Bill HD.4167

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 4167 FILED ON: 1/17/2025

HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No.

[Pin Slip]

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Fourth General Court
(2025-2026)

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An Act relative to the teacher leadership program.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Chapter 69 of the General Law is hereby amended by adding the following section:-

Section 39. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:-

“Distributed leadership”, a range of approaches where school leadership shares aspects of the traditional set of school decisions, organization, management and operations with teachers in a manner that is coordinated by, agreed to and led by the teachers and school leadership.

“Educational service agency”, a governmental agency or governmental entity, including an educational collaborative board established by section 4E of chapter 40, which is established and operated exclusively for the purpose of providing such services to 1 or more educational institutions.

“Eligible entity”, (i) a local educational agency or educational service agency; (ii) a consortium of local educational agencies or educational service agencies; (iii) a partnership between a local educational agency or educational service agency; (iv) a nonprofit organization with demonstrated expertise in teacher leadership programs, as determined by the commissioner; (v) a local educational agency or educational service agency with demonstrated capacity in supporting teacher leadership programs, as determined by the commissioner; or (vi) an institution of higher education that awards postsecondary teacher certificates or degrees and has a demonstrated capacity in supporting teacher leadership programs or teacher diversity, as determined by the commissioner.

“High-need educational service agency”, an educational service agency that serves a significant number or percentage of high-need local educational agencies.

“High-need local educational agency”, a high-need local educational agency, as such term is defined in paragraph (10) of section 200 of the federal Higher Education Act of 1965, 20 U.S.C. 1021(10).

“Local educational agency'”, any agency that has administrative control and direction of a vocational education program funded in whole or in part by federal funds.

“Teacher leader”, one who takes initiative to design and implement solutions within and beyond the classroom positively affecting students, families, and colleagues at the school, district, state or federal level which ensures teacher retention, and ultimately student success. Teacher Leaders may participate in the teacher leadership program under this section.

(b)(1) The commissioner shall award competitive grants to eligible entities to establish and maintain teacher leadership programs.

(2) From the total amount appropriated to carry out this section for a fiscal year, the commissioner: (A) shall reserve not less than 5 percent to carry out planning grants in subsection (g); (B) may reserve not more than: (i) 3 per cent to provide technical assistance to, and support the capacity building of, the programs assisted under this section; and (ii) 0.5 per cent to support program administration and data collection under this section; and (C) may reserve not more than 3.5 per cent to award planning grants to eligible entities in order to assist those eligible entities in developing a program proposal in accordance with subsection (g).

(3) Grant periods shall not exceed 3 years, with possible 2-year extensions based on grantee program performance in achieving program objectives.

(4) The commissioner shall ensure geographic diversity among grantees, including representation from urban and rural areas.

(c)(1) An eligible entity desiring a grant under this section shall submit an application to the department, in such manner and containing such information as the commissioner may require including: (A) a description of how the eligible entity shall implement the program proposal described in paragraph (2); (B) a description of how grant funds shall be spent, including if and how other federal, state and local funding sources may be used to supplement grant funds in order to meet the requirements of the teacher leadership program; (C) a description of how the eligible entity shall continue the teacher leadership activities assisted under the grant after the grant period ends; and (D) a description of how the eligible entity shall engage teachers in the development and design of the program, including how the program will function at the school level

(2) The program proposal required under this subsection shall include the following:

(A) A plan to establish and operate a teacher leadership program that includes the following descriptions of how the eligible entity shall:

(i) ensure that the program includes the participation of teacher leaders in goal setting, professional learning or collaboration with content experts, school leadership, colleagues or leadership of an eligible entity, with respect to strategic planning or development at the school level and the level of the eligible entity, including planning and development relating to school climate, community engagement, teacher professional development and mentorship and student growth or implementing practices to support the whole child , including: (1) planning the design of and organizing the physical space, organizational structure, wraparound services and culture of schools to support positive, healthy and developmentally appropriate relationships among members of the school and community; (2) creating multi-tiered and integrated systems of support to address student academic and non-academic needs; and (3) creating and fostering safe and inclusive learning environments;

(ii) ensure that the program offers structures for shared decision making, distributed leadership, common planning and collaboration between participating teacher leaders and school leaders;

(iii) ensure that teacher leaders receive training and support to improve skills related to acting as instructional leaders, coaches, mentors or facilitators of professional learning;

(iv) use this program to establish and sustain teacher leadership opportunities to increase teacher retention, including for teachers who are individuals from underrepresented populations in the teaching profession.

(B) A description of how the eligible entity shall meet each of the following program requirements:

(i) ensuring all full-time teachers with at least 3 years of full-time teaching experience that maintain their roles as classroom instructors and are employed by the local educational agency may apply to participate in such program as teacher leaders;

(ii) providing the selection criteria for program participation to all eligible teachers described in clause (i), which shall include selection based on an eligible teacher's demonstrated ability in carrying out not less than 5 of the criteria in subclauses (1) through (8), inclusive, and a commitment to growth in other criteria where they do not have a demonstrated ability of: (1) carrying out leadership responsibilities while maintaining a role as a classroom instructor; (2) focusing on improving or advancing the vision, goals and priorities of the eligible entity that employs such teacher using evidence-based and practice-based data; (3) collecting and analyzing data of student outcomes or teacher professional outcomes and taking actions to improve student outcomes, teacher outcomes or professional learning informed by such data; (4) facilitating collaborative, evidence-based and practice-based and sustained professional learning with peers, including mentorship and instruction leadership, that lead to improvements in teaching efficacy as well as professional and student outcomes (5) analyzing socioeconomic, cultural and historical contexts of students, their communities and the local educational agency, including existing pedagogy, school policies and school-based outreach to families and the community to create safe, healthy and inclusive school climates; (6) implementing and evaluating strategies aimed at addressing areas of demonstrated need in the school that the teacher is employed, including increasing wraparound services, academic supports, family engagement and community-based services; (7) supporting teachers to effectively serve students with disabilities, English learners and students who are linguistically, racially and culturally diverse, economically disadvantaged or historically underrepresented to increase their social, emotional and academic needs; and (8) using, customizing or developing lesson materials and instructional resources to meet the unique needs of students and the eligible entity to further students' achievement.

