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House Bill 2012 |
House Author: Villarreal |
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Effective: 9-1-13 |
Senate Sponsor: Patrick |
House Bill 2012 amends the Education Code to require the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to collect school district information on salaries paid to professional district staff entitled to the minimum monthly salary and to use the data to conduct a cost-of-living salary comparability analysis in each region of the state to determine how classroom teacher salaries compare to salaries in similar professions. The bill requires the commissioner of education to delineate regional boundaries and to designate the professions that constitute similar professions. The bill requires TEA to make the information available for public use in summary form on TEA's Internet website; to deliver a report on the analysis to the governor, the legislature's presiding officers, and the chairs of the house and senate committees with jurisdiction over public education not later than December 1, 2014; and to post the report on its Internet website. The bill limits TEA funding for the data collection and analysis to available funds and resources from public or private sources. These provisions expire September 1, 2015.
House Bill 2012 requires the commissioner to develop an online survey to be administered statewide at least biennially by a contracted third party administrator to certain full-time certified professional staff for the purpose of eliciting information on teaching and learning conditions as predictors of student achievement and growth; the relationship between teaching and learning conditions on teacher retention and on student attendance and graduation; the influence of school leadership on teaching and learning conditions; and related educational resource and support needs. The bill requires the commissioner to make each survey's results available to the public as well as to school districts and campuses, which are required to use the results to review and revise district-level or campus-level improvement plans and otherwise enhance the district and campus learning environment, as appropriate. The bill requires the commissioner to use the results to develop, review, and revise TEA professional development offerings, TEA teacher retention initiatives, and standards for principals and superintendents. The bill limits the commissioner's funding for these purposes to available funds and resources from public and private sources.
House Bill 2012 requires each educator preparation program to provide certain information regarding the teaching profession and requires rules proposed by the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) to render a person, other than one seeking career and technology certification, ineligible for admission to an educator preparation program unless the person satisfies a minimum grade point average requirement prescribed by the board and, for an initial certification, either successfully completes a specified minimum number of semester credit hours in the applicable subject-specific content area or passes a content certification examination. The bill also requires the SBEC to determine the satisfactory level of performance required for each educator certification examination and to require satisfactory performance in each core subject covered by the generalist certificate examination and prohibits the SBEC from requiring that more than 45 days elapse before a person may retake an examination.
House Bill 2012 requires a school district, in addition to conducting a complete teacher appraisal as frequently as is required by law, to require that appropriate components of the appraisal process occur more frequently as necessary to ensure that a teacher receives adequate evaluation and guidance, with priority given to conducting those components more frequently for inexperienced teachers or experienced teachers with identified deficiencies. The bill requires a district to use a teacher's consecutive appraisals from more than one year, if available, in making employment decisions and developing career recommendations for the teacher and requires the timely notification of appraisal results to the teacher in order for the district and the teacher to use the appraisal as a developmental tool to improve the teacher's overall performance.
House Bill 2012 requires TEA, using only available funds and resources from public or private sources, to conduct periodic audits of the professional development requirements applicable to Texas educators and, based on audit results, to seek to eliminate conflicting requirements and consolidate duplicative requirements by taking administrative action, encouraging local initiatives, or recommending legislative action. The bill also requires TEA to provide districts guidance regarding high-quality professional development and the expected outcomes of such development.
House Bill 2012 requires the commissioner each year to report to the legislature regarding the effectiveness of school district mentoring programs and requires the governor and the legislature's presiding officers to form a temporary advisory committee, with TEA administrative support, to evaluate the implementation of such programs, recommend improvements, develop guidelines aligning teacher induction and mentoring activities with expectations for new teachers, and submit a report of its recommendations. The bill's provisions relating to the temporary committee expire January 31, 2015.