Senate Bill 2736

AN ACT TO PROVIDE THAT THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION AND THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SHALL TAKE NO FURTHER ACTION TO IMPLEMENT ANY COMMON CORE STANDARDS DEVELOPED BY THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS INITIATIVE; TO ESTABLISH A CURRICULUM CONTENT STANDARDS ADVISORY COUNCIL; TO PROHIBIT THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FROM EXPENDING CERTAIN FEDERAL OR GRANT FUNDS RELATING TO ANY STATEWIDE LONGITUDINAL DATA SYSTEM TO TRACK STUDENTS OR TO RELEASE ANY STUDENT OR TEACHER INFORMATION TO OUTSIDE ENTITIES; TO AMEND SECTION 37-177-5, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, IN CONFORMITY; TO REPEAL SECTIONS 37-154-1 AND 37-154-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH PROVIDE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A STATE LONGITUDINAL DATA SYSTEM (SLDS) AND A MULTIAGENCY DATABASE TO TRACK EDUCATION AND STUDENT OUTCOMES IN THE WORKFORCE; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. The following words and phrases shall have the meanings ascribed herein unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

(a) "Board" means the Mississippi Board of Education.

(b) "Department" means the Mississippi Department of Education.

(c) "Education entity" means any agency or department of state or local government that exercises any responsibility with respect to K-12 public education in the State of Mississippi.

(d) "State official" means any official in state or local government in Mississippi, whether elected or appointed.

(e) "Personally identifiable information" shall have the same meaning as that term is given in 34 CFR Part 99.3.

SECTION 2. (1) Any actions taken by the board or the department to adopt or implement the Common Core State Standards as of the effective date of this section are void ab initio. Notwithstanding Section 3, the K-12 math standards in effect in California on January 1, 2010, and the English Language Arts standards in effect in Texas on January 1, 2010, shall serve as the Mississippi standards for those subjects.

(2) Upon the effective date of this section, the State Superintendent of Education shall immediately initiate the procedure, outlined in the Bylaws of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (adopted April 12, 2012), to withdraw the state from such consortium. All statewide K-12 tests and assessments shall be solely owned and solely controlled by the state.

(3) The State of Mississippi shall retain sole control over the development, establishment and revision of curriculum standards. Neither the board nor any other state education entity, nor any state official, may join any consortium or any other organization when participation in that consortium or organization would cede any measure of control over any aspect of Mississippi public education to entities outside the state, nor may any such person or entity condition or delay a decision on standards or curriculum on the decision of any consortium, organization, any other state government, or the federal government. No curriculum standards developed outside the State of Mississippi, including, but not limited to, the Next Generation Science Standards, the National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies, the National Health Education Standards, and the National Sexuality Education Standards, and no standards that use the same model frameworks as such standards developed primarily by entities outside the State of Mississippi, may be adopted or implemented without public hearings held in each congressional district, an open comment period of one (1) year, and open hearings before a joint committee composed of the House Education Committee and Senate Education Committee, followed by an act of the Legislature.

SECTION 3. (1) Curriculum Content Standards Advisory Council. (a) Beginning on July 1, 2014, the board shall establish a Curriculum Content Standards Advisory Council to advise the board in creating and adopting world-class curriculum content standards that will lead to a broad liberal-arts education, resulting in college- and career-readiness, for all students. The advisory council shall include one (1) curriculum director with expertise in curriculum and standards from the Kindergarten through Grade 12 education community; three (3) parent representatives; one (1) certified elementary teacher, one (1) certified middle school teacher, and one (1) certified high school teacher, each employed by a local school system or retired from teaching in public school and each with at least ten (10) years' teaching experience in core curriculum; one (1) professor from the mathematics department of a college of arts and sciences; one (1) professor from the English literature department of a college of arts and sciences; one (1) representative from a technical college; one (1) representative from the business community; two (2) local board members or superintendents from local school systems appointed by the chairman of the House Education Committee; two (2) local board members or superintendents from local school systems appointed by the chairman of the Senate Education Committee; and two (2) clinical psychologists or psychiatrists with expertise in child cognitive development. All members of the advisory council shall have completed at least a four-year college degree.

(b) All members of the advisory council must be citizens of the State of Mississippi for at least six (6) months before appointment. Members shall serve without compensation but shall be reimbursed for necessary expenditures incurred in the performance of their duties as members of the advisory council. Members, as well as any members of their families or their business entities, shall not have conflicts of interest with regard to actions taken by the advisory council and shall not accept any money, meals, trips, gifts, or any other favors from any person, business or organization that would benefit, financially or otherwise, from actions taken by the advisory council. The advisory council shall be as fairly balanced as reasonably possible with members from each of the congressional districts representing urban, suburban and rural areas. Advisory council members shall serve no longer than four (4) years. Each member rotating off the advisory council shall be replaced within thirty (30) days.

