ECS
2012 State of the State Address
Education-Related Proposals
South Dakota


Education Commission of the States • 700 Broadway, Suite 810 • Denver, CO 80203-3442 • 303.299.3600 • fax 303.296.8332 • www.ecs.org

The following summary includes education-related proposals from the 2012 state of the state address. To assure that this information reaches you in a timely manner, minimal attention has been paid to style (capitalization, punctuation) or format.

Governor Dennis Daugaard's State of the State Address

PROPOSALS

Accountability
-- Introduce new accountability system: test students at the beginning of the year, to set a baseline, in the middle of the year, to allow for a mid-course correction, and at the end.

Assessments
-- Require more than 2,000 high school students take the National Career Readiness Certificate test.

Standards -- Common Core State Standards
-- Adopt Common Core Standards
-- Provide aggressive training programs for teachers on teaching the Common Core Standards.

STEM and Applied Learning
-- Expand the scrubs camp concept (free, one-day, hands-on training) into engineering camps and technical camps and math camps.

Teaching Quality --
Evaluation, Effectiveness and Employment
-- Implement the "South Dakota Investing in Teachers" initiative.
-- Introduce new teacher evaluation system - consider growth in test scores, classroom evaluations and other factors.
-- Provide training programs to help administrators learn new teacher evaluation system.
-- End the availability of tenure, effective July 1 of this year, for anyone who doesn't have it by that date.

Pay-for-Performance
-- Beginning in the 2014-15 school year, identify top 20% best teachers based upon the new evaluation system and give each teacher a bonus
of $5000.
-- Beginning in the 2013-14 school year, pay every middle school and high school math or science teacher a bonus of $3500 every year.

Postsecondary - Community/Technical Colleges, Technology, Distance Learning
-- Develop hybrid courses to deliver instruction both on-line and in the lab for technical training.
-- Expand the technical training (specifically, welding) in the Springfield corrections facility.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Instructional Approaches
-- Hundreds of SD students have experienced the "scrubs camps" organized by the state Department of Health. Scrubs camps are free, one-day, hands-on health career camps for high school students.

Student Achievement
-- High school graduation rates are strong.
-- High school graduates go on to post-secondary education at one of the highest rates in the nation.
-- Students' test scores, ACT and NAEP, routinely exceed national averages.

http://sd.gov/governor/docs/State%20of%20the%20State%20Address.pdf