READ FIRST TIME 03/02/05.   

     AN ACT Relating to professional certification of teachers; adding a new section to chapter 28A.410 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature recognizes the importance of ongoing professional development and growth for teachers with the goal of improving student achievement. It is the intent of the legislature to ensure that professional certification is administered in such a way as to ensure that the professional development and growth of individual teachers is directly aligned to their current and future teaching responsibilities as professional educators.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 28A.410 RCW to read as follows:
     The agency responsible for educator certification shall adopt rules for professional certification that:
     (1) Provide maximum program choice for applicants, promote portability among programs, and promote maximum efficiency for applicants in attaining professional certification;
     (2) Require professional certification no earlier than the fifth year following the year that the teacher first completes provisional status, with an automatic two-year extension upon enrollment;
     (3) Grant professional certification to any teacher who attains certification from the national board for professional teaching standards;
     (4) Permit any teacher currently enrolled in or participating in a program leading to professional certification to continue the program under administrative rules in place when the teacher began the program;
     (5) Provide criteria for the approval of educational service districts, beginning no later than August 31, 2007, to offer programs leading to professional certification. The rules shall be written to encourage institutions of higher education and educational service districts to partner with local school districts or consortia of school districts, as appropriate, to provide instruction for teachers seeking professional certification;
     (6) Encourage institutions of higher education to offer professional certificate coursework as continuing education credit hours. This shall not prevent an institution of higher education from providing the option of including the professional certification requirements as part of a master's degree program;
     (7) Provide criteria for a liaison relationship between approved programs and school districts in which applicants are employed;
     (8) Identify an expedited professional certification process for out-of-state teachers who have five years or more of successful teaching experience to demonstrate skills and impact on student learning commensurate with Washington requirements for professional certification. The rules may require these teachers, within one year of the time they begin to teach in the state's public schools, take a course in or show evidence that they can teach to the state's essential academic learning requirements; and
     (9) Identify an evaluation process of approved programs that includes a review of the program coursework and applicant coursework load requirements, linkages of programs to individual teacher professional growth plans, linkages to school district and school improvement plans, and, to the extent possible, linkages to school district professional enrichment and growth programs for teachers, where such programs are in place in school districts. The agency shall provide a preliminary report on the evaluation process to the senate and house of representatives committees on education policy by November 1, 2005. The board shall identify:
     (a) A process for awarding conditional approval of a program that shall include annual evaluations of the program until the program is awarded full approval;
     (b) A less intensive evaluation cycle every three years once a program receives full approval unless the responsible agency has reason to intensify the evaluation;
     (c) A method for investigating programs that have received numerous complaints from students enrolled in the program and from those recently completing the program;
     (d) A method for investigating programs at the reasonable discretion of the agency; and
     (e) A method for using, in the evaluation, both program completer satisfaction responses and data on the impact of educators who have obtained professional certification on student work and achievement.