The Education Bills That Made It Through The 2016 Session
State superintendent Glenda Ritz responds to education legislation passed during the 2016 session. (photo credit: Claire McInerny/ Indiana Public Broadcasting).
The 2016 legislative session ended Thursday, with only a fraction of the original education bills making it to the end. A few of those that did reach the end have potential to make significant changes in the education community.
Low ISTEP+ Scores
The first two bills the governor signed this session gave teachers and schools relief from last year’s low ISTEP+ scores. The bills removed ISTEP scores from teacher bonus calculations and from A-F grades for one year. The House and Senate quickly ushered these two bills through the legislative process; they were the first to reach the governor’s desk this session.
(Check the status of all education bills with our 2016 legislative tracker)
A New Assessment
The bill that could have the biggest impact on schools this session gets rid of the current ISTEP and creates a 23-person committee to form a new assessment. State Superintendent Glenda Ritz and representatives of the Commission for Higher Education will serve on the committee with legislative leaders. Governor Mike Pence and leaders of the House and Senate will also appoint teachers, principals and school superintendents. Governor Pence will appoint the chair.
The group has until the end of the year to design the new assessment, and it must be administered to students by spring 2018.
Superintendent Ritz says she hopes the group can develop the plan quickly so the Department of Education has enough time to implement it.
“When we are put in a position by the state legislature to operate on a short timeline,” she says, “I think it does put pressures on the Department of Education to do its job as it should.”
Teacher Recruitment And Retention
Getting more teachers into the classroom was a priority for many lawmakers, as well as Ritz, and a few of the bills addressing that issue made it to the end.
HB 1002 creates a new scholarship program that will give tuition assistance to 200 high school students attending Indiana universities who commit to teaching in the state for five years after graduation. The Commission for Higher Education will work on developing the program over the next year, and students will receive the first scholarships in Fall 2017.
Dual Credit Teachers
After the state’s dual credit advisory council said dual credit teachers in high schools must have a master’s degree or 18 hours of college credit in the subject area they teach, many dual credit teachers said they would not be able to teach their classes. This means many teachers would need to go back to school and pay their tuition out of pocket.
HB 1370 was one attempt to address the issue. But the bill doesn’t allocate money or create a tuition assistance program. Instead, it charges the Commission for Higher Education to study ways universities can help teachers meet these new requirements.