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
4
+ Assessment
4
+ Assessment--College Entrance Exams
3
+ Assessment--Formative/Interim
1
+ At-Risk (incl. Dropout Prevention)--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
+ Class Size
1
+ Curriculum
1
+ Curriculum--Foreign Language/Sign Language
1
+ Demographics--Condition of Children/Adults
1
+ Economic/Workforce Development
16
+ 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
+ High School--Dropout Rates/Graduation Rates
4
+ High School--Dual/Concurrent Enrollment
6
+ High School--Graduation Requirements
1
+ Instructional Approaches
1
+ Integrated Services/Full-Service Schools
1
+ International Baccalaureate
1
+ Leadership
1
+ Leadership--Principal/School Leadership--Evaluation and Effectiveness
2
+ Leadership--Principal/School Leadership--Preparation
1
+ No Child Left Behind
3
+ Online Learning--Virtual Schools/Courses
5
+ P-16 or P-20
1
+ P-3
2
+ P-3 Child Care
1
+ P-3 Early Intervention (0-3)
2
+ P-3 Ensuring Quality
3
+ P-3 Evaluation/Economic Benefits
1
+ P-3 Finance
2
+ P-3 Governance
3
+ P-3 Grades 1-3
3
+ P-3 Health and Mental Health
1
+ P-3 Kindergarten
3
+ P-3 Kindergarten--Full-Day Kindergarten
1
+ P-3 Preschool
7
+ P-3 Teaching Quality/Professional Development
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
+ Promising Practices
1
+ Promotion/Retention
3
+ 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--Facilities
4
+ 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
- STEM
6
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

MarylandGovernor Martin O'Malley's State of the State Address

PROPOSALS

Facilities
-- Build modern schools.

Teacher Quality - Pensions
-- Split the responsibility of the pension system 50/50 between state and counties.

Teaching Quality - Recruitment and Retention
--Create and save 78,000 teaching jobs at public schools across the state.

Postsecondary, Community Colleges - Facilities
-- Build new facilities at Cecil Community College, Harford Community College and Howard Community College as well as Frostberg State and Morgan State University.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Student Achievement
-- Elementary and middle school students achieved their highest ever scores on the Maryland School Assessment (MSA) in reading and middle school students achieved their highest ever scores in math.
-- High school students achieved the best AP scores in the nation.
-- Rated #1 best school system in nation by Education Week for four years in a row.

Facilities
-- Built new schools and modern classrooms.

High School - Graduation Rates
-- High school graduation rates reached an all-time high.

Postsecondary - Enrollment
-- Enrollment at Maryland's colleges and universities reached an all-time high in Fall 2011. Enrollment in 4-year institutions has grown 21% since 2005.

Postsecondary - Finance
-- Froze in-state tuition at state colleges and universities four years in a row and held increases to 3% for the last three years.

Postsecondary - STEM
-- Colleges are graduating 21% more science, technology, engineering and math students (STEM).

http://www.governor.maryland.gov/documents/StateOfTheState2012.pdf

MassachusettsGovernor Deval Patrick's State of the State Address

PROPOSALS

Community Colleges, Economic/Workforce Development
--Community colleges are uniquely positioned to help close the state's skills gap and get people back to work. Community colleges must become a fully integrated part of the state's workforce development plan.  They must be aligned with:
+ Employers, voc-tech schools and Workforce Investment Boards in the regions where they operate
+ Each other in core course offerings
+ The Commonwealth's job growth strategy.
--Channel more state workforce training dollars through the community colleges.

Community College Funding, Governance
--Create a unified community college system to:
+ Help students find courses specifically tailored to meet local workforce needs alongside a core curriculum that emphasizes STEM subjects and with credits that are easily transferable to another community college or a four-year college.
+ Create "learn and earn" programs across the entire state enabling students to get practical workplace experience while completing course work.  
+ Offer the students the opportunity to earn a certificate of workplace readiness, opening doors in their chosen field anywhere in the state. And as they near course completion, offer one-stop career centers right on campus to help them move into, or back into, the workplace.
--Streamline the funding and governance of community colleges, and increase overall funding by $10 million.
--Challenge to the business community: Match that new funding with an additional $10 million.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Public Employee Pensions
--Made meaningful reforms in the pension system.

Student Safety
--Legislature approved and funded the "Safe and Successful Youth Initiative." 

Student Achievement
--Massachusetts students lead the nation in overall achievement and the world in math and science.

http://www.mass.gov/governor/pressoffice/speeches/23012012state-of-the-commonwealth-address.html

South DakotaGovernor 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

WashingtonGovernor Chris Gregoire's State of the State Address

PROPOSALS

Accountability
-- Step in and turn around schools where dropout rates are high, student performance and achievement are low, and where no progress is being made.

Teaching Quality - Evaluations
-- Overhaul the way teachers are evaluated by focusing on high-quality instruction, student achievement and growth.
-- Provide a system to evaluate the performance of principals based on student achievement.

Finance
-- Lift the levy lid.
-- Fund levy equalization.

P-3 - Preschool, Kindergarten
-- Continue implementation of all-day kindergarten for all kids.
-- Create "All Start," a voluntary Washington preschool program to provide early learning opportunities to all 3- and 4-year-olds.

Postsecondary - Community/Technical Colleges
-- Provide funding to community and technical colleges to retrain 2,500 workers for the jobs of tomorrow.

Postsecondary - Finance
-- Provide four-year institutions with competitive tuition flexibility.
-- Restore funding for the State Need Grant Program in order to keep the doors to higher education open to students of all income levels.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Student Achievement
-- K-12 student test scores continue to rank high nationally.

School Choice
-- Innovative schools in cities around the state have been highly successful in raising vital math and science skills.

Postsecondary - Community/Technical Colleges
-- Community and technical college system is rated as one of the best in the nation

Teaching Quality
-- Rank fifth in the nation in board-certified educators.

http://www.governor.wa.gov/speeches/speech-view.asp?SpeechSeq=213

WyomingGovernor Matt Mead's State of the State Address
PROPOSALS

STEM
-- Continue to push STEM education.

Common Core State Standards
-- Accept common core standards as determined by Wyoming citizens.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Finance
-- Shown a strong financial commitment to education.

http://governor.wy.gov/SiteCollectionDocuments/State%20of%20the%20State%202012.pdf

+ Student Achievement
7
+ Teaching Quality
6
+ Teaching Quality--Certification and Licensure
2
+ Teaching Quality--Certification and Licensure--Alternative
1
+ 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--Evaluation and Effectiveness
16
+ Teaching Quality--Induction Programs and Mentoring
1
+ Teaching Quality--Preparation
3
+ 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
+ Teaching Quality--Reduction in Force
1
+ Teaching Quality--Tenure or Continuing Contract
10
+ Technology--Computer Skills
2
+ Urban--Change/Improvements
1
+ Youth Engagement
1
356