This database is made possible by your state's fiscal support of the Education Commission of the States (ECS). Most entries are legislative, although rules/regulations and executive orders that make substantive changes are included. Every effort is made to collect the latest available version of policies; in some instances, recent changes might not be reflected. For expediency purposes minimal attention has been paid to style (capitalization, punctuation) and format.
Please cite use of the database as: Education Commission of the States (ECS) State Policy Database, retrieved [date].
| State |
Status/Date |
Level |
Summary |
|
 CO | Signed into law 03/2009 | P-12
Postsec. | Creates the Education Innovation Institute within the University of Northern Colorado to collaborate with institutions to leverage research, funding, expertise, and other resources, discover and study innovations in teaching and learning, create, pilot, and advocate for innovations in educational delivery methods, and work to align the public education system from preschool through postsecondary and workforce readiness with an objective of universal proficiency for all students; creates a funding mechanism.
http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2009a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/FCCE1B03FF61A0AA87257537001A2B3C?open&file=032_enr.pdf
Title: S.B. 32
Source: http://www.leg.state.co.us
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| CA | Signed into law 09/2008 | Community College | Authorizes the Board of Governors of the State Community Colleges to establish a pilot program to provide faculty and staff from community college districts with the information, methods, and instructional materials to establish open education resource centers. Provides grant selection criteria. Requires the participating districts to report program information to the Chancellor of the Community Colleges. Chapter 671
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset2text.htm
Title: A.B. 2261
Source: http://www.assembly.ca.gov
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| IA | Signed into law 04/2008 | P-12 | Establishes committees to formulate plans to expand for a state research and development prekindergarten through grade twelve school and providing an effective date.
http://coolice.legis.state.ia.us/Cool-ICE/default.asp?Category=billinfo&Service=Billbook&frame=1&GA=82&hbill=SF2307
Title: S.F. 2307
Source: http://coolice.legis.state.ia.us
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| TX | Adopted 12/2007 | P-12 | This item adopts new 19 TAC Chapter 95, Commissioner's Rules Concerning Education Research Centers, §95.1001, Operation of Education Research Centers. The adopted new section implements the Texas Education Code (TEC), §1.005, Education Research Centers; Sharing Student Information, added by House Bill (HB) 1, 79th Texas Legislature, Third Called Session, 2006, that requires the commissioner of education and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to adopt rules for the use of student data at an education research center. The adopted new 19 TAC §95.1001, Operation of Education Research Centers, provides procedures for implementing education research centers to conduct research for the benefit of education in the state, including research relating to the impact of state and federal education programs, the performance of educator preparation programs, public school finance, and the best practices of school districts with regard to classroom instruction, bilingual education programs, special language programs, and business practices.
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/rules/commissioner/adopted/1207/95-1001-ltradopt.htm
Title: 19 TAC Chapter 95
Source: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/rules
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| CO | Signed into law 06/2007 | Postsec. | Concerns State matching funds for competitive Federally sponsored research projects at Colorado public universities; creates the Higher Education Competitive Research Authority and the Innovative Higher Education Research Fund.
http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2007a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/AE2BA436E6A7180E87257275007AA745?open&file=182_enr.pdf
Title: S.B. 182
Source: Colorado Legislature
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| FL | Signed into law 05/2006 | P-12 | Defines secondary schools as those serving grades 6-12. Specifies that the following guiding principles must be used in the annual preparation of each secondary school's improvement plan:
(a) Struggling students, especially those in failing schools, need the highest quality teachers and dramatically different, innovative approaches to teaching and learning.
(b) Every teacher must contribute to every student's reading improvement.
(c) Quality professional development provides teachers and principals with the tools they need to better serve students.
(d) Small learning communities allow teachers to personalize instruction to better address student learning styles, strengths, and weaknesses.
(e) Intensive intervention in reading and math must occur early and through innovative delivery systems.
(f) Parents need access to tools they can use to monitor their child's progress in school, communicate with teachers, and act early on behalf of their child.
