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.