HB 151-SCHOOL GRADING SYSTEMS  10:00:52 AM CHAIR GATTIS announced that the final order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 151, "An Act establishing a public school and school district grading system for purposes of improving accountability and transparency; providing for Alaska strategic educators in public schools; and providing for an effective date." 10:00:56 AM REPRESENTATIVE LORA REINBOLD, Alaska State Legislature, sponsor, introduced HB 151, paraphrasing from the sponsor statement, which read [original punctuation provided]: I passionately believe in improving the achievement of Alaska's students. We can and we must do better. On a personal note, I gave up a lucrative career in the healthcare industry to pilot my own children successfully through public and private school as a substitute teacher for over 10 years. My son is a great product of the public school system, and there are pockets of greatness all over the state in our public school system, and I am definitely a supporter of both public, private, charter, home schooling, and any parental choice to give our students an opportunity to succeed. Although there are pockets of greatness, overall our kids are not making across the board measurable progress in reading, writing, math and science to prepare them for higher education and to compete in the global marketplace. It is only fair that parents know how their school is doing and that is the reason for this bill, the Parental Education Information Act, HB 151. House Bill 151 is a consumer report card for education by grading our schools A through F. We grade cars and vacuums through Consumer Reports and our schools and kids are much more important. House Bill 151 will provide parents, educators and communities invaluable feedback on where their schools stand. What gets measured gets done. By measuring achievement, A through F clearly identifies where there is excellence in our schools and where there is concern, and provides the opportunity to raise the annual grade. If a school received an undesirable grade it is a clear signal and a baseline for action. We can identify the problem; we can find solutions and help these schools improve their goals. A through F grading is a catalyst for change. Over a dozen states have adopted the A through F grading system, very successfully. The state of Florida has fourteen years of data showing that clear, understandable information on school achievement leads to improvement. I ask for your support for House Bill 151. REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD continued with an overview of the bill and directed attention to an untitled chart found in the committee packet with one column labeled, "K-12 Education Spending Per Capita State and Local Spending," which ranked Alaska highest, and a second column labeled, "4th Grade Reading Scores Upper and Middle Income Students," which ranked Alaska lowest. She stated HB 151 will: help bring clarity and understanding; encourage school excellence; motivate improvement; direct and attract public and media attention to the issues; initiate a positive statewide competition; spark community wide-spread support; increase parental involvement; and create school pride. Representative Reinbold directed attention to a chart found in the committee packet titled, "Proven Results of the A-F Grading System," which illustrated the results in Florida after 14 years of experience with its grading system. In 1999, there were 677 D and F schools and 515 A and B schools. By 2012, there were 279 D and F schools and 2,220 A and B schools. Florida began grading schools in 1995 on a scale of high performing, performing, low performing, and critically low performing. However, in 1998 the grading scale was changed to I-V, and in 1999 to A-F. 10:08:02 AM CHAIR GATTIS moved to adopt the proposed committee substitute (CS) for HB 151, Version 28-LS0496\O, Mischel, 3/14/13. There being no objection, Version O was before the committee. 10:08:45 AM ROBERT PEARSON, Staff, Representative Lora Reinbold, Alaska State Legislature, informed the committee the first change reflected in the CS for HB 151 is to page 1, line 9, which returns the date of the performance designation to September 1, as is currently in statute. The second change is to page 2, lines 23-25, which adds language to clarify that no new science assessments will have to be made in the schools; only the testing that is being done right now will continue to be done, thus no additional test will have to be developed. He directed attention to page 2 of the fiscal note identified as HB0151-EED- TLS-3-8-13, and pointed out the above changes will eliminate Section 2 and its related cost of approximately $900,000. A provision of Section 4 and its related cost of approximately $100,800,000 will also be eliminated, leaving only $254,700 in personnel costs in Section 4. This is the substantial effect of the CS. MR. PEARSON then referred to a document found in the committee packet entitled, "Florida's School Grades Based on Student Performance," saying the change in Florida has been effective. The next page, entitled, "'Parental Education Information Act' Grading Criteria," lists the standards that would be adopted under HB 151. Also, he pointed out that HB 151 will exempt small schools with fewer than 20 students - which will affect an estimated 70 of the approximately 500 schools in Alaska. He emphasized that the main thrust of the bill is to include both the previously identified standards and additional measures; furthermore, HB 151 will incorporate "precise, measurable student achievement" into the section on school accountability. Also included in the committee packet was a document provided by the Foundation for Excellence in Education listing other states that have adopted A-F school grading, and he restated that Florida was the first, adopting the policy 14 years ago. The final document found in the committee packet was an example of a proposed report card with letter grades and back-up information. He said, "Every parent and school and community, the media, would receive something like this and the whole state would be clear on where schools were performing and each community would know what was going on in their community schools." CHAIR GATTIS announced HB 151 was heard and held.