(2) Subcommittees. (a) The advisory council shall establish the following subcommittees for K-12 curriculum content standards: mathematics, history/social studies, science, and English Language Arts. Subcommittee members need not be members of the advisory council. Each subcommittee shall include among its required members at least the following: three (3) certified teachers employed by local school systems or retired from teaching, whether in public or private schools, and having at least ten (10) years of teaching experience with at least five (5) years in the academic content area of the subcommittee; three (3) parents of students enrolled in public school; three (3) professors, each with a doctoral degree in the specific academic content area of the subcommittee, who are employed by or have retired from a four-year institution of higher education; one (1) member appointed by the chairman of the House Education Committee; and one (1) member appointed by the chairman of the Senate Education Committee. Subcommittees that address high-school subject areas may also include one (1) representative from a technical college and one (1) representative from the business community.

(b) All members of each subcommittee must be citizens of the State of Mississippi for at least six (6) months before appointment. Members shall serve without compensation but shall be reimbursed for necessary expenditures incurred in the performance of their duties as members of the advisory council. Members, as well as any members of their families or their business entities, shall not have financial conflicts of interest with regard to actions taken by the subcommittees or the advisory council and shall not accept any money, meals, trips, gifts, or any other favors from any person, business or organization that would benefit, financially or otherwise, from actions taken by the subcommittees or the advisory council. Subcommittees shall be as fairly balanced as reasonably possible with members from urban, suburban and rural areas. Subcommittee members shall serve no longer than four (4) years. Each required member rotating off a subcommittee shall be replaced within thirty (30) days.

(c) Each subcommittee shall review the standards in effect in Mississippi as of January 1, 2010, in its subject area to ensure that they contain clarity, rigor, content, depth and coherence, except that the English Language Arts subcommittee and the math subcommittee shall review the standards in their subject area as implemented above in Section 2(a). For perspective, each subcommittee shall also examine curriculum reform efforts over the past few decades to ensure that current efforts do not take place without historical context. The subcommittee shall:

(i) Review relevant research on the subject area and identify areas in the standards where revision is appropriate;

(ii) Examine curriculum standards for the subject area adopted by other states;

(iii) Collect feedback on the standards from teachers, parents and other citizens and make feedback available to the public via Internet posting; and

(iv) Solicit feedback from appropriate content-related organizations, associations and societies.

(d) Each subcommittee shall prepare proposed revisions of the standards to reflect its findings from the research conducted pursuant to paragraph (3) of this subsection.

(e) Each subcommittee, through the department, shall provide an electronic copy of the revised standards to each local school system and shall make such revised standards available to the public via Internet posting. Each local school system shall notify parents or guardians of its students that the curriculum content standards are being revised and that there is an opportunity to provide feedback. Each subcommittee, through the department, shall also provide an electronic copy of the revised standards to the relevant department heads of each institution of higher education in this state. An electronic copy of all high-school standards shall be sent to the department heads of the content areas addressed by those standards; for example, English language arts standards shall be sent to the heads of the English departments, history standards shall be sent to the heads of the history departments, and so on. High school mathematics standards shall be sent to the heads of departments of mathematics, engineering, physical and biological sciences, and computer science. A public comment period of at least sixty (60) days shall be provided, and each subcommittee shall conduct at least one (1) public hearing for the purpose of permitting the public to comment on the rigor, clarity, and reasonableness of the standards developed by the subcommittee. The standards shall be revised as appropriate.

(f) At the conclusion of the revision process, each subcommittee shall submit the revised standards to the advisory council for its review and approval.

(3) Upon receipt of the revised standards from the subcommittees, the advisory council shall review and finalize the standards before forwarding them to the board. The board shall then present the standards during at least one (1) public hearing held in every congressional district and at an open hearing before a joint committee composed of the House Education Committee and the Senate Education Committee. After considering the findings and recommendations of the task force, the board shall make such changes in the curriculum standards as it deems in the best interest of the state and its citizens and shall report such proposed changes to local school systems and the Legislature for review.

(4) Beginning in 2014, the K-12 standards for mathematics, history, science and English shall be reviewed pursuant to this section at least every eight (8) years, with the review for only one (1) subject being initiated in a given year. Notwithstanding this paragraph, the standards for English Language Arts shall be reviewed this year and then again no more than eight (8) years hence, and the standards for math shall be reviewed this year and then again no more than six (6) years hence.

