53200-53203
EDUCATION CODE
SECTION 53200-53203
53200. For purposes of this article, the following definitions apply: (a) "Low-achieving school" means a school described in subdivision (a) of Section 53201. (b) "Persistently lowest-achieving school" means a school identified pursuant to subdivisions (a) to (f), inclusive, of Section 53201. 53201. The Superintendent and the state board shall establish a list of schools according to the following: (a) Identify any Title 1 school in improvement, corrective action, or restructuring. (b) Identify the lowest 5 percent of the schools in subdivision (a) as measured by the academic achievement of all pupils in a school in terms of proficiency on the state's assessment under Section 1111 (b)(3) of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.) in reading/language arts and mathematics, combined pursuant to subdivision (h). (c) Identify any secondary school that is eligible for, but that does not receive, Title I funds and is in the lowest 5 percent of secondary schools as measured by the academic achievement of all pupils in a school in terms of proficiency on the state's assessment under Section 1111(b)(3) of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.) in reading/language arts and mathematics, combined pursuant to subdivision (h). (d) Add to the schools identified pursuant to subdivisions (a) to (c), inclusive, any high school that has had a graduation rate, as defined in Section 200.19(b) of Title 34 of the Code of Federal regulations, that is less than 60 percent in each of the previous three years. (e) To the extent allowable under federal law, exclude from the schools identified pursuant to subdivisions (a) to (d), inclusive, a school that meets any of the following, except as provided in subdivision (f): (1) The school is a county community school operated pursuant to Chapter 6.5 (commencing with Section 1980) of Part 2 of Division 1 of Title 1. (2) The school is a juvenile court school operated pursuant to Article 2.5 (commencing with Section 48645) of Chapter 4 of Part 27. (3) The school provides educational services exclusively to individuals with exceptional needs as defined in Section 56026. (4) The school has experienced academic growth of at least 50 points over the previous five years as measured by the Academic Performance Index, using the most recent data available. (f) Notwithstanding subdivision (e), a school that meets any of the criteria in subdivision (e) shall not be excluded from the schools identified pursuant to subdivisions (a) to (d), inclusive, if both the Superintendent and the state board find cause not to exclude the school. (g) To the extent allowable under federal law, a community day school, operated pursuant to Article 3 (commencing with Section 48660) of Chapter 4 of Part 27, may be excluded from the schools identified pursuant to subdivisions (a) to (d), inclusive, if both the Superintendent and the state board find cause to exclude the school. (h) For the purposes of identifying the lowest 5 percent of the schools pursuant to subdivisions (b) and (c), the Superintendent and the state board may use a methodology consistent with the methodology used to calculate the Academic Performance Index in order to create composite results across content areas and grade levels in reading/language arts and mathematics pursuant to subdivisions (b) and (c), unless the Superintendent and the state board develop a more appropriate methodology to meet the requirements of subdivisions (b) and (c). (i) Prior to the implementation of subdivision (h), the Superintendent and the state board shall notify the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature. 53201.5. The Superintendent shall notify the governing board of a school district, county superintendent of schools, or the governing body of a charter school or its equivalent, that one or more of the schools in its jurisdiction have been identified as a persistently lowest-achieving school. 53202. (a) For purposes of implementing the federal Race to the Top program established by Sections 14005 and 14006 of Title XIV of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5), the governing board of a school district, county superintendent of schools, or the governing body of a charter school or its equivalent, shall implement, for any school identified by the Superintendent as persistently lowest-achieving pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 53200, unless the Superintendent and the state board determines, to the extent allowable under federal law, that the school has implemented a reform within the last two years that conforms to the requirements of the interventions required by the Race to the Top program and is showing significant progress, one of the following four interventions for turning around persistently lowest-achieving schools described in Appendix C of the Notice of Final Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, Selection Criteria for the Race to the Top program published in Volume 74 of Number 221 of the Federal Register on November 18, 2009: (1) The turnaround model. (2) The restart model. (3) School closure. (4) The transformation model. (b) Prior to the governing board meeting to select one of the four interventions described in subdivision (a), the governing board of a school district, county superintendent of schools, or the governing body of a charter school or its equivalent, with one or more persistently lowest-achieving schools shall hold at least two public hearings to notify staff, parents, and the community of the designation and to seek input from staff, parents, and the community regarding the option or options most suitable for the applicable school or schools in its jurisdiction. At least one of those public hearings shall be held at a regularly scheduled meeting, if applicable, and at least one of the public hearings shall be held on the site of a school deemed persistently lowest-achieving. (c) In addition to meeting the requirements specified in Appendix C of