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WSSDA Daily Legislative Update – 2008 Session

REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 1
 
On Friday, the House Education Committee held a work session to receive a report on End-of-Course Assessments. Last session, assessment legislation was adopted that would have required a study of end-of-course assessments. The language in the bill, however, presupposed that a study would be supportive of the use of end-of-course assessment, so Governor Gregoire vetoed that section from the bill. She agreed that a review of the issue was merited, however, and requested that the State Board of Education conduct a study of end-of-course assessments. The State Board contracted with Education First Consulting to conduct an independent study of end-of-course assessments. Representatives from Education First reviewed experiences with these assessments in other states and presented findings of the study today. While they did not specifically provide a recommendation on the use of end-of-course assessments, they provided some insights and sparked some conversations among committee members. Interestingly, Education First reminded legislators that they must first determine what their policy priorities are for student assessment in order to choose the most appropriate testing format. Hopefully, committee members found these findings enlightening because many legislators have been enamored with end-of-course assessments without presenting strong reasons why they should be used — and even less evidence of how the assessments have worked in other states. The issue will continue to be hot this session — in fact, one of the bills heard in committee today (HB 3166) specifically addressed end-of-course assessments and would require the development and implementation of end-of-course assessments in high school math (Algebra I, Geometry, Integrated I and Integrated II). If adopted, HB 3166 would allow the use of end-of-course assessments to obtain a Certificate of Academic Achievement for the Class of 2013 and would require the use of end-of-course assessments (replacing the current math WASL) beginning with the Class of 2014.

The House Education Committee held a public hearing on eight other bills today: HB 2988, HB 3103, HB 2772, HB 2461, HB 2722, HB 2832, HB 2709 and HB 3129.

  • HB 2988 would repeal the current requirement that school districts prepare student learning plans for those students having difficulty meeting state standards and replace it with a requirement that school improvement plans specify how students who need assistance will be identified, how the school will identify interventions for students, and how these will be communicated to parents.
  • HB 3103, HB 2772 and HB 2461 all deal with school employee dismissal or certificate revocation for certain crimes. HB 3103 expands the list of crimes for which convictions or guilty pleas would result in mandatory termination and specifies that the victim of the crime need not be a minor (current law requires termination of employees for certain crimes against minors). HB 2772 would require employee dismissal for the crime of indecent exposure. Similar to HB 3103, HB 2461 expands the list of crimes for which convictions or guilty pleas would result in mandatory termination and specifies that the victim of the crime need not be a minor, but also includes various notification requirements.
  • HB 2722 would create an advisory committee to address the achievement gap for African-American students.
  • HB 2832 would recodify the various statutory pieces of the Basic Education Act into one chapter of the Revised Code of Washington.
  • HB 2709 would authorize school districts to establish a price preference to purchase locally grown food.
  • HB 3129 would require OSPI to compile and post information regarding online learning opportunities available to high school students that wish to earn college credit.

Next week, the fourth week of the 2008 Regular Legislative Session, legislative committees will continue to hold public hearings on bills; however, the majority of the action will be in executive sessions as committees pass bills from committee before the first self-imposed "cut-off" date arrives. All bills must be passed out of their original house policy committee by Friday, Feb. 8, in order to remain alive. While a whole series of bills will die if they are not moved by this cut-off date (and future deadlines), it is important to remember that budget bills and bills considered "necessary to implement the budget" are exempt from most of these early cut-off dates — and that no bill is officially dead until the end of session. Rules are made to be broken — and in the Legislature, if you have the votes, most any rule can be waived.

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Legislative Reports are prepared by WSSDA's Governmental Relations staff team: Dan Steele (360/252-3010) and Sheila Chard (360/252-3011). If you have questions, comments, or concerns, please contact us.

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