ECS
2012 State of the State Addresses
Education-Related Proposals by Issue


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 addresses. To assure that this information reaches you in a timely manner, minimal attention has been paid to style (capitalization, punctuation) or format. To view the documents, click on the blue triangle next to the state.

+ Accountability
7
+ Accountability--Reporting Results
6
+ Accountability--Sanctions/Interventions
3
+ Accountability--School Improvement
2
+ Assessment
4
+ Assessment--College Entrance Exams
3
+ Assessment--Formative/Interim
1
+ At-Risk--Alternative Education
1
+ Attendance
3
+ Career/Technical Education
7
+ Career/Technical Education--Career Academies/Apprenticeship
1
+ Choice of Schools
4
+ Choice of Schools--Charter Schools
11
+ Choice of Schools--Charter Schools--Research
1
+ Choice of Schools--Vouchers
5
+ Civic Education--Professional Development
1
+ Continuous Impr/Performance Mgmt.
2
+ Continuous Impr/Performance Mgmt.--Promising Practices--Schools
1
+ Curriculum
1
+ Curriculum--Foreign Language/Sign Language
1
+ Demographics--Condition of Children/Adults--Welfare
1
+ Distance Learning/Virtual University
5
+ Economic/Workforce Development
12
+ Economic/Workforce Development--Research
3
+ Economic/Workforce Development--STEM
6
+ Economic/Workforce Development--Workforce Demand
3
+ Federal
1
+ Finance
24
+ Finance--Facilities
1
+ Finance--Federal
2
+ Finance--Funding Formulas
4
+ Finance--Resource Efficiency
2
+ Finance--State Budgets/Expenditures
2
+ Governance
3
+ Governance--Deregulation/Waivers/Home Rule
1
+ Health--Teen Pregnancy
1
+ High School
3
- High School--Advanced Placement
3
AlabamaGovernor Robert Bentley's State of the State Address

PROPOSALS

Choice, Charter Schools
--Create a limited number of charter schools.

District Flexibility
--Propose the School Flexibility Act of 2012, to allow more decision-making at the local level. Allow local school systems to develop their own innovative strategies, free from state or federal bureaucracy.

Finance
--Budget proposal includes protecting
+Alabama Reading Initiative
+ACCESS Distance Learning
+Alabama Math Science and Technology Initiative
+Advanced Placement
+Pre K programs.

Teaching Quality, Leadership
--Ensure that every child's classroom and school is led by a highly effective, professional educator free to use their talents to create a stimulating and innovative learning environment in their own classroom.
--Form a "Teacher Cabinet", made up of teachers, administrators, school board members and parents to provide the administration with unfiltered feedback on the needs of public schools.

Teacher Expenditures on Classroom Supplies
--Propose a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for every teacher who spends their money on their classroom.

Career/Technical Education, Workforce Development
--Propose new investment in Alabama's workforce development and career tech programs.

ACHIEVEMENTS

http://blog.al.com/bn/2012/02/alabama_gov_robert_bentleys_st.html

New MexicoGovernor Susana Martinez's State of the State Address

PROPOSALS

Accountability
-- Develop preliminary, baseline grades for New Mexico schools. By this summer, every school will receive an official letter grade – A, B, C, D, or F.

Assessment - College Entrance Exams, Formative/Interim
-- Assess kids from the 4th to 10th grades to catch kids before they fall too far behind.
-- Pay for 10th graders to take the Pre-SAT.

High-School - Advanced Placement, Drop-out Rates
-- Expand access to Advanced Placement classes for low-income students.
-- Raise graduation rates.

Reading/Literacy
-- Assess children early on – in kindergarten, first, second grade…
-- Buy every New Mexico first grader a reading book of their very own.
-- Encourage parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles to read to their children.
-- Invest $17 million in reading reforms
-- Ensure every child learns the basics and identify and help those who struggle before the third grade.
-- Provide immediate help through tutoring and extra individual attention to students who are struggling.
-- Put more reading coaches in elementary schools.

Teacher Quality - Evaluations
-- Develop a new teacher evaluation system.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Finance
-- Protected classroom spending.
-- School districts cut administrative waste and increased the percentage of their funding that went directly into the classroom.

Demographics - Condition of Children
-- Provided school clothes for kids most in need.

http://www.governor.state.nm.us/uploads/PressRelease/191a415014634aa89604e0b4790e4768/stateofstate2012.pdf

OregonGovernor John Kitzhaber's State of the State Address

PROPOSALS

P-3
--Implement the recommendations of the Early Learning Council to:
+Streamline disparate programs as part of a plan to ensure coordination and accountability
+Consolidate boards
+Get programs focused on outcomes for children and families.
--Serve more at-risk kids and make sure they're ready to learn from day one.
--Develop the capacity to measure program effectiveness before children reach kindergarten, and better transition them once they reach the K-12 system. 

Accountability, High School--Dropout/Graduation Rates, Goal-Setting
--Obtain an NCLB waiver and create a home-grown alternative that provides smart accountability and better paths to student success. Legislation to be introduced in February creates educational achievement compacts and is essential to obtaining a waiver. The legislation is also essential to meeting the state goal of 100% high school graduation for Oregonians by 2025; with 80% of those graduates receiving at least two years of post-secondary education or training; and 40% earning a bachelor's degree or higher.
--Use achievement compacts to replace the federal, compliance-based approach with partnership agreements between the state and educational institutions – districts, community colleges and universities. The compacts express a common commitment to improving outcomes, but tailor outcomes to unique circumstances of individual districts. And they allow for the comparison of results and progress between districts with comparable populations.

