Florida Senate - 2015 SB 518
By Senator Gibson
9-00641-15 2015518__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to the Voluntary Prekindergarten
3 Education Program; amending s. 1002.53, F.S.; revising
4 provisions relating to calculation of the kindergarten
5 readiness rate for Voluntary Prekindergarten Education
6 Program providers and schools; amending s. 1002.67,
7 F.S.; requiring the administration of a preassessment
8 and postassessment to students based upon adopted
9 performance standards; providing assessment
10 requirements; requiring the assessments to be
11 administered by certain personnel and during certain
12 time periods; requiring the assessments to be used to
13 calculate the kindergarten readiness rate; amending s.
14 1002.69, F.S.; requiring the Office of Early Learning
15 to annually report to the State Board of Education
16 certain student growth data; providing an effective
17 date.
18
19 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
20
21 Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subsection (5) of section
22 1002.53, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
23 1002.53 Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program;
24 eligibility and enrollment.—
25 (5) The early learning coalition shall provide each parent
26 enrolling a child in the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education
27 Program with a profile of every private prekindergarten provider
28 and public school delivering the program within the county where
29 the child is being enrolled. The profiles shall be provided to
30 parents in a format prescribed by the Office of Early Learning.
31 The profiles must include, at a minimum, the following
32 information about each provider and school:
33 (b) The provider’s or school’s kindergarten readiness rate
34 calculated in accordance with ss. 1002.67 and s. 1002.69, based
35 upon the most recent available results of the preassessment and
36 postassessment and the statewide kindergarten screening.
37 Section 2. Paragraph (b) of subsection (1) and subsection
38 (3) of section 1002.67, Florida Statutes, are amended to read:
39 1002.67 Performance standards; curricula and
40 accountability.—
41 (1)
42 (b) The office shall periodically review and revise the
43 performance standards for the preassessment and postassessment
44 administered under this section and the statewide kindergarten
45 screening administered under s. 1002.69 and align the standards
46 to the standards established by the state board for student
47 performance on the statewide assessments administered pursuant
48 to s. 1008.22.
49 (3)(a) Contingent upon legislative appropriation, Each
50 private prekindergarten provider and public school in the
51 Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program must implement an
52 evidence-based preassessment and postassessment pre- and post
53 assessment that has been approved by rule of the State Board of
54 Education.
55 (b) In order to be approved, the assessments assessment
56 must:
57 1. Be valid, reliable, developmentally appropriate, and
58 observation-based; and
59 2. Be developed using norm samples similar to Florida’s
60 population of children from birth through age 5;
61 3. Be based upon the performance standards adopted by the
62 department under subsection (1) and be designed to measure
63 student progress on domains which must include, but are not
64 limited to, early literacy, numeracy, and language;.
65 4. Be appropriate for English language learners and
66 students with disabilities;
67 5. Be available in multiple languages;
68 6. Have processes for ensuring the ongoing reliability of
69 the assessments; and
70 7. Be supported by evidence-based professional development
71 programs.
72 (c) The preassessment and postassessment pre- and post
73 assessment must be administered by prekindergarten instructors
74 individuals meeting requirements established by rule of the
75 State Board of Education during the first and last 2 weeks of
76 the school-year prekindergarten program or summer
77 prekindergarten program.
78 (d) Each parent who enrolls his or her child in the
79 Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program must submit the
80 child for the preassessment and postassessment.
81 (e) The preassessment and postassessment data shall be used
82 in calculating a private prekindergarten provider’s and public
83 school’s kindergarten readiness rate pursuant to s. 1002.69(5).
84 Section 3. Subsection (5) of section 1002.69, Florida
85 Statutes, is amended to read:
86 1002.69 Statewide kindergarten screening; kindergarten
87 readiness rates; state-approved prekindergarten enrollment
88 screening; good cause exemption.—
89 (5) The office shall adopt procedures to annually calculate
90 each private prekindergarten provider’s and public school’s
91 kindergarten readiness rate, which must be expressed as the
92 percentage of the provider’s or school’s students who are
93 assessed as ready for kindergarten. The methodology for
94 calculating each provider’s kindergarten readiness rate must
95 include student learning gains when available and the percentage
96 of students who meet all state readiness measures. The rates
97 must not include students who are not administered the statewide
98 kindergarten screening. The office shall determine learning
99 gains using a value-added measure based on growth demonstrated
100 by the results of the preassessment and postassessment, pursuant
101 to s. 1002.67, from at least 2 successive years of
102 administration of the preassessment and postassessment. The
103 office shall annually report to the State Board of Education the
104 appropriate level of growth to calculate the kindergarten
105 readiness rate of each Voluntary Prekindergarten Education
106 Program provider.
107 Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2015.