BILL REQ. #:  H-3244.1 

Read first time 01/16/14.   Referred to Committee on Higher Education.

     AN ACT Relating to integrating career and college readiness standards into K-12 and higher education policies and practices; creating new sections; and providing an expiration date.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature acknowledges and supports the work being done by classroom teachers, curriculum specialists, college faculty, state education agencies, and other interested groups and organizations to implement new, more rigorous K-12 learning standards in English language arts and mathematics throughout the public school system in Washington. The common core state standards offer the potential to increase students' overall knowledge and skills, as well as significantly improve the rate at which students graduate from high school ready to pursue a range of career and college pathways without remediation and successfully attain higher levels of education. To ensure that the standards achieve this potential, the legislature intends to direct further work by state education agencies in key policy areas such as high school planning, curriculum and course development, support for dual credit courses, and integration of the common core state standards into career and technical education and educator certification.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   (1) The state board of education shall examine options and strategies for making the high school and beyond plan a more rigorous and meaningful tool for students to identify and pursue career and college pathways beginning in the eighth grade and align their high school course-taking with those pathways. The state board shall submit its recommendations along with examples of best practices currently used by high schools as provided under subsection (6) of this section.
     (2) The office of the superintendent of public instruction, in consultation with career and technical educators and directors across the state, shall identify and recommend specific strategies and resources needed to embed the common core state standards into career and technical course curriculum and instruction. The office shall also make recommendations to address particular challenges, such as courses taught by individuals certified through a business and industry route or courses offered by skill centers that serve multiple school districts. The office shall submit its recommendations as provided under subsection (6) of this section.
     (3) The professional educator standards board shall examine the strategies being used to incorporate the common core state standards into educator certification, including preservice, professional certification, and continuing certification through professional growth plans. The board shall also examine the verification and review processes used by both certification programs and the board to assure that all educators have the requisite knowledge and skills to support student learning of the standards. The board shall submit its recommendations for improvement along with examples of best practices as provided under subsection (6) of this section.
     (4) The state board for community and technical colleges shall continue convening college faculty and high school teachers to design and develop courses and curricula for students in their senior year of high school who do not meet the career and college ready standard on the eleventh grade consortium-developed assessments of the common core state standards. The purpose of the courses and curricula is to provide these students an opportunity to become career and college ready by the end of their senior year and avoid the need for remediation in English language arts or mathematics. The state board shall submit a status report and any recommendations to enhance statewide dissemination and use of the courses and curricula as provided under subsection (6) of this section.
     (5) The student achievement council shall conduct an analysis of dual credit courses offered to high school students as a key strategy for increasing not only career and college readiness but also educational attainment of students. Specifically, the council shall examine the variability of access to dual credit opportunities; costs to students, high schools, and colleges; and acceptance of dual credit by institutions of higher education. The council shall recommend strategies and policies to reduce the variability of access, costs, and acceptance of dual credit courses as provided under subsection (6) of this section.
     (6) The student achievement council shall convene the state education agencies at least three times in 2014 to address tasks assigned under this section and as specified in the ten-year roadmap under RCW 28B.77.020 to assure that the analyses, strategies, and recommendations from each agency are aligned and not duplicative. The student achievement council shall also coordinate a common format for the analyses and recommendations required under this section and combine them to create a single report, to be submitted to the education and higher education committees of the legislature by December 1, 2014.
     (7) This section expires December 31, 2014.