160.720. Priority schools identified, criteria--comprehensive school improvement plan required, contents--educational audits, requirements--evaluation of plan, time lines--withholding of funds, when--
Priority schools identified, criteria--comprehensive schoolimprovement plan required, contents--educational audits,requirements--evaluation of plan, time lines--withholding offunds, when--rules.
160.720. 1. The department of elementary and secondary education shallidentify as a priority school any school building or attendance center thatfails to meet acceptable standards of student achievement established by thestate board of education and based upon factors which shall include, but notbe limited to, student assessments, graduation rate, drop-out rate, schoolattendance rate, graduate placement in college, vocational or technicalschool, or high-wage employment and incidence of school violence.
2. The board of education of any district that contains a priorityschool shall submit a comprehensive school improvement plan that provides forthe following:
(1) Identification of the areas of academic deficiency in studentperformance on the statewide assessment established pursuant to section160.518 by disaggregating scores based upon school, grade, academic contentarea and student demographic subgroups, which shall include, but shall not belimited to, race, ethnicity, disability status, migrant status, limitedEnglish proficiency, and economic disadvantage;
(2) Implementation of research-based strategies to assist the priorityschool in addressing the areas of deficiency;
(3) Alignment of the priority school's curriculum to addressdeficiencies in student achievement;
(4) Reallocation of district resources to address the areas of academicdeficiency, which shall include focusing available funding on professionaldevelopment in the areas of deficiency; and
(5) Listing of all school buildings and attendance centers declared tobe priority schools in the district's annual school accountability reportdistributed pursuant to section 160.522.
3. The state board of education may appoint a team to conduct aneducational audit of any priority school to determine the factors that havecontributed to the lack of student achievement and shall give audit priorityto schools based upon failure to meet standards of student achievement asestablished pursuant to this section.
(1) An audit team shall include an experienced teacher and anexperienced administrator from successful school districts of comparable sizeand per-pupil funding. The size of the audit team shall be based upon thesize of the school to be audited;
(2) The audit team shall report its findings to the state board ofeducation and the local board of education;
(3) The state board may require all or part of those findings to beaddressed in the comprehensive school improvement plan required pursuant tothis section.
4. Comprehensive school improvement plans shall be evaluated based uponstandards established pursuant to subsection 2 of this section and upon thefollowing time lines:
(1) The comprehensive school improvement plan shall be submitted to thedepartment of elementary and secondary education on or before August fifteenthfollowing any school year in which a school district building meets thecriteria established under subsection 1 of this section;
(2) The department of elementary and secondary education shall reviewand identify areas of concern in the plan within sixty days of receipt; and
(3) Changes to the plan shall be forwarded to the department ofelementary and secondary education within sixty days of notice to the districtof the areas of concern.
5. The department of elementary and secondary education shall withholdfunds authorized in section 163.031, RSMo, from any school district that failsto submit a comprehensive school improvement plan based upon the standards andtime lines established in this section. Withheld funds shall be released uponsubmission of a comprehensive school improvement plan that meets theestablished requirements.
6. Designation as a priority school and the effectiveness of the schooldistrict in implementing the comprehensive school improvement plan requiredunder this section shall be considered by the state board of education in theschool district's accreditation granted pursuant to section 161.092, RSMo.
7. No rule or portion of a rule promulgated under this section shallbecome effective unless it has been promulgated pursuant to chapter 536, RSMo.
(L. 2002 H.B. 1711, A.L. 2004 S.B. 1080)