Amend the bill, as and if amended, Section 59-18-900, as contained SECTION 11, by deleting the SECTION in its entirety and inserting:
/ SECTION 11. Section 59-18-900 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 289 of 2014, is further amended to read:
"Section 59-18-900. (A) The Education Oversight Committee, working with the State Board of Education, is directed to establish the format of a comprehensive, web-based, annual report card, its format, and an executive summary of the report card to report on the performance for the State and for the individual primary, elementary, middle, high schools, career centers, and school districts of the State. The comprehensive report card must be in a reader-friendly format, using graphics whenever possible, published on the state, district, and school website, and, upon request, printed by the school districts. The school's ratings on academic performance rating must be emphasized and an explanation of their its meaning and significance for the school and the district also must be reported. The annual report card must serve at least five six purposes:
(1) inform parents and the public about the school's performance including, but not limited to, that on the home page of the report there must be each school's overall performance rating;
(2) assist in addressing the strengths and weaknesses within a particular school;
(3) recognize schools with high performance;
(4) evaluate and focus resources on schools with low performance; and
(5) meet federal report card requirements; and
(6) document the preparedness of high school graduates for college and career.
(B)(1) The Education Oversight Committee, working with the State Board of Education and a broad-based group of stakeholders, including, but not limited to, parents, business and industry persons, community leaders, and educators, shall determine the criteria for and establish five academic performance ratings of excellent, good, average, below average, and school/district at-risk at-risk for schools as provided below:
(a) Excellent - School performance substantially exceeds the criteria to ensure all students meet the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate;
(b) Good - School performance exceeds the criteria to ensure all students meet the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate;
(c) Average - School performance meets the criteria to ensure all students meet the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate;
(d) Below Average - School performance is in jeopardy of not meeting the criteria to ensure all students meet the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate; and
(e) At-risk - School performance fails to meet the criteria to ensure all students meet the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate.
Schools and districts shall receive a rating for absolute and growth performance.
(2) The same categories of performance ratings also must be assigned to individual indicators used to measure a school's performance including, but not limited to, academic achievement, student growth or progress, graduation rate, English language proficiency, and college and career readiness.
(3) Only the scores of students enrolled continuously in the school at from the time of the forty-five-day enrollment count shall be used to determine the absolute and growth ratings to the first day of testing must be included in calculating the rating. Graduation rates must be used as an additional accountability measure for high schools and school districts.
(4) The Oversight Committee, working with the State Board of Education, shall establish three student performance indicators which will be those considered to be useful for assessing inclusion as a component of a school's overall performance and appropriate for the grade levels within the school.
The student performance levels are: Not Met, Met, and Exemplary. 'Not Met' means that the student did not meet the grade level standard. 'Met' means the student met the grade level standard. 'Exemplary' means the student demonstrated exemplary performance in meeting the grade level standard. For purposes of reporting as required by federal statute, 'proficiency' shall include students performing at Met or Exemplary.
(C) In setting the criteria for the academic performance ratings and the performance indicators, the Education Oversight Committee shall report the performance by subgroups of students in the school and schools similar in student characteristics. Criteria must use established guidelines for statistical analysis and build on current data-reporting practices.
(D) The comprehensive report card must include a comprehensive set of performance indicators with information on comparisons, trends, needs, and performance over time which is helpful to parents and the public in evaluating the school. In addition, the comprehensive report card must include indicators that meet federal law requirements. Special efforts are to be made to ensure that the information contained in the report card is provided in an easily understood manner and a reader-friendly format. This information should also provide a context for the performance of the school. Where appropriate, the data should yield disaggregated results to schools and districts in planning for improvement. The report card should include information in such areas as programs and curriculum, school leadership, community and parent support, faculty qualifications, evaluations of the school by parents, teachers, and students. In addition, the report card must contain other criteria including, but not limited to, information on promotion and retention ratios, disciplinary climate, dropout ratios, dropout reduction data, dropout retention data, access to technology, student and teacher ratios, and attendance data.
(E) After reviewing the school's performance on statewide assessments and results of other report card criteria, the principal, in conjunction with the School Improvement Council established in Section 59-20-60, must write an annual narrative of a school's progress in order to further inform parents and the community about the school and its operation efforts to ensure that all students graduate with the knowledge, skills, and opportunity to be college ready, career ready, and life ready for success in the global, digital, and knowledge-based world of the twenty-first century as provided in Section 59-1-50. The narrative must be reviewed by the district superintendent or appropriate body for a local charter school. The narrative must cite factors or activities supporting progress and barriers which inhibit progress. The school's report card must be furnished to parents and the public no later than November fifteenth for the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 School Years. To further increase transparency and accountability, for the 2018-2019 School Year, the school's report card must be furnished to parents and the public no later than October first. For the 2019-2020 School Year, and every subsequent year, the school's report card must be furnished to parents and the public no later than September first.
(F) The percentage of new trustees who have completed the orientation requirement provided in Section 59-19-45 must be reflected on the school district website.
(G) The State Board of Education shall promulgate regulations outlining the procedures for data collection, data accuracy, data reporting, and consequences for failure to provide data required in this section.
(H) The Education Oversight Committee, working with the State Board of Education, is directed to establish a comprehensive annual report concerning the performance of military-connected children who attend primary, elementary, middle, and high schools in this State. The comprehensive annual report must be in a reader-friendly format, using graphics whenever possible, published on the state, district, and school websites, and, upon request, printed by the school districts. The annual comprehensive report must address at least attendance, academic performance in reading, math, and science, and graduation rates of military-connected children." /
Amend the bill further, Section 59-18-930(A), as contained in SECTION 14, by deleting the subsection in its entirety and inserting:
/ (A) The State Department of Education must issue the executive summary of annually shall publish on its website home page the report card annually to all schools and districts of the State no later than November first fifteenth, for the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 School Years. To further increase transparency and accountability, for the 2018-2019 School Year, the school's report card must be furnished to parents and the public no later than October first. For the 2019-2020 school year, and every subsequent year, the school's report card must be furnished to parents and the public no later than September first. The executive summary shall be printed in black and white, be no more than two pages, use graphical displays whenever possible, and home page report card must be capable of being downloaded into a portable document format (PDF) and must contain National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores as well as or other national scores or comparisons, if available. The report card summary must be made available to all parents of the school and the school district." /
Renumber sections to conform.
Amend title to conform.