Budget Amendment ID: FY2014-S3-399

EDU 399

Uniform College and Career Readiness

Ms. Donoghue and Messrs. Knapik and Eldridge moved that the proposed new text be amended by inserting after section __, the following new section:-

“SECTION __.  (a) For the purposes of reducing the need for remediation following matriculation into a postsecondary setting, the comptroller shall transfer $30,000 from the General Fund to the department of elementary and secondary education (hereinafter referred to as “department”) to administer a pilot program called Uniform College and Career Readiness.

(b) The Uniform College and Career Readiness pilot program (“pilot program”) is hereby established to be administered by the department for the 2013-2014 school year for the school districts, charter schools, and innovation schools in gateway cities.  The pilot program shall be administered to approximately 750 students and will consist of (1) placement tests (2) diagnostic assessment tests, (3) intervention programs be administered to students over a 10-week period as indicated by a student’s score on the diagnostic assessment test to ensure that the student receives online education services necessary for the student to demonstrate postsecondary and workforce readiness with either a reduced or eliminated need for remediation, and (4) second placement tests following the delivery of any intervention services in order to collect data necessary to determine the pilot program’s efficacy.  The placement tests and diagnostic assessment tests shall be those tests commonly administered by public institutions of higher education.  The selected school districts, charter schools, or innovation schools shall receive funding to administer the tests and deliver the diagnosed remediation services. Administration of the placement tests, diagnostic assessment tests and intervention services shall commence when a student enters the eleventh grade.

(c) At the end of the pilot program, all recipient schools shall provide a report to the department that includes data of the efficacy of their program efforts by comparing the initial placement tests to the placement tests administered following the delivery of remediation services, and the department shall report the findings of said reports to the house and senate committees on ways and means, the joint committee on education, and the joint committee on higher education by August 2014, for the purpose of determining whether the pilot program shall be more broadly implemented.”