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Senate Bill 174 |
Senate Author: Shapiro et al. |
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Effective: 6-19-09 |
House Sponsor: Branch |
Senate Bill 174 amends the Education Code to require the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) to propose rules setting standards to govern the approval and continuing accountability of educator preparation programs based on information that includes, in addition to information previously required, the achievement of students taught by beginning teachers for the first three years following certification and compliance with SBEC requirements regarding the frequency, duration, and quality of structural guidance and ongoing support provided by field supervisors to beginning teachers during their first year in the classroom. The bill authorizes SBEC to propose rules establishing minimum standards for approval or renewal of educator preparation programs or of certification fields offered by such programs and to propose a rule adopting a fee for program approval or renewal of approval or for the addition of a certificate or field of certification to the scope of a program's approval.
The bill requires SBEC rules for the sanction of educator preparation programs that do not meet accountability standards to provide for the assignment of an accreditation status of not rated, accredited, accredited-warned, accredited-probation, or not accredited-revoked. The rules may provide for the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to take any one or more necessary actions as enumerated in the bill, but the rules must provide for revocation of approval and closure of a program rated as accredited-probation for three consecutive years, provided that the program has been given the opportunity for a hearing before the closure. Any action authorized or required to be taken against an educator preparation program may be taken also with regard to a particular field of certification offered by a program. A revocation of a program's approval must be effective for at least two years, after which period the program may seek renewed approval to prepare educators for state certification. The bill requires a program's sponsor to pay the costs of technical assistance that the TEA may require the program to obtain or the costs associated with the appointment of a monitor, and it removes provisions authorizing SBEC's executive director to appoint an oversight team of educators to make recommendations and provide assistance to educator preparation programs that do not meet accreditation standards.
The bill requires SBEC to make consumer information regarding educator preparation programs in Texas available through its website and sets forth minimum requirements for the information to be made available. The bill authorizes SBEC to develop procedures for designating or ranking each program based on the information to be made available and, if SBEC develops such procedures, requires the inclusion of each program's designation or ranking in the publicly posted information. The bill also requires the board to provide information identifying employment opportunities for teachers in the various regions of Texas and to specifically identify each region with a shortage of qualified teachers.
The bill requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, not later than February 1, 2020, in consultation with institutions of higher education, to develop and maintain online resumes for each institution and, for such purpose, sets out the respective duties of the coordinating board and each institution. The bill requires the coordinating board to create and maintain two online resumes, one for use by legislators and other interested policy makers and another for use by prospective students of the institution, their parents, and other interested members of the public for each general academic teaching institution, each public junior college, public technical institute, and public state college, and each medical and dental unit and sets out requirements for the content to be included in each resume, tailored and appropriate both to the type of institution and category of user for which or for whom the resume is created.