Class Size, Non-Core Curriculum
--Reduce class sizes in K-12.
--Add courses like art, music, PE and career and technical skills back into the curriculum.

K-12 and Postsecondary Finance
--Provide additional resources. Public education system is underfunded at all levels.
--Do not let the absence of adequate funding foreclose a real discussion about how to more effectively spend existing resources.
--Target existing resources to leverage points – like early learning, third-grade reading, and college completion – that are proven to significantly drive costs down.

Postsecondary Finance
--Expand the capacity of public universities significantly to accommodate tens of thousands of additional graduates.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

P-20, Finance, Governance, Teacher Professional Development, Learning Options for Students
--Created the Oregon Education Investment Board.
--Created legislation promoting the professional development of teachers.
--Created more learning options for students (dual enrollment, Advanced Placement, two-plus-two, International Baccalaureate).
--In taking these actions, the legislature made the first steps toward a more student-centered system. For the first time, funding and governance will be aligned across the full continuum from early childhood services through K-12 and post-secondary education and training to achieve the state's educational, social and economic objectives. 

P-3
--Created the Early Learning Council focused on restructuring the fragmented, inefficient way the state provides early childhood services. Currently, the state spends over $800 million every biennium on programs for children ages 0-5, yet 40% of Oregon children still arrive at school at risk because their needs were not adequately addressed. Continuing to support a system with these outcomes should no longer be acceptable.

http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/media_room/speeches/s2012/cityclub_011312.shtml

+ High School--Dropout Rates/Graduation Rates
4
+ High School--Dual/Concurrent Enrollment
6
+ High School--Graduation Requirements
1
+ High School--International Baccalaureate
1
+ Instructional Approaches
1
+ Leadership
1
+ Leadership--Principal/School Leadership--Evaluation and Effectiveness
2
+ Leadership--Principal/School Leadership--Preparation
1
+ No Child Left Behind
2
+ No Child Left Behind--Flexibility
1
+ P-16 or P-20
1
+ P-3 Early Care & Intervention
2
+ P-3 Early Care & Intervention--Child Care
1
+ P-3 Early Care & Intervention--Health & Mental Health
1
+ P-3 Early Grades
2
+ P-3 Early Grades--1-3
1
+ P-3 Early Grades--Kindergarten
3
+ P-3 Early Grades--Kindergarten--Full Day
1
+ P-3 Early Grades--Preschool
7
+ P-3 Systems
2
+ P-3 Systems--Ensuring Quality
3
+ P-3 Systems--Evaluation/Economic Benefits
1
+ P-3 Systems--Finance
2
+ P-3 Systems--Governance
3
+ P-3 Systems--Teaching Quality/Prof. Dev.
1
+ Postsecondary
1
+ Postsecondary Accountability--Student Learning
1
+ Postsecondary Affordability--Financial Aid
7
+ Postsecondary Affordability--Tuition/Fees
1
+ Postsecondary Affordability--Tuition/Fees--Undocumented Immigrants
1
+ Postsecondary Finance
13
+ Postsecondary Finance--Efficiency/Performance-Based Funding
1
+ Postsecondary Finance--Facilities
3
+ Postsecondary Governance and Structures
2
+ Postsecondary Institutions--Community/Technical Colleges
6
+ Postsecondary Participation--Enrollments (Statistics)
2
+ Postsecondary Success--Completion
3
+ Postsecondary Success--Completion--Completion Rates (Statistics)
4
+ Postsecondary Success--Transfer/Articulation
1
+ Reading/Literacy
12
+ Rural
1
+ Scheduling/School Calendar
3
+ Scheduling/School Calendar--Extended Day Programs
1
+ School Safety
2
+ School Safety--Bullying Prevention/Conflict Resolution
1
+ School/District Structure/Operations--District Structure
1
+ School/District Structure/Operations--Facilities
4
+ School/District Structure/Operations--School Structure--Class Size
1
+ School/District Structure/Operations--Transportation
1
+ Special Education
2
+ Special Populations--Immigrant Education
1
+ Standards
2
+ Standards--Common Core State Standards
2
+ State Policymaking
7
+ Student Achievement
7
+ Student Supports--Integrated Services
1
+ Students--Promotion/Retention
3
+ Teaching Quality
6
+ Teaching Quality--Certification and Licensure
2
+ Teaching Quality--Certification and Licensure--Highly Qualified Teachers
1
+ Teaching Quality--Certification and Licensure--Natl. Bd. for Prof. Teach. Stds.
1
+ Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay
2
+ Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay--Pay-for-Performance
6
+ Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay--Retirement/Benefits
6
+ Teaching Quality--Employment--Reduction in Force
1
+ Teaching Quality--Employment--Tenure or Continuing Contract
10
+ Teaching Quality--Evaluation and Effectiveness
16
+ Teaching Quality--Induction Programs and Mentoring
1
+ Teaching Quality--Preparation
3
+ Teaching Quality--Preparation--Alternative Preparation
1
+ Teaching Quality--Professional Development
2
+ Teaching Quality--Recruitment and Retention
2
+ Teaching Quality--Recruitment and Retention--At-Risk Schools
3
+ Teaching Quality--Recruitment and Retention--High-Needs Subjects
1
+ Technology--Instruction
2
+ Urban--Change/Improvements
1
+ Youth Engagement
1
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