Vetoed by Governor Bill Ritter, Jr.

Full Bill Text
Veto Letter

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that allows a school district to include with a public school accountability report an explanation that the school's performance rating would be more favorable had specific groups of CSAP scores been excluded when calculating their academic growth rating.

Highlights:

- Requires the Department of Education, after the overall academic growth rate is calculated for each school, to evaluate whether the rating would have been higher if the test scores from the following groups of students were excluded from the calculations [sec. 2 (9) (a)]:

- Students who were absent the day of the test; - Students who did not complete the entire test; and - Students whose scores were invalidated due to errors in administering the test.

- Requires the Department of Education to notify any public school that would have received a higher academic rating had one or more of the above groups been excluded from the calculations [sec. 2 (9) (b)]. - Specifies that an explanation offered by a school district for a school's performance rating does not refute the ratings contained in the school accountability report [sec. 2 (9) (c)]. - Prohibits a school or school district from penalizing a student who is absent on the day of the test [sec. 3 (1)]. - Amendment No. 1 was sponsored by the Senate Education Committee which removed the provisions that provided for the exemption of specific CSAP scores when calculating a school's performance rating, and supplements the provisions allowing for schools to explain their performance ratings.

Full Bill Text

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that exempts scores from improperly administered CSAPs and zero scores from absent students when calculating a school's academic performance rating.

Highlights:

- Establishes that any school with more than three percent of students not taking the CSAPs does not get the benefit of exempting absent student's zero scores from their academic performance rating (Sec. 3).

Full Bill Text