Education Accountability System

The accountability, accreditation, student performance, and resource inequity task force (task force) studied and made recommendations on academic opportunities, inequities, promising practices in schools, and improvements to the accountability and accreditation system. The bill implements the recommendations of the task force.

The bill:

• Requires the department of education (department) in collaboration with schools of a school district, district charter schools, institute charter schools, and school districts (local education providers) to divide state assessments into shorter sections with age-appropriate time frames to evaluate students with disabilities who have an individualized education program or a section 504 plan ;
• Requires the department to develop, at the request of a local education provider, versions of the state assessments for reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies in languages other than English and Spanish , when the number of English language learners with a specific language background reaches at least 1,500 students statewide within an assessed grade level ;
• Requires the department to provide guidance to local education providers and the state charter school institute (institute) on encouraging student participation in state assessments;
• Creates the accountability work group to provide feedback to the department related to state and federal accountability policies and decisions and to make recommendations to the state board of education (state board);
• Requires the department to include curriculum-based achievement college entrance exams in the student academic achievement performance indicator instead of the postsecondary and workforce readiness performance indicator for purposes of calculating performance for the performance indicator concerning student academic achievement ;
• Requires the department, beginning in the 2026-27 school year 2027-28 school year , to measure the postsecondary and workforce readiness performance indicator on 2 4 performance sub-indicators: The college and career readiness before graduation sub-indicator , and the postsecondary progress sub-indicator , the graduation sub-indicator, and the dropout rate sub-indicator ;
• Requires the department to calculate the measures for each performance indicator measurements by combined student group so student groups are counted only once for the overall student population and for the combined disaggregated group. In determining the overall performance on a performance indicator, the department shall ensure that each student in the combined disaggregated group is counted once even if the student belongs to multiple student groups.
• Creates additional supports and plans for local education providers and the institute if they are placed on a priority improvement or turnaround plan;
• Requires the department, in consultation with the technical advisory panel , the accountability work group, and other advisory groups with relevant expertise, to study academic opportunities, inequities, and promising practices in schools and improvements to the state accountability and accreditation system lowering student count thresholds on accountability calculations and reporting, addressing inherent volatility of test score measurements for local education providers with small student populations, and shortening statewide assessments and implementing adaptative assessment technology ;
• Requires the department to create a statewide education accountability dashboard and review and make recommendations to the state board of education on developing a performance report for local education providers and the institute based on the percentage of students who do and do not participate in state assessments and providing the performance report to families, students, and community members in a transparent and accessible manner gather stakeholder input on the specific data elements and visual reporting format for the statewide education accountability dashboard on or before November 1, 2026. The department shall summarize the stakeholder input, the estimated cost for incorporating data elements, and reporting formats with the state board into a report . and
• Encourages local education providers and the institute to adopt solutions to providing educator professional development and transforming instruction in public schools in order to receive a grant award from the school transformation grant program.

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)