BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1207

By: Guillen

Public Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

In 2019, roughly 400 school district campuses in Texas received an F rating under the state accountability system administered by the Texas Education Agency. Although this is a decrease from the previous year, it has been suggested that there are still far too many schools that are falling behind state standards. There have been calls for the implementation of a program designed to target struggling schools and districts to provide the necessary training, staff, and data to ensure that principals have the knowledge and ability to bring a campus up to standards. H.B. 1207 seeks to address this issue by creating a school turnaround endorsement certificate program for principals that supplies these educators with the training they need to turn around failing campuses and districts.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the State Board for Educator Certification in SECTION 1 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 1207 amends the Education Code to require the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC), not later than January 1, 2022, to propose rules establishing the training requirements and course work a principal must successfully complete to receive a school turnaround specialist endorsement as an addendum to a principal certificate. In proposing the rules, the SBEC must ensure that each person who receives the endorsement demonstrates the knowledge and skills necessary to significantly improve teacher and student performance at a campus assigned an overall performance rating of F.

H.B. 1207 requires the SBEC, not later than March 1, 2022, to solicit proposals for a school turnaround specialist endorsement program from appropriate educator preparation programs. The bill authorizes the SBEC to select not more than three of the programs that may be offered to principals from among school turnaround specialist endorsement programs proposed to the SBEC that are capable of satisfying the requirements prescribed by the bill's provisions.

H.B. 1207 requires a turnaround specialist endorsement program under the bill's provisions to do the following:

· partner with one or more public school districts that need principals with the necessary training and education to significantly improve teacher and student performance at one or more campuses assigned an overall performance rating of F;

· have appropriately qualified faculty to conduct a campus leadership-needs analysis, develop and provide the training and course work required by the rules proposed under the bill's provisions, and provide necessary support to program candidates;

· establish a selective admissions process to ensure that each principal admitted to the program meets certain criteria as prescribed by the bill;

· offer a full-time internship that continues for at least one semester and provides meaningful interaction with the central administrative office of a district; and

· collaborate with districts to provide participants who complete the program continued support for at least two years after the participants' initial assignment to a campus.

H.B. 1207 sets out the eligibility requirements for admission to a program established under the bill's provisions. The bill requires the SBEC to periodically evaluate the selected programs and, for purposes of the evaluation, to require each program to submit data, as determined appropriate by the SBEC, for each year and at each five-year interval.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2021.