(iii) ensuring that all teachers and paraprofessionals employed by the participating local educational agencies served by the eligible entity are eligible to participate in programming led by a teacher leader, when applicable;

(iv) providing financial assistance or compensation to teacher leaders who participate in such program for the additional responsibilities that are directly related to the teacher leadership program;

(v) allowing the financial assistance or compensation described in clause (iv) to be substituted for paid time off or satisfaction of a contract requirement at the request of the teacher leader receiving such compensation and with the authorization and agreement of the eligible entity that serves the elementary or secondary school that such teacher leader is employed;

(vi) requiring teacher leaders to support their own development and professional growth by evaluating themselves and each other using evidence, research or practice-based rubrics;

(vii) consulting with other teachers who are not teacher leaders when developing and implementing the program as described in this paragraph; and

(viii) Expending funds granted under this section to permit not more than 5 percent of such grant funds for administrative expenses incurred by the eligible entity and not less than 95 percent of such grant funds to implement the program proposal described in this paragraph at the school or classroom level in order to carry out 1 or more of the following activities: (1) facilitating collaboration between program participants; (2) developing or improving instructional materials; or (3) design new roles and compensation structures that differentiate between classroom responsibilities and responsibilities as a teacher leader.

(3) Each eligible entity applying for a grant under this section shall include in such application an assurance that the eligible entity shall comply with reporting and evaluation requirements described in subsection (f).

(d) In awarding grants under this section, the commissioner shall give priority to eligible entities that include:

(i) a high-need educational service agency;

(ii) a high-need local educational agency;

(iii) a local educational agency that receives basic support payments under section 7003(b)(1) of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, 20 U.S.C. 7703(b)(1);

(iv) a local educational agency that demonstrates in their program proposal under subsection (c)(2) a plan to use this program to establish and sustain teacher leadership opportunities to increase teacher recruitment, including teachers who are individuals from underrepresented populations in the teaching profession; and

(v) an eligible entity involving a partnership between a local educational agency or educational service agency that has a successful track record in supporting teacher leadership models, retaining teachers or advancing teacher diversity.

(e)(1) An eligible entity awarded a grant under this section shall use: (i) not more than 5 percent of such grant funds for administrative expenses; and (ii) not less than 95 percent of such grant funds to implement the program proposal described in subsection (c)(2) and, at the eligible entity's option, carry out activities described in paragraph (2).

(2) In addition to implementing the program proposal under subsection (c)(2), an eligible entity awarded a grant under this section may use such grant funds to facilitate collaboration between program participants, instructional materials development or the reallocation of work hours for teacher leaders between classroom responsibilities and responsibilities as a teacher leader.

(f)(1) An eligible entity shall submit to the department, in a timeline determined by the commissioner, all information necessary for the evaluation described in paragraph (2).

(2) The commissioner shall carry out an independent evaluation measuring the effectiveness of the activities carried out under grants awarded under this section, including information about whether participating eligible entities experience greater teacher retention than non-participants. In carrying out the evaluation, the commissioner shall collect and analyze the following information, disaggregated by race, ethnicity and gender:

(A) Each participating eligible entity shall submit the following: (i) the 3-year retention rate of all full-time teachers, disaggregated by teachers who are in their first year of teaching and teachers hired by such local educational agency in the same school year as one another; (ii) the 5-year retention rate of all full-time teachers, disaggregated by teachers who are in their first year of teaching; and teachers hired by such local educational agency in the same school year as one another; and (iii) the employment status of full-time teachers hired by such educational agency, in the same school year that such eligible entity received a grant under this section.

(B) Each teacher leader participating in a program established using such grant funds, shall submit the following: (i) the number of years of teaching experience such teacher leader had at the time of program participation; (ii) whether such teacher leader is employed by a local educational agency served by such eligible entity; (iii) if such teacher leader is not employed by a local educational agency served by such eligible entity, the reason for leaving; and (iv) the year that such teacher leader was first employed as a teacher.

(3) The aggregated data submitted under paragraph (1) and the results of the evaluation under paragraph (2) shall be made publicly available on the website of the department, except that such publicly available data and results shall not reveal personally identifiable information.

(g)(1) The commissioner may award planning grants to eligible entities to enable those eligible entities to develop a program proposal under subsection (c)(2).

(2) An eligible entity seeking a planning grant under this subsection shall submit an application to the department. The commissioner shall establish application requirements, including submission deadlines and required information and documentation.

(3) A planning grant under this subsection shall be for a period of not more than 1 year.

(h) Annually, not later than December 31, the commissioner shall file a report evaluating the teacher leadership programs and measuring the effectiveness of the activities carried out under the grants awarded including recommendations for regulations and legislation, with the clerks of the house and senate and the joint committee on education.

Name:	District/Address:	Date Added:
Manny Cruz	7th Essex	1/17/2025