the Notice of Final Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, Selection Criteria for the Race to the Top program published in Volume 74 of Number 221 of the Federal Register on November 18, 2009, a persistently lowest-achieving school implementing the turnaround or transformation model may participate in a school-to-school partnership program by working with a mentor school that has successfully transitioned from a low-achieving school to a higher-achieving school. (1) For purposes of this article, a mentor school is a school that meets either of the following: (A) The school has exited Program Improvement pursuant to the No Child Left Behind Act. (B) The school has increased, in the statewide rankings based on the Academic Performance Index, by two or more deciles over the last five years, using the most recent data available. (2) The principal and, at the discretion of the principal, the staff of a mentor school shall provide guidance to a persistently lowest-achieving school to develop a reform plan for the school using the required elements of the turnaround or transformation model, and provide guidance and advice on how the mentor school was able to transform the culture of the school from low-achieving to higher-achieving and how that transformation could be replicated at the school implementing a turnaround or transformation model. (3) To the extent that federal funds are made available for this purpose pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 53101, the mentor school shall receive funds for serving as a mentor school. As a condition for receipt of funds, the principal, and at the principal's discretion, the staff, of a mentor school shall meet regularly with the assigned persistently lowest-achieving school for a period of at least three years. 53203. (a) The regional consortia authorized under Section 52059, in collaboration with the department, from funds provided for this purpose pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 53101, shall provide, at a minimum, technical assistance and support to local educational agencies with one or more persistently lowest-achieving schools to assist with the implementation of the duties specified for any of the four interventions for persistently lowest-achieving schools pursuant to Section 53202. (b) Funds for the regional consortia shall be distributed based on the number of persistently lowest-achieving schools identified pursuant to this section and the pupil enrollment of these schools. (c) It is the intent of the Legislature that the regional consortia coordinate the duties described in subdivision (a) with the duties performed pursuant to Section 52059 as it relates to schools and districts identified in program improvement pursuant to the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.). (d) The areas of technical assistance and support pursuant to this section may include, but are not limited to, any of the following: (1) Identifying strategies that are designed to recruit, place, and retain staff with the skills necessary to meet the needs of the pupils at the school, including financial incentives, increased opportunities for promotion and career growth, and more flexible work conditions. (2) Identifying strategies that provide increased instructional time. (3) Implementing any of the professional development activities authorized in the state's plan or application submitted for the federal Race to the Top program. (4) Developing a new governance structure that may include the establishment of a new turnaround office, located within the local educational agency or the department, that a school implementing the turnaround model will report to. (5) Developing social-emotional and community-oriented services, including strategies for parental involvement and services that can be located at the schoolsite. (6) Identifying, reviewing, and recommending quality charter school operators, charter management organizations, or education management organizations that can operate a persistently lowest-achieving school. (7) Identifying higher-achieving schools in the school district, including charter schools, to relocate pupils attending a school that is scheduled for closure. (8) Developing, in consultation with teachers and principals, a rigorous, transparent, and equitable evaluation system for teachers and principals that includes the use of pupil growth data and other factors such as multiple observation-based assessments that all schools implementing the turnaround or transformation model may use. (9) Identifying strategies to identify and reward school leaders, teachers, and other staff who, in implementing the transformation model, have increased pupil achievement and high school graduation rates and have identified and removed those, who, after ample opportunities, have been provided for them to improve their professional practice, have not done so. (10) Identifying and approving mentor schools pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 53202. The regional consortia shall first seek eligible mentor schools located within the district of each of the schools implementing the turnaround or transformation model. (11) Consistent with the collective bargaining agreement, assisting a local educational agency in doing any of the following: (A) Meeting federal guidelines under Appendix C of the Notice of Final Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, Selection Criteria for the federal Race to the Top program published in Volume 74 of Number 221 of the Federal Register on November 18, 2009, which encourages the state to ensure that persistently lowest-achieving schools are not required to accept a teacher without mutual consent of the teacher and principal, regardless of the teacher's seniority. (B) Implementing schoolsite-based teacher hiring decisions. (C) Giving persistently lowest-achieving schools first priority in selecting from the qualified district applicant pool, among those teachers who have specifically applied to work at the school.