H-4068              _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 1963

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1986 Regular Session

By Representatives Jacobsen, Long, Leonard, Appelwick, Rust, Cole, Todd, Valle, Ebersole, Wineberry, Winsley and May

Read first time 1/24/86 and referred to Committee on Education.

AN ACT Relating to teachers' aides pilot project; creating a new section; and making an appropriation.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.     (1) The superintendent of public instruction shall design and conduct a pilot project to assess the impact of using full-time teachers' aides to assist classroom teachers.

          (2) The pilot project shall include:

          (a) .......... classrooms, called experimental classrooms, in grades one through three which shall be staffed with an instructional team composed of one classroom teacher and one full-time teacher's aide with the teacher assuming the leadership role.  Teachers' aides assigned to these classrooms shall not serve the school as general aides and shall not be removed from assisting the teachers to whom they are assigned;

          (b) .......... classrooms, called control classrooms, in grades one through three which shall be staffed by a classroom teacher;

          (c) Students in all of the pilot project classrooms, both experimental and control, who shall be tested at the beginning and end of the school year using an appropriate standardized test to assess their achievement of growth in basic skills during the school year; and

          (d) Teachers' aides for the experimental classrooms hired for one hundred eighty-two school days and for thirty days of in-service training for a total of two hundred twelve days.  Teachers' aides and the teachers to whom they are assigned shall participate in a one-week intensive training program prior to the opening of the school year.

          (3) The superintendent of public instruction shall, by December 1, 1987, report to the legislature the results of the pilot project.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.     The sum of .......... dollars or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1987, from the general fund to the superintendent of public instruction for the purposes of this act.