SECTIONS 58400-58409 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 58400-58409

58400. The Legislature hereby finds and declares that several
schools have developed programs of individualized instruction based
upon performance criteria, including the integration of vocational
education with the regular coursework, which have greatly improved
their students' achievement and that the success of such programs
offers great promise for improving the effectiveness of education
throughout the state. The Legislature intends to extend the use of
individualized instruction programs on a large scale and to
immediately organize a comprehensive program of individualized
instruction based upon performance criteria in a major urban school
district. Such a comprehensive program shall:
(a) Address the range of socioeconomic-educational problems of
urban school children which will be faced by other urban school
districts which may desire to develop individualized instruction
programs.
(b) Convert the entire curriculum for kindergarten through 12th
grade and articulate the curriculum with a community college.
(c) Fully integrate vocational education with the regular
curriculum in order to acquaint students with a variety of career
alternatives and to provide them with flexible opportunities to
acquire the combination of vocational and academic skills required
for their individual educational and career objectives.
(d) Draw together existing experience, techniques, and material in
the field of individualized instruction, and produce an increased
fund of economically reproducible instructional resources to
accelerate large-scale conversion of schools in other school
districts of the state.
(e) Provide a careful evaluation of the effectiveness of
individualized instruction and the problems of conversion, including
teacher training, curriculum design and production, integration of
vocational education with the regular coursework, and plant
utilization. Such an evaluation will help other school districts
avoid pitfalls and unnecessary expenditures and permit their programs
of individualized instruction to be developed with maximum
efficiency and effectiveness.
(f) Provide a major opportunity to design and test the criteria
and tools for measuring educational performance. Such an opportunity
shall contribute essential information and experience to efforts to
set goals and measure performance in all the schools of this state.
(g) Provide the Governor and the Legislature with more precise
information on the fiscal requirements for converting schools in this
state to programs of individualized instruction.

58401. As used in this chapter "individualized instruction based
upon performance criteria" means an educational method in which (a)
aptitudes, interests, motivations, and other characteristics of each
student play a major role in the selection of educational objectives
and the determination of the sequence of study and choice of
materials and procedures; (b) the time spent by each student in a
given subject area is determined by his performance; and (c) the
progress of each student is measured by comparing his performance
with a specific objective, rather than with the performance of other
students.

58402. The Legislature further finds and declares that funds are
needed to convert the regular curriculum to individualized
instruction and integration of vocational education and that once
such conversion and integration have been accomplished, such program
shall operate on the funds regularly available to the school
districts.

58403. The State Board of Education shall establish application
procedures and select a school district to undertake an
individualized instruction program pursuant to this chapter. The
specific goal of the individualized instruction program authorized by
this article shall be to convert at least one high school and the
network of elementary and junior high schools which provide students
to that high school to a program of individualized instruction based
upon performance criteria, including the full integration of
vocational education with the regular coursework, and to articulate
this program with a community college. In authorizing this program,
the Legislature recognizes that conversion of the entire network of
schools may require incremental development beginning, for example,
with a high school, one junior high school, and one elementary
school.

58404. In selecting a school district to undertake an
individualized instruction program pursuant to this chapter, the
board shall use the following criteria:
(a) The school district shall be a large urban unified district,
which has an average daily attendance of not less than 30,000 for the
school year 1967-1968, and which has an agreement with a community
college to articulate their curricula.
(b) The high school and network of junior high and elementary
schools shall be representative of the range of
socioeconomic-educational problems faced by urban schools.
(c) The local board of education and administrators of the school
district and the administrators and teachers of the schools to be
involved shall be strongly committed to the goals of the
individualized instruction program.
(d) The individualized instruction program shall be carried out
with maximum participation of the teachers and administrators of the
individual schools and with substantial flexibility for each school
to establish its own program within the framework of general goals
and requirements for the overall program within the school district.
(e) The school district shall have a plan for community
involvement with the program, including students, parents, and
representatives of business, industry, organized labor, community and
civic organizations, and the general public.
(f) The cost experience of the individualized instruction program
and the instructional technology used in the school district shall be
readily transferable to other schools in the state.
(g) The schools selected by the district to participate in the
program shall receive entitlement equivalent to the total amount of
resources from state, local and federal funds which would otherwise
be provided the schools under the district's current budgeting
procedures.
(h) The instructional program shall include the full integration
of vocational education with the regular curriculum and shall
acquaint students in all grades with career alternatives and the
relevancy of the school curricula to achieving career objectives.
(i) The school district shall have a written statement adopted by
the local board of education setting forth the goals, and to the
extent feasible, the measurable objectives of education in the
district.

58405. In selecting the school district to undertake the
individualized instruction program pursuant to this chapter, the
State Board of Education shall conduct a thorough field review in
order to make independent judgments of the suitability of a district
to participate in the program. The field review shall include a
rating of the levels of commitment of the teachers and administrators
to the individualized instruction program set forth in this chapter.

58406. The district selected to undertake the program authorized by
this chapter shall have complete responsibility for the program's
progress and success. The staff of the Department of Education shall
serve as a resource team that shall provide technical assistance and
advice to the school district.

58407. The state board may waive any provision of this code, with
the exception of Article 1 (commencing with Section 16500), and
Article 3 (commencing with Section 39140) of Chapter 2 of Part 23,
which it deems is necessary to waive to assure the success of the
program authorized by this chapter.

58409. District evaluation and reporting requirements required by
this article shall not supersede other legal requirements.
It is the intent of the Legislature, however, that the State Board
of Education and the Department of Education make every effort to
use the evaluation and reporting requirements under this chapter in
fulfilling any other legal requirements in order to minimize the
administrative burdens on the school district.