SB 585 - Current law allows school districts to use an estimate of the number of eligible pupils for the ensuing year, the number of eligible pupils for the immediately preceding year or the number of eligible pupils for the second preceding school year, whichever is greater, in computing the amount of state aid a school district is entitled to receive under the foundation formula.

This act adds a condition to the aforementioned provision which states that, should a school district use the number of eligible pupils for the immediately preceding school year or the number of eligible pupils for the second preceding school year, the school district must remove from that count any eligible pupils generated by summer school in that school year and must substitute the number of eligible pupils estimated to be generated by summer school in the ensuing year.

Further, the act asserts that in order for a school district to include eligible pupil numbers generated by summer school in its eligible pupil counts, the school district shall demonstrate quantifiable pupil assessment gains, as provided in this act and summarized below.

Upon entering a summer school program, every pupil must undergo a student assessment pretest. Upon finishing a summer school program, every pupil must undergo the same student assessment posttest. The difference in score between the pretest and posttest must show an aggregate program improvement, averaging every individual pupil's percentage improvement, of at least ten percent. If a summer school program fails to meet the above improvement standards, the school district which sponsors the program must propose an improvement plan to the state board of education, outlining, in specific terms, how the program intends to meet said improvement standards by the end of the second summer term after failing to meet the improvement standards. Achievement measures may include national assessments, state assessments, district tests, or criterion referenced tests, so long as the measures are quantifiable and the approach systematic. Districts must report the calculations of improvements in their summer school program to the president pro tempore of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives. Pupils who speak English as a second language are excluded from these achievement standards, and thus from improvement calculations, until they have attended three school terms in the summer school district.
DONALD THALHUBER