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].
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Status/Date |
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Summary |
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 UT | Signed into law 03/2003 | P-12 | Section 21 (53A-13-108) was added to law. The Legislature finds that a free public education should:
(1)(a) prepare each student for the student's choice of higher education or gainful employment, focusing on the core academic skills of reading, writing, science, and mathematics, balanced with exposure to the arts and applied technology which will enable students to: (i) communicate effectively, both verbally and through written communication; (ii) apply mathematics; and (iii) access, analyze, and apply information; and (b) train students in the key attributes required for successful living.
(2) In accordance with the findings described under Subsection (1), the State Board of Education shall study and make recommendations for: (a) aligning responsibility, authority, accountability, and funding for the State Board of Education, state superintendent, and local school districts; (b) an improved environment of academic achievement; (c) implementing competency-based progress and measurement systems that allow each student to continually progress within and between course levels at an individual optimal rate; (d) assuring that each high school senior is progressing in challenging courses; (e) developing, with employers, trades, professions, and the State Board of Regents competency standards for progress or graduation; (f) improving methods of motivating school districts to increase academic discipline, including reduced cutting of classes by students and utilizing means such as closed campuses; (g) implementing a progress-based assessment system that continually tracks individual student progress each year in each of the core academic areas by: (i) tracking student progress from year to year on a longitudinal basis, rather than aggregate levels of performance; (ii) utilizing national norm-referenced tests as benchmarks, so that the progress of Utah students can be compared to the progress of students in other states and the nation; (iii) providing progress assessment data that follow each student wherever that student attends schools in the state; and (iv) making the assessment data available to parents to permit them to make fully informed decisions regarding the districts, schools, and teachers they wish to involve in the educational process for their children; (h) developing methods to increase school choice among public schools, including intradistrict and interdistrict transfers, and expansion of alternative schools such as charter schools and New Century schools; (i) aligning the current funding mechanisms with the priorities of the strategy focusing on core academics, to include financial incentives and consequences; (j) developing a new incremental state funding mechanism for public education that: (i) motivates school districts to focus on achieving value-added progress in core academics; (ii) is tied to the progress-based assessment system described under Subsection (2)(g); (iii) provides funding details, including adjustments for mobility; and (iv) provides school districts, parents, students, and educators an economic incentive for developing economic efficiencies in the delivery of instruction; (k) remediating schools and districts that do not meet appropriate standards based on the progress-based assessment described above, including possible transfer of control to the State Board of Education; (l) developing ways to meet a variety of learning styles; (m) developing savings through building utilization and per square foot cost limitation in building construction programs; and (n) implementing other best demonstrated practices of other states and their school districts that are achieving significant improvement in core academic progress.
(3) (a) By August 15, 2003, the state board must submit an initial report to the governor's office for use at the State Education Summit Meeting. (b) The State Board of Education shall make at least three annual reports on the issues
described under Subsection (2) to the Education Interim Committee. (c) A final report, including any proposed legislation, shall be presented to the Education Interim Committee prior to November 30, 2003, 2004, and 2005.
http://www.le.state.ut.us/~2003/bills/sbillenr/sb0154.pdf
Title: S.B. 154 (Omnibus Bill)
Source: http://www.le.state.ut.us/
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