2013 State of the State Addresses Education-Related Proposals by Issue

The following summary includes education-related proposals from the 2013 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 3 Accountability--Rewards 2 Accountability--School Improvement 3 Assessment--High Stakes/Competency 1 At-Risk (incl. Dropout Prevention) 6 Attendance 2 Bilingual/ESL 1 Business Involvement 3 Career/Technical Education 4 Choice of Schools 4 Choice of Schools--Charter Schools 7 Choice of Schools--Choice/Open Enrollment 2 Choice of Schools--Tax Credits 1 Choice of Schools--Vouchers 3 Civic Education 2 Counseling/Guidance 1 Curriculum--Foreign Language/Sign Language 1 Curriculum--Mathematics 1 Economic/Workforce Development 19 Finance 24 Finance--Facilities 3 Finance--Federal 1 Finance--Funding Formulas 1 Finance--Lotteries 1 Finance--Performance Funding 1 Finance--State Budgets/Expenditures 6 Finance--Taxes/Revenues 3 Governance 3 Health 2 Health--Mental Health 1 High School 3 High School--College Readiness 3 High School--Dropout Rates/Graduation Rates 1 High School--Dual/Concurrent Enrollment 2 High School--Exit Exams 1 High School--Graduation Requirements 1 Integrated Services/Full-Service Schools 1 Online Learning--Digital/Blended Learning 3 Online Learning--Virtual Schools/Courses 1 P-16 or P-20 1 P-3 4 Delaware Governor Jack Markell's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Economic/Workforce Development -- Develop a Delaware Skills Bank – an inventory of essential tasks for in-demand occupations in the state – and use it to ensure that training programs provide workers with the right opportunities. Once workers have completed the training they need to fill in-demand jobs, make sure that employers know it, by providing these workers with a Career Readiness Certificate that employers respect and trust. Dropout Prevention Implement the Youth ChalleNGe program supported by the Delaware National Guard. This is a residential program for a couple dozen Delaware high school dropouts. Through education and mentoring from Guard members, the program targets young people who can get back on a path to a degree and a rewarding life and career. And because Maryland has all of the necessary facilities and because the Department of Defense picks up 75 percent of the cost, this is a very cost-effective way to serve these young people. Health -- Increase ten-fold the number of trained, front line mental health personnel in our middle schools. P-3 -- On track to increase from 20 to 80 the percentage of high need children in child care enrolled in quality-rated early learning programs. School Choice -- Create a best-in-class information system on Delaware's schools that provides a clear picture of the different strengths in each school. -- Give parents the option of a common application to make it easier to apply to multiple schools. Teacher Compensation -- Re-examine that pay structure in order to incentivize teaching in high-need schools and critical subjects, raise starting teacher pay, and reward teacher leadership. Teacher Preparation -- Strengthen the standards for entry into the teaching profession.   -- Introduce rigorous exit assessment for our preparation programs, which includes demonstration of content knowledge as well as teaching skills. Teacher Retention -- Create a Teacher Leaders role which will keep excelling teachers in the classroom by encouraging them to be role models in their schools, and earn more for putting their experience to work in the classroom. Youth Engagement -- Provide more opportunities for after-school and summer activities that get kids off the streets and give them exposure to the arts, nature, and physical activity and ensure the staff running these activities receive training in suicide prevention. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Health - Suicide Prevention -- Funded new training for front line school personnel in Kent and Sussex Counties to recognize early signs of trauma in children, and we worked together with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to offer the highest-quality training to all of our high schools in detection and prevention of depression in teenagers. Student Achievement/Graduation Rates -- Moved thousands of students from below or average to higher levels of achievement.  -- Steadily improved graduation rates. -- Increased number of high school students taking advanced coursework. Curriculum - Foreign Language -- Started 340 students in a world language immersion program. Ten thousand Delaware students will participate in the program over the next decade.  Full Text: http://governor.delaware.gov/speeches/2013stateofthestate/2013_sots_address.shtml Illinois Governor Pat Quinn's State of the State Address PROPOSALS School Safety -- Pass legislation that will require every school in the state to practice active safety drills that will prepare them for even the worst. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Accountability -- Improved school report cards. Economic/Workforce Development -- Trained thousands of workers for jobs in high-demand industries like healthcare, manufacturing and construction. Postsecondary Access - Immigrant Students -- Created the Illinois Dream Commission for awarding scholarships to high school graduates from immigrant families. Military -- Signed an Executive Order that directs our licensing agencies to assess military training for state license requirements. Last month, the Board of Nursing approving a suggested "bridge" curriculum for military medics to obtain LPN licenses. P-3 -- Invested $45 million to build early childhood education centers in high-need communities across Illinois, including in Carpentersville, Dolton, and Cahokia. School Safety -- Convened a School Safety Summit with education, public safety, mental health and law enforcement leaders to identify better ways to protect our schools. Teacher Evaluations/Tenure -- Set clear benchmarks for teacher evaluation and put performance above tenure. Full Text: http://www2.illinois.gov/gov/Documents/State%20of%20the%20State/State%20of%20the%20State%202013.pdf Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Dropout Prevention -- Fund national certifications for high school students enrolled in workforce training. Choice - Charter Schools -- Pass a charter school act. Choice - Open Enrollment -- Implement an open enrollment policy. Choice - Vouchers -- Create privately funded Opportunity Scholarships for students who are below 250 percent of the poverty level and live in D and F schools districts. P-3 - Best Practices -- Fund $3 million to help Mississippi Building Blocks continue literacy research and thereby develop best practices in early education. Postsecondary -- Build new expansion at University of Mississippi's School of Medicine. With the addition of new classrooms and laboratories, each incoming class of medical students will increase to more than 160. Reading/Literacy -- End social promotion of third grade students who cannot read on a third-grade level. -- Fund $15 million to assist with literacy improvement efforts. These funds will help us train teachers on best-practices in reading instruction and will also help provide reading interventionists to help struggling third-graders and other students. Teacher Pay-for-Performance -- Reward best teachers with higher pay. Teacher Preparation --Raise the bar for new teachers by raising the entrance standard for education programs. A student must have a 21 ACT score and a minimum GPA of 3.0 to become a teacher. Why would we want anything less for our students? Teacher Recruitment - Scholarships -- Fund 200 scholarships for students who have a 28 ACT score, a 3.5 GPA, and who commit to teaching in Mississippi public schools for five years. ACCOMPLISHMENTS State Policymaking - Task Forces -- Formed a working group of educators at all levels to identify the core problems in Mississippi's public education system and develop realistic recommendations for improvement. Full Text: http://www.governorbryant.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/State-of-the-State.pdf Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin's Second Inaugural Address PROPOSALS Career Readiness -- Focus the education of children - from grade school through college - on career readiness. -- Encourage schools to develop Personal Learning Plans that travel with each student from elementary through their senior year. These plans would help guide each student's education and also tie educational goals to career opportunities, making school more relevant. The key to this proposal is to increase our students' individual options while fostering a connection between school and career.    Health, At-Risk Students --Cover the shortfall left by the federal government, and makes free lunch available for all low-income students, including those who are currently only eligible for reduced prices. Whenever possible, these lunches should be made from local Vermont farm grown food, since we know that Vermont farmers grow the healthiest food in the nation. Mathematics -- Require that all 9th graders take algebra and all 10th graders take geometry. Dual Enrollment and Early College -- Over the past five years, state funding has provided limited access to Vermont high school students to get a head start on gaining expensive college credit by enrolling in for-credit college courses while they are in high school. Doubling the funding to expand access to all Vermont students. -- Authorize an early college initiative aimed at expanding (from 40) the number of students who simultaneously complete their senior year of high school with their first year of college. P-3 -- Strengthen commitment to funding universal early childhood education.  -- Make the largest single investment in early childhood education in Vermont's history. Redirect $17 million from the state's Earned Income Tax Credit to make high quality childcare affordable to hardworking lower-income Vermonters.  -- Ensure financial support to communities that initiate publicly funded preschool programs where they do not now exist. Provide resources for first year start up costs, after which communities offering pre-school programs will be eligible for reimbursement through the education fund. -- Invite all early childhood stakeholders to a summit to build and embrace our vision for the success of our children and their families. -- Direct the Agency of Human Services to implement an integrated plan for health promotion and prevention, beginning before birth, to ensure that all children reach their full potential. -- Do more to ensure that all our children are healthy and prepared to learn by providing pediatric, psychological, dental, nutrition and pre-school services on site.    Postsecondary Participation and Economic Development -- Address affordability with new vigor, particularly for those students who pursue degrees in the disciplines of the new economy. -- Initiate the Vermont Strong Scholars Program. It's a simple program, and here's how it works: if you enroll in any public institution of higher education in the state of Vermont and graduate with a degree in a STEM field, we will give you a helping hand to stay and work in Vermont by paying you back, over the course of five years, for your final year of tuition. Or if you graduate with an Associate's Degree in a STEM field, we will pay you back over three years for your final semester of tuition. -- Increase the state's appropriation for the Vermont State Colleges, VSAC, and UVM by three percent, to be used entirely for financial aid and scholarships for Vermonters.   -- Identify savings to guarantee affordability for students and their families and the survival of UVM and our State Colleges. -- Implement the eleven recommendations of the group I appointed last year to find ways to strengthen UVM and the State Colleges.   -- Utilize the 17 career and technical education centers around the state that provide opportunities for students and adults who need to update skills to advance their earning power. Use the centers as the foundation for Vermont Innovation Zones throughout the state. Our current funding system does not encourage centers to match the needs of regional employers.  These Innovation Zones will focus on areas of education and professional opportunity that fit the needs of their region. high schools and tech centers in the Kingdom would become an Innovation Zone and would be able to shift current generic course requirements to focus on those that provide the training the region needs. For example, the Kingdom may choose to focus heavily on engineering, hospitality, and health care courses that would result in Kingdom jobs for Kingdom kids.    Business Involvement --Call on employers to engage with the educational system at all levels. Open your businesses to our schools. Let our students interact with your employees, so they can see how they use their education every day.  Invite teachers and guidance councilors in to experience a deeper understanding of what their students need to succeed.  Engage high school and college interns. And provide opportunities for your employees to go back and further their education. ACCOMPLISHMENTS --N/A P-3 Child Care 1 P-3 Early Intervention (0-3) 1 P-3 Finance 1 P-3 Kindergarten 4 P-3 Kindergarten--Full-Day Kindergarten 2 P-3 Preschool 16 Parent/Family 1 Postsecondary 5 Postsecondary Affordability 5 Postsecondary Affordability--Financial Aid 6 Postsecondary Affordability--Tuition/Fees 3 Postsecondary Finance 12 Postsecondary Finance--Efficiency/Performance-Based Funding 7 Postsecondary Finance--Facilities 1 Postsecondary Institutions 1 Postsecondary Institutions--Community/Technical Colleges 3 Postsecondary Online Instruction 1 Postsecondary Participation--Access 3 Postsecondary Success--Completion 4 Postsecondary Success--Developmental/Remediation 1 Reading/Literacy 13 Scheduling/School Calendar 2 Scheduling/School Calendar--Extended Day Programs 1 School Safety 9 Service-Learning 1 Special Education 4 Special Populations 1 Special Populations--Military 3 Standards 1 State Longitudinal Data Systems 1 State Policymaking 6 State Policymaking--Task Forces/Commissions 5 STEM 5 Student Achievement 5 Teaching Quality 5 Teaching Quality--Certification and Licensure--Alternative 1 Teaching Quality--Certification and Licensure--Natl. Bd. for Prof. Teach. Stds. 1 Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay 5 Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay--Pay-for-Performance 7 Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay--Retirement/Benefits 3 Teaching Quality--Evaluation and Effectiveness 5 Teaching Quality--Preparation 3 Teaching Quality--Professional Development 1 Teaching Quality--Recruitment and Retention 7 Teaching Quality--Tenure or Continuing Contract 3 Technology 5 Technology--Devices/Software/Hardware 1 Youth Engagement 1 323