(g) Applied and integrated courses help students see the relationships between subjects and relevance to their futures.
(h) School is more relevant when students choose courses based on their goals, interests, and talents.
(i) Master schedules should not determine instruction and must be designed based on student needs, not adult or institutional needs.
(j) Academic and career planning engages students in developing a personally meaningful course of study so they can achieve goals they have set for themselves.
Requires local boards to adopt policies to address:
(a) Procedures for placing and promoting grade 6-12 students entering from out of state or from a foreign country, including a review of the student's prior academic performance.
(b) Alternative methods for students to demonstrate competency in required courses and credits, with special support for students who have been retained.
(c) Applied, integrated, and combined courses that provide flexibility for students to enroll in courses that are creative and meet individual learning styles and student needs.
(d) Credit recovery courses and intensive reading and math intervention courses based on student performance on the FCAT. These courses should be competency based and offered through innovative delivery systems, including computer-assisted instruction. Districts should use learning gains as well as other appropriate data and provide incentives to identify and reward high-performing teachers who teach credit recovery and intensive intervention courses.
(e) Grade forgiveness policies that replace a grade of "D" or "F" with a grade of "C" or higher earned subsequently in the same or a comparable course.
(f) Summer academies for students to receive intensive reading and mathematics intervention courses or competency-based credit recovery courses. A student's participation in an instructional or remediation program prior to or immediately following entering grade 9 for the first time shall not affect that student's classification as a first-time 9th grader for reporting purposes.
(g) Strategies to support teachers' pursuit of the reading endorsement and emphasize reading instruction professional development for content area teachers.
(h) Creative and flexible scheduling designed to meet student needs.
(i) Procedures for high school students who have not prepared an electronic personal education plan to prepare such plan.
(j) Tools for parents to regularly monitor student progress and communicate with teachers.
(k) Additional course requirements for promotion and graduation which may be determined by each school district in the student progression plan and may include additional academic, fine and performing arts, physical education, or career and technical education courses in order to provide a complete education program.
Requires the department to:
(a) By February 1, 2007, increase the number of approved applied, integrated, and combined courses available to districts.
(b) By the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year, make available a professional development package designed to provide the information that content area teachers need to become proficient in applying scientifically based reading strategies through their content areas.
(c) Share best practices for providing a complete education program to students enrolled in course recovery, credit recovery, intensive reading intervention, or intensive math intervention.
(d) Expedite assistance and decisions and coordinate policies throughout all divisions within the department to provide districts with support to implement the Florida Secondary School Redesign Act.
(e) Use data to provide the Legislature with an annual longitudinal analysis of the success of this reform effort, including the progress of 6th grade students and 9th grade students scoring at Level 1 on FCAT Reading or FCAT Math.
Directs the commissioner of education to create and implement the Secondary School Improvement Award Program to reward public secondary schools that demonstrate continuous student academic improvement and show the greatest gains in student academic achievement in reading and math.
Pages 35-39 of 160: http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=_h7087er.doc&DocumentType=Bill&BillNumber=7087&Session=2006
Title: H.B. 7087 - Section 19
Source: www.myfloridahouse.gov
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| IN | Signed into law 05/2005 | P-12 | Defines "phonologic weakness." Requires the department of education to develop and implement a plan to
(1) train teachers, especially the teachers directly involved in reading and language arts, about phonologic weakness and its role in reading development;
(2) determine which reading instruments can be used to detect phonologic weakness before formal reading instruction begins;
(3) determine which reading instruments can be used to assess student reading and spelling development; and
(4) apply the results of the assessment using reading instruments to a child's instructional program.