SECTION 4. (1) On and after July 1, 2014, neither the board, the department, nor any other education entity shall:

(a) Expend any funds, whether from federal Race to the Top grants, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, or elsewhere, on construction, enhancement or expansion of any statewide longitudinal data system designed to track students beyond their K-12 careers, or to compile their personal, nonacademic information beyond what is necessary either for administrative functions directly related to the student's education, for evaluation of academic programs and student progress, or for compliance with the requirements of the United States Department of Education as outlined in paragraph (e) of this subsection;

(b) Share any personally identifiable information compiled on students or teachers with any entity outside the State of Mississippi, except as provided in this section; provided, however, that this shall not include hard data storage located in safe locations outside the state, or cloud data storage as long as the cloud computing provider agrees in writing that it will not redisclose such information or use the information for any secondary purposes that benefit the provider or any third party, including, but not limited to, online behavioral advertising, creating or correcting an individual or household profile primarily for the provider's benefit, the sale of data for any commercial purpose, or any other commercial for-profit activity;

(c) Share any personally identifiable information about any student or teacher with any entity that intends to use that information for development of commercial products or services or that intends to transfer that data to any other entity for use in development of commercial products or services;

(d) Share any personally identifiable information about any student or teacher with any entity inside the State of Mississippi unless that entity is an education agency or institution that does not intend to:

(i) Use the data to develop commercial products or services;

(ii) Transfer the data to any other entity to use in development of commercial products or services; or

(iii) Use the data or transfer the data for economic or workforce development planning; or

(e) Share any personally identifiable information on students and teachers with the United States Department of Education unless:

(i) Such sharing is required by the United States Department of Education as a condition of receiving a federal education grant;

(ii) The United States Department of Education agrees in writing to use the data only to evaluate the program or programs funded by the grant;

(iii) The United States Department of Education agrees in writing that the data will not be used for any research beyond that related to evaluation of the program or programs funded by the grant, unless the parent or guardian of any student, and any teacher, whose data will be used for such research affirmatively consents in writing to that use;

(iv) The United States Department of Education agrees in writing to destroy the data upon completion of the evaluation of the program or programs for which the data were compiled; and

(v) The grant or program in connection with which the data are required is one authorized by federal statute or by federal rule properly promulgated under the federal Administrative Procedure Act, 5 USC Section 500, et seq.

(2) If the United States Department of Education requires, as a condition of making a federal education grant, that the grant recipient shares student or teacher data under circumstances that do not comply with paragraph (5) of subsection (e) of this section, the grant recipient shall provide written notification to the parents or guardians of every student whose data will be shared or every teacher whose data will be shared of the following:

(a) That the grant recipient has been required to turn over the student's or teacher's data to the United States Department of Education;

(b) That neither the grant recipient nor any other entity within the State of Mississippi will have control over the use or further sharing of that data; and

(c) The contact information, including telephone number and e-mail address, of the United States Department of Education official who demands the data.

(3) No state or national student assessment shall be adopted or administered in this state that collects any type of psychological data, including assessment of noncognitive skills or attributes, psychological resources, mindsets, learning strategies, effortful control, attitudes, dispositions, social skills, or other interpersonal or intrapersonal resources.

SECTION 5. Section 37-177-5, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

37-177-5. The State Department of Education shall establish a Mississippi Reading Panel to collaborate with the State Department of Education in recommending appropriate equitable alternative standardized assessments and cut scores to be used to determine promotion to the Fourth Grade of those Third Grade students who scored at the lowest achievement level on the state annual accountability assessment or who, for unforeseen circumstances, were unable to take the assessment. The panel should have knowledge and input in the adoption or development of a universal screener for required use only in select schools most in need for the reading intervention program to identify reading deficiencies and determine progress. A suggestive list of no less than four (4) screening assessments should be available to schools not selected for the critical reading intervention program taking into consideration those screening assessments already being used satisfactorily in Mississippi elementary schools. * * * The panel shall consist of six (6) members as follows: the State Superintendent of Education, or his/her designee, who will chair the committee; the Chair of the House Education Committee, or his designee; the Chairman of the Senate Education Committee, or his designee; one (1) member appointed by the Governor; and two (2) additional members appointed by the State Superintendent of Education.

SECTION 6. Sections 37-154-1 and 37-154-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, which provide for the development of a State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) and establish a multiagency database to track education and student outcomes in the workforce, are hereby repealed.

SECTION 7. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2014.