October 12, 2005, Introduced by Senators CASSIS, SWITALSKI, TOY, BIRKHOLZ, McMANUS and ALLEN and referred to the Committee on Education.
A bill to amend 1970 PA 38, entitled
"An act to provide for assessment and remedial assistance programs
of students in reading, mathematics and vocational education,"
by amending section 2 (MCL 388.1082), as amended by 2005 PA 31.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 2. (1) The statewide assessment program of educational
progress shall cover all students annually in at least 2 elementary
and middle school grade levels in public schools. If the federal
government requires assessments at additional grade levels under
the no child left behind act of 2001, Public Law 107-110, the
superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that this state
complies with those requirements.
(2) The superintendent of public instruction shall develop and
conduct the assessment program and may utilize the assistance of
appropriate
testing organizations or testing specialists.
Beginning
with assessments conducted in the 2005-2006 school year,
all
All of the following apply to the assessment program:
(a) The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that
any contractor used for scoring an assessment instrument supplies
an individual report for each student that will identify for the
student's parents and teachers whether the student met expectations
or failed to meet expectations for each standard, to allow the
student's parents and teachers to assess and remedy problems before
the student moves to the next grade.
(b) The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that
any contractor used for scoring, developing, or processing an
assessment instrument meets quality management standards commonly
used in the assessment industry, including at least meeting level 2
of the capability maturity model developed by the software
engineering institute of Carnegie Mellon university for the 2005-
2006 school year assessments and at least meeting level 3 of the
capability maturity model for subsequent assessments.
(c) The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that
any contract it enters into for scoring, administering, or
developing an assessment instrument includes specific deadlines for
all steps of the assessment process, including, but not limited to,
deadlines for the correct testing materials to be supplied to
schools and for the correct results to be returned to schools, and
includes penalties for noncompliance with these deadlines.
(d) The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that
the assessment instruments meet all of the following:
(i) Are designed to test students on grade level content
expectations in all subjects tested for each grade level tested.
(ii) Comply with requirements of the no child left behind act
of 2001, Public Law 107-110.
(iii) Are consistent with the code of fair testing practices in
education prepared by the joint committee on testing practices of
the American psychological association.
(iv) Are factually accurate. If the superintendent of public
instruction determines that a question is not factually accurate
and should be removed from an assessment instrument, the state
board and the superintendent shall ensure that the question is
removed from the assessment instrument.
(e) The department shall specify a testing period each year
for public schools to administer the assessments. The testing
period shall be at least 5 weeks long and shall begin no earlier
than October 1.
(3) The program shall assess competencies in the basic skills
and collect and utilize other relevant information essential to the
assessment program.
(4) Based on information from the program, the public schools
shall identify students who have extraordinary need for assistance
to improve their competence in the basic skills and shall identify
students who have demonstrated extraordinary competence in multiple
subject areas who should be recommended for advancement.
(5) Information from the program shall be given to each school
as soon as possible to assist it in its efforts to improve the
achievement of students in the basic skills.