The Florida Senate

229.565  Educational evaluation procedures.--

(1)  STUDENT PERFORMANCE STANDARDS.--

(a)  The State Board of Education shall approve student performance standards in key academic subject areas and grade levels. The standards must apply, without limitation, to language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, the arts, health and physical education, foreign language, reading, writing, history, government, geography, economics, and computer literacy. The commissioner shall obtain opinions and advice from citizens, educators, and members of the business community in developing the standards. For purposes of this section, the term "student performance standard" means a statement describing a skill or competency students are expected to learn.

(b)  The student performance standards must address the skills and competencies that a student must learn in order to graduate from high school. The commissioner shall also develop performance standards for students who learn a higher level of skills and competencies.

(2)  EDUCATION EVALUATION.--The Commissioner of Education, or the Auditor General as provided in paragraph (a), shall periodically examine and evaluate procedures, records, and programs in each district to determine compliance with law and rules established by the state board, or by the Commissioner of Education, and in each correctional institution operated by the Department of Corrections to determine compliance with law and rules established by the Department of Corrections for the Correctional Education Program pursuant to s. 944.801. Such evaluations must include, but need not be limited to:

(a)  Reported full-time equivalent membership in each program category. This evaluation must be conducted by the Auditor General for the Florida Education Finance Program full-time enrollment verification function.

(b)  The organization of all special programs to ensure compliance with law and the criteria established and approved by the state board pursuant to the provisions of this section and s. 230.23(4)(m).

(c)  The procedures for identification and placement of students in educational alternative programs for students who are disruptive or unsuccessful in a normal school environment and for diagnosis and placement of students in special programs for exceptional students, to determine that the district is following the criteria for placement established by rules of the state board and of the Commissioner of Education and the procedures for placement established by that district school board and by the Commissioner of Education.

(d)  An evaluation of the standards by which the school district evaluates basic and special programs for quality, efficiency, and effectiveness.

(e)  Determination of the ratio of administrators to teachers in each school district.

(f)  Compliance with the cost accounting and reporting requirements of s. 237.34 and the extent to which the percentage expenditure requirements therein are being met.

(g)  Clearly defined data collection and documentation requirements, including specifications of which records and information need to be kept and how long the records need to be retained. The information and documentation needs for evaluation must be presented to the school districts and explained well in advance of the actual audit date.

(h)  Determination of school district achievement in meeting the performance standards specified in s. 232.2454.

(3)  ASSISTANCE AND ADJUSTMENTS.--If discrepancies or deficiencies are found, the Commissioner of Education must provide information and assistance to the superintendent and personnel of the district in correcting the cited deficiencies. Priority for such assistance must be given to providing the most deficient individual school programs with research-based problem identification strategies and alternatives to improve student performance. Such alternatives must be systematically drawn from research related to school effectiveness, teacher effectiveness, or management effectiveness. If it is determined that the approved criteria and procedures for the placement of students and the conduct of programs have not been followed by the district, appropriate adjustments in the full-time equivalent student count for that district must be made, and any excess funds must be deducted from subsequent allocations of state funds to that district. As provided for by rule, if errors in a specific program of a district recur in consecutive years due to lack of corrective action by the district, adjustments may be made based upon statistical estimates of error projected to the overall district program.

History.--s. 5, ch. 76-223; s. 4, ch. 78-405; s. 3, ch. 79-288; s. 22, ch. 83-324; ss. 3, 23, ch. 83-327; s. 6, ch. 83-348; s. 102, ch. 84-336; s. 14, ch. 86-183; s. 1, ch. 87-113; s. 63, ch. 87-224; s. 4, ch. 88-161; s. 3, ch. 89-101; s. 3, ch. 90-99; s. 33, ch. 92-136; s. 10, ch. 95-325; s. 1, ch. 95-395; s. 2, ch. 97-2; ss. 48, 90, ch. 97-190; s. 1, ch. 97-266; s. 6, ch. 99-398.