Requires the department to develop a technical assistance manual related to the plan and adopt reading instruments to diagnose reading and writing development. Requires each instrument adopted to be based on scientific research concerning reading development and have adequate reliability and validity.
http://www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2005/HE/HE1488.1.html
Title: H.B. 1488
Source: www.in.gov
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| WA | Signed into law 05/2005 | Postsec. | Authorizes an independent nonprofit Washington Academy of Sciences. The legislature finds that public policies and programs will be improved when informed by independent scientific analysis and communication with state and local policymakers. Throughout the state there are highly qualified persons in a wide range of scientific disciplines who are willing to contribute their time and expertise in such reviews, but that presently there is lacking an organizational structure in which the entire scientific community may most effectively respond to requests for assessments of complex public policy questions. The principal mission will be the provision of scientific analysis and recommendations on questions referred to the academy by the governor, the governor's designee, or the legislature. http://www.leg.wa.gov/pub/billinfo/2005-06/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Passed%20Legislature/5381.PL.pdf
Title: S.B. 5381
Source: http://www.leg.wa.gov
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| OK | Signed into law 05/2005 | P-12 | Requires the state board to develop rules that allow every school district, school, administrator, teacher, and student of the public school system in this state to choose to participate in scientifically based research designed for the purpose of improving academic achievement in accordance with all relevant state and federal laws. http://www2.lsb.state.ok.us/2005-06SB/sb982_enr.rtf
Title: S.B. 982, Section 13
Source: http://www2.lsb.state.ok.us/
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| AR | Issued 04/2005 | P-12 | Declares Arkansas will participate in the Compact for Education Research and Development. Council is intended to create a partnership among member states for purposes of creating a high quality, sustained research and development effort that would improve teaching, learning, and effective management of schools throughout the member states.
Title: Executive Order 04-01
Source: Governor's Web Site
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| KY | Signed into law 03/2005 | P-12
Postsec. | Requires colleges and universities to:
(a) Utilize institution-wide resources to work with elementary and secondary educators and other entities to align curriculum content to ensure that students who achieve proficiency on standards established at the prekindergarten through secondary levels will require no remediation to successfully enter a postsecondary education program;
(b) Provide quality undergraduate teacher preparation programs to ensure that those preparing to teach reading or mathematics at all grade levels have the necessary content knowledge, assessment and diagnostic skills, and teaching methodologies;
(c) Deliver appropriate continuing education for teachers in reading and mathematics through institutes, graduate level courses, and other professional development activities that support a statewide agenda for improving student achievement in reading and mathematics;
(d) Conduct or assist with research on best practices in assessment, intervention strategies, teaching methodologies, costs and effectiveness of instructional models, and other factors as appropriate to reading and mathematics;
(e) Provide staff to consult and provide technical assistance to teachers, staff, and administrators at elementary, middle, and secondary school sites;
(f) Assume active roles in the statewide initiatives referenced in Sections 2 and 5 of this Act; and
(g) Develop written procedures for measuring the effectiveness of activities outlined in paragraphs (a) to (e) of this subsection.
Declares an emergency.
http://lrc.ky.gov/RECORD/05RS/HB93.htm
Fiscal note: http://lrc.ky.gov/RECORD/05RS/HB93/FN.doc
Title: H.B. 93 (Section 1, paragraph 7)
Source: lrc.ky.gov
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| KY | Signed into law 03/2005 | P-12 | Specifies that the teachers' professional growth fund is to provide teachers with high quality professional development in content knowledge in reading and classroom-based screening, diagnostic, assessment and intervention strategies. States that the fund may be used to provide grants to local school districts to support staff participation in specific, statewide initiatives for the professional development of teachers and administrators in specific content areas as established by the Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky Board of Education as established in this bill; to provide grants to colleges and universities to plan and develop statewide professional development institutes and other professional development services; and to provide grants to local school districts, to colleges and universities, or other entities to assist the Kentucky Department of Education in evaluating costs and the effectiveness of activities and initiatives established under the teachers' professional growth fund.
Requires that professional development programs for which teachers may receive support from the fund provide training in the use of research-based and developmentally appropriate classroom-based screening, diagnostic, assessment, and intervention strategies.
