2002 House Bill 5879 ↩

House Roll Call 869: Passed

To establish a Michigan Assessment Governing Board in the Department of Treasury to administer a public school assessment test program in reading, math, language arts, science, social studies, and civics. The bill consolidates all student and school assessment and award activities under this board. The bill requires the department of education to establish new school accreditation standards based on parental involvement; student achievement, including current status, change, and annual individual student progress; quality of teachers; quality of schools; and community involvement. (Note: This would essentially adopt the State Board of Education's "Education YES!" accreditation plan.) The new standards would require approval by the House and Senate Education Committees. A school failing accreditation two years in a row would be required to devise an “Ensured Learning Action Plan” with building-level academic standards, performance goals and timetables; revisions to curriculum, instructional practices, or programs; assessments of every student and increased performance information to parents; and greater control by principals over personnel, budget, and programs. It could also recommend the conversion of a school to a public school academy (charter school), or contracting with a private firm to manage the school. If a school failed accreditation for another two years, the state superintendent of public instruction would either appoint an new administrator, help parents get children into an accredited school, affiliate or align it with a college or university, or close the school. In addition, the bill requires annual reading and math tests for all students in grades one to eight, which can be the MEAP test, or a comparable test that allows timely year to year student performance comparisons, with results broken down by race, gender, socio-economic status, disability and language. The bill would not apply to the Detroit School District under it’s state-mandated reform board. See also House Bills 5580 and 5881.