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

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 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 District of Columbia Mayor Vincent C. Gray's State of the District Address PROPOSALS High School - Graduation Rates -- Raise graduation rates. P-3 - Child Care -- Expand access to universal, high-quality infant and toddler care. P-3 Systems - Ensuring Quality -- Test, learn and teach important best practices about early childhood development. Student Supports - Integrated Services -- Offer a new resource in our Early Success plan - $12 million, state-of-the-art early childhood Educare Center in the Kenilworth-Parkside Promise neighborhood, which will provide services to 171 children and their families. Student Achievement -- Help more students move beyond mere proficiency to advanced levels of achievement. Workforce Development - Workforce Demand -- Fundamentally redesign how we approach job training adapted to the needs of the 21st century. It must be data-driven and must equip people with the hard and soft skills necessary to compete for the jobs of tomorrow. Charter Schools -- Be a model of how the best public schools can operate in a healthy, virtuous competition with the best public charter schools to spur creativity, learning and achievement that prepares young people to compete in the new economy. School Structure - Facilities -- Continue to implement our comprehensive school-modernization plan, rebuilding or renovating our schools. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Special Education -- Expanded the quality of special education programming, enabling us to serve students closer to home and reduce the number of students attending non-public schools by 20 percent in just the past 11 months. Student Achievement -- Seen gains in student performance as measured both by our DC-CAS test and by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. P-3 - Preschool -- Became the first city in America to offer universal pre-K, and we are now ranked #1 in the nation in pre-kindergarten enrollment. School Structure - Facilities -- Opened a new H.D. Woodson High School; renovated Langley School; modernized and expanded facilities at Woodrow Wilson High School, Anacostia High School and Janney Elementary; restored Takoma Education Campus, where we invested $25 million unexpectedly in the aftermath fire in December of 2010; began the modernization of Cardozo High School; and broke ground on a new Dunbar High School. A new Ballou Senior High School and many others will soon follow. Youth Engagement/Professional Development -- Engaged over 14,000 youth in the reformed Summer Youth Employment Program last year, teaching them the culture and value of an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. http://mayor.dc.gov/DC/Mayor/About+the+Mayor/News+Room/Text+of+the+State+of+the+District+Address Maine Governor Paul LePage's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Student Achievement -- Create an educational system that can help us compete globally. Maine can and must lead the nation [in student performance]. -- Improving education in Maine starts with one simple step: putting students first. That is not a slogan. It is not a cliche. We all must ask ourselves "What is best for the student?" -- Ensure children's educational needs are determined by their families – not by their street address. Teaching Quality/Effectiveness -- Introduce a series of reforms related to Maine's teacher effectiveness policies. Career and Technical -- Ensure that every student has access to a wider array of educational opportunities. Increase access to, and improve upon, Maine's Career and Technical Education System. Students should have the ability to choose to study trades, and develop skills before joining the workforce. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Charter Schools -- Passed charter school legislation. Finance -- Increased general purpose aid to K-12 education by $63 million. http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/index.php?topic=Gov_Speeches&id=345707&v=article2011 Maryland Governor 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 Massachusetts Governor 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 Missouri Governor Jay Nixon's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Charter Schools - Evaluations -- Pass a comprehensive charter school accountability bill that holds all charter schools - and their sponsors - to high standards of academic achievement and financial integrity. Finance -- Increase funding for K-12 classrooms. Teaching Quality - Recruitment at High-Risk Schools, Evaluation and Effectiveness -- Recruit our best college students to become teachers in those urban and rural public schools that have the greatest needs and hold them accountable for what kids are learning. Special Education - Autism -- Pass legislation to increase access to care by expanding the number of licensed professionals working with children with autism. Postsecondary - Financial Aid -- Provide stable funding for our state college scholarships, including Bright Flight, Access Missouri, and A+. -- Increase number of A+ scholarships granted to students from 12,500 this year to 14,000 next year. High School - Dual Enrollment; Career/Technical Education - Apprenticeships; Postsecondary - Financial Aid -- Expand Innovation Campuses which allow students to enroll in college courses while still in high school, and then participate in high-impact apprenticeships throughout the college curriculum. Corporate partners will underwrite tuition scholarships, and faculty and employers will partner to guide each student. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Student Achievement -- Students have shown academic improvement for four years in a row. Distance Learning -- Expanded the ability of a local school in Otterville to provide web-based classes using streaming video. Finance -- Maintained level funding for K-12 classrooms during difficult economic times. Teaching Quality - Certification, Alternative Preparation -- Put teaching certifications on-line. Special Education - Autism -- Passed legislation to ensure that children with autism get the therapy they need. Community/Technical Colleges, Economic/Workforce Demand -- Established new higher-education programs like Caring for Missourians, Training for Tomorrow, MoHealthWINS and our Nurse Training Initiative through community colleges in order to prepare thousands more Missourians for rewarding careers. -- Increased investment in our Customized Training Program by 50 percent. The investment allowed employers to provide on-the-job training to nearly 37,000 workers who are currently working at more than 300 Missouri businesses. Postsecondary - Enrollment -- Increased enrollment at public colleges - over the past three years, we've added 31,000 students. That's set a new record each fall. High School -- Added 110 "A+" schools (The A+ Schools Program mobilizes an intensive partnership among high schools, community colleges, students, teachers, parents, labor, businesses, and communities to give these students the motivation, skills, and knowledge to graduate from high school. The schools create an innovative and well-designed path from high school to high skill, high wage jobs). -- Increased the number of students enrolled in A+ schools by 30%. Postsecondary - Tuition Affordability -- Froze tuition in 2009 and 2010 at all public colleges and universities. http://governor.mo.gov/newsroom/2012/Gov_Nixon_delivers_2012_State_of_the_State_address South Dakota 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 Washington Governor 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 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 1 359