Bill Creates Accountability System for Schools

Air Date:02/16/2012

The House Appropriations Committee passed a bill that creates a new state accountability system for public schools. Secretary of Education Melody Schopp calls the measure the "Anti-No Child Left Behind" bill. She says the state is applying for a waiver to opt out of the accountability system in No Child Left Behind, and create a system that is more specific to South Dakota. Schopp says a work group began meeting this summer and created several indicators to measure schools including things such as student achievement, high school completion rate, and teacher evaluations.
 
"Our goal is then instead of holding schools, as I've indicated over and over again here, with one is that we would be able to look at schools with multiple indicators," Schopp says. "Our report card right now, if you were to go out and see how we hold schools accountable it's based on a single score. It's a report card that says ‘Did schools make it?' and if they didn't make the score they were put on school improvement. Instead we envision we will have a better report card which will show how we hold schools accountable based on these different pieces. And then schools will receive a performance index and they will be able to set their targets and goals to improve every year. It's based on continuous improvement."
 
The bill also creates a financial accountability rating system for public schools. Some who testified took issue with that part of the bill, saying each school is unique and therefore can't be compared financially. The measure passed the committee by a vote of six to three. 

By Jenifer Jones

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