Requires that, beginning June 1, 2006, through the 2009-2010 school year, priority for the use of funds from the teachers' professional growth fund be to train and support teams of teachers from all school levels to be trained as reading coaches and mentors or as mathematics coaches and mentors in statewide institutes referenced in Sections 1 and 2 of this bill, and for selected teachers to be highly trained in providing diagnostic assessment and intervention services for students in the primary program struggling with mathematics.
Requires the design of the statewide mathematics institutes to train mathematics coaches and mentors to be developed by the Committee for Mathematics Achievement. Requires the design of the professional development program to provide highly trained mathematics intervention teachers in the primary program to be developed by the Center for Mathematics in collaboration with public and private institutions of postsecondary education.
Requires that the development of the statewide program to train reading coaches and mentors be coordinated by the Kentucky Department of Education with recommendations from the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development and the reading steering committee established in KRS 158.794. Mandates that the design of the program reflect a consensus of the agencies involved in the development of the program. Requires the training program for reading coaches and mentors to complement other statewide reading initiatives, funded with state and federal funds, and that the program give priority to teachers in grades 4-12. Requires that the program be implemented no later than June 1, 2006.
Declares an emergency.
http://lrc.ky.gov/RECORD/05RS/HB93.htm
Fiscal note: http://lrc.ky.gov/RECORD/05RS/HB93/FN.doc
Title: H.B. 93 (Sections 5 and 6)
Source: lrc.ky.gov
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| KY | Signed into law 03/2005 | P-12 | This act is to be cited as the "Read to Achieve Act of 2005." Relates to reading; makes an appropriation therefor; describes the general assembly's findings and intent regarding reading. Defines "comprehensive reading program," "reading diagnostic assessment," and "reading intervention program." Eliminates the Early Reading Incentive Fund and the Early Reading Incentive Grant Steering Committee; establishes the Reading Diagnostic and Intervention Fund and the Reading Diagnostic and Intervention Grant Steering Committee to provide renewable, two-year grants to help teachers and library media specialists improve the reading skills of struggling readers in the primary program. Requires the state board to:
1. Identify eligible grant applicants, taking into consideration how the grant program described in this section will relate to other grant programs;
2. Specify the criteria for acceptable diagnostic assessments and intervention programs;
3. Specify the criteria for acceptable ongoing assessment of each child to determine his or her reading progress;
4. Establish the minimum evaluation process for an annual review of each grant recipient's program and progress;
5. Identify the annual data that must be provided from grant recipients;
6. Define the application review and approval process;
7. Establish matching requirements deemed necessary;
8. Define the professional development and continuing education requirements for teachers, library media specialists, administrators, and staff of grant recipients;
9. Establish the conditions for renewal of a two-year grant; and
10. Specify other conditions necessary to implement the program.
Sets forth principles that program grant applicants must meet for the applicant's request for funding to be approved.
Requires the department's annual report on the use of grant funds to include comparisons of the overall costs and effectiveness of intervention programs, and every other year to include an estimate of the cost to expand the reading diagnostic and intervention grant program.
Modifies the membership and expands upon the powers of the Reading Diagnostic and Intervention Grant Steering Committee.
Requires the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development: Early Childhood through Adulthood to undertake specified advisory and research duties. Requires the center's research agenda to consider the impact of various reading and intervention programs:
1. In eliminating academic achievement gaps among students with differing characteristics, including subpopulations of students with disabilities, students with low socioeconomic status, students from racial minority groups, students with limited English proficiency, and students of different gender;
2. In schools with differing characteristics, such as urban versus rural schools, poverty versus nonpoverty schools, schools with strong library media center programs versus schools with weak library media center programs and schools in different geographic regions of the state;
3. In terms of their costs and effectiveness; and
4. In maintaining positive student progress over a sustained period of time.
Requires the Early Childhood Development Authority to provide that primary students, regardless of age, who are having difficulty with reading may be referred and receive a second vision examination as described in KRS 156.160 at no cost to the parent.
