Public Act 0534 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SB0574 Enrolled LRB094 10884 RAS 41430 b

Public Act 094-0534

AN ACT concerning education.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the College and Career Success for All Students Act.

Section 5. Purpose. The purpose of this Act is to ensure that each Illinois student has a sufficient education for success after high school and that all students have equal access to a substantive and rigorous curriculum that is designed to challenge their minds, enhance their knowledge and skills, and prepare them for success in college and work.

Section 10. Definitions. In this Act:

"Advanced Placement course" means a course sponsored by the College Board and offered for college credit at the high school level.

"Advanced Placement teacher" means a teacher of an Advanced Placement course.

"Pre-Advanced Placement" means set professional development resources and services that equip all middle and high school teachers with the strategies and tools they need to engage their students in active, high-level learning, thereby ensuring that every middle and high school student develops the skills, habits of mind, and concepts they need to succeed in Advanced Placement courses.

"Vertical Team" means a group of teachers and educators from different grade levels in a given discipline who work cooperatively to develop and implement a vertically aligned program aimed at helping students from diverse backgrounds acquire the academic skills necessary for success in Advanced Placement courses and other challenging courses.

Section 15. Teacher training.

(a) Subject to appropriation, a teacher of an Advanced Placement course must obtain appropriate training. Subject to appropriation, the State Board of Education shall establish clear, specific, and challenging training guidelines that require teachers of Advanced Placement courses to obtain recognized Advanced Placement training endorsed by the College Board.

(b) Advanced Placement and Pre-Advanced Placement training to teachers in Illinois high schools must do all of the following:

(1) Provide teachers of Advanced Placement and teachers in courses that lead to Advanced Placement with the necessary content knowledge and instructional skills to prepare students for success in Advanced Placement courses and examinations and other advanced course examinations and mastery of postsecondary course content.

(2) Provide administrators, including principals and counselors, with professional development that will enable them to create strong and effective Advanced Placement programs in their schools.

(3) Provide middle grade, junior high, and high school teachers with Advanced Placement Vertical Team training and other Pre-Advanced Placement professional development that prepares students for success in Advanced Placement courses.

(4) Support the implementation of an instructional program for students in grades 6 through 12 that provides an integrated set of instructional materials, diagnostic assessments, and teacher professional development in reading, writing, and mathematics that prepares all students for enrollment and success in Advanced Placement courses and in college.

Section 20. Duties of the State Board.

(a) In order to fulfill the purposes of this Act, the State Board of Education shall encourage school districts to offer rigorous courses in grades 6 through 11 that prepare students for the demands of Advanced Placement course work. The State Board of Education shall also encourage school districts to make it a goal that all 10th graders take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholars Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) so that test results will provide each high school with a database of student assessment data that guidance counselors and teachers will be able to use to identify students who are prepared or who need additional work to be prepared to enroll and be successful in Advanced Placement courses, using a research-based Advanced Placement identification program provided by the College Board.

(b) The State Board of Education shall do all of the following:

(1) Seek federal funding through the Advanced Placement Incentive Program and the Math-Science Partnership Program and use it to support Advanced Placement and Pre-Advanced Placement teacher professional development and to support the implementation of an integrated instructional program for students in grades 6 through 12 in reading, writing, and mathematics that prepares all students for enrollment and success in Advanced Placement courses and in college.

(2) Focus State and federal funding with the intent to carry out activities that target school districts serving high concentrations of low-income students.

(3) Subject to appropriation, provide a plan of communication that includes without limitation disseminating to parents materials that emphasize the importance of Advanced Placement or other advanced courses to a student's ability to gain access to and to succeed in postsecondary education and materials that emphasize the importance of the PSAT/NMSQT, which provides diagnostic feedback on skills and relates student scores to the probability of success in Advanced Placement courses and examinations, and disseminating this information to students, teachers, counselors, administrators, school districts, public community colleges, and State universities.

(4) Subject to appropriation, annually evaluate the impact of this Act on rates of student enrollment and success in Advanced Placement courses, on high school graduation rates, and on college enrollment rates.