek eligible mentor schools located within the district of each of
the schools implementing the turnaround or transformation model.
(11) Consistent with the collective bargaining agreement,
assisting a local educational agency in doing any of the following:
(A) Meeting federal guidelines under Appendix C of the Notice of
Final Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, Selection Criteria for
the federal Race to the Top program published in Volume 74 of Number
221 of the Federal Register on November 18, 2009, which encourages
the state to ensure that persistently lowest-achieving schools are
not required to accept a teacher without mutual consent of the
teacher and principal, regardless of the teacher's seniority.
(B) Implementing schoolsite-based teacher hiring decisions.
(C) Giving persistently lowest-achieving schools first priority in
selecting from the qualified district applicant pool, among those
teachers who have specifically applied to work at the school.