http://lrc.ky.gov/RECORD/05RS/SB19.htm
Title: S.B. 19
Source: lrc.ky.gov
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| CA | Vetoed 09/2004 | P-12 | Authorizes a local educational agency that provides every pupil in kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive, with instructional materials in reading that were adopted by the state board of education in January 2002, to determine which supplemental instruction materials are scientifically based and aligned with the reading/language arts content standards adopted by the state board. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_2401-2450/ab_2416_bill_20040817_enrolled.html
Veto message: http://www.governor.ca.gov/govsite/pdf/vetoes/AB_2416_veto.pdf
Title: A.B. 2416
Source: California Legislative Web site
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| CA | Signed into law 09/2004 | P-12 | Requires the state department of education to identify and notify local educational agencies that are in danger of being identified within three to four years as program improvement local educational agencies under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 200. Requires the department to provide those local educational agencies with research-based criteria to conduct a voluntary self-assessment using department-provided materials and criteria based on current research. Requires the department to invite any local education agency at risk of being identified for program improvement within two years to participate in the Prevention of Local Education Agency Intervention Program, hereby created, which includes a self-assessment as well as follow-up procedures. Requires a local education agency identified for program improvement under NCLB to (1) conduct a self-assessment using the department-provided materials and criteria, (2) contract with a county office of education or another external entity for specified assistance, (3) expeditiously implement the LEA plan based on the self-assessment findings, and (4) contract with an external provider for technical assistance.
Specifies possible sanctions against a local education agency identified for corrective action under NCLB and that did not accept a supplemental grant, as well as sanctions against a local education agency identified for corrective action under NCLB and that did accept a supplemental grant. Authorizes state superintendent to require a local education agency to contract with a district assistance and intervention team to aid a local educational agency.
Provides additional funding to local educational agencies for schools identified as program improvement schools or potential program improvement schools under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, with certain requirements. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_2051-2100/ab_2066_bill_20040918_chaptered.pdf
Title: A.B. 2066
Source: www.leginfo.ca.gov
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| RI | Became law without GOVERNOR'S signature. 07/2004 | P-12 | Requires that activities under this act include strategies to improve the performance of students in mathematics, reading and writing. Such activities must be founded on a scientific research base, as described in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Reading instruction to improve the reading skills of all students in the early grades (specifically kindergarten (K) through to and including grade five (5) are to be consistent with the board of regents reading policy.
Title: H.B. 8180
Source: http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/gen_assembly
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| RI | To governor 06/2004 | P-12 | Activities under this act must include strategies to improve the performance of students in mathematics, reading and writing. Such activities must be founded on a scientific research base, as described in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Reading instruction to improve the reading skills of all students in the early grades (specifically kindergarten (K) through to and including grade five must be consistent with the board of regents reading policy.
Title: S.B. 2623
Source: http://www.rilin.state.ri.us
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| VA | Signed into law 04/2004 | P-12 | Requires the English Standards of Learning for reading in grades K-3 to be based on components of effective reading instruction, including, at a minimum, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary development, and text comprehension. http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?041+ful+CHAP0955
Title: H.B. 1014
Source: leg1.state.va.us
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| MO | Signed into law 06/2002 | P-12 | Requires districts to have reading programs for kindergarten through grade three that are based on scientific research. The programs must contain five elements, one of which is phonics. Explicit systematic phonics, as defined in the bill, is permitted as part of the program.
Title: H.B. 1711
Source: House Research Stafff Summaries
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| CA | Signed into law 10/2001 | P-12 | Appropriates funds to the Department of Education for purposes of contracting for a study that identifies reading programs in schools that maintain any kindergarten or grades 1-6 where the performance of 75% of the pupils was at or above the 80th percentile on the reading portion of the achievement tests administered pursuant to the Standardized Testing and Reporting Program.
Title: A.B. 876
Source: Lexis-Nexis/StateNet
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