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Session of 2000
          SENATE BILL No. 604           By Committee on Ways and Means           2-9          

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  9             AN  ACT concerning school accountability and accreditation.
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11       Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
12             Section  1. (a) All students shall be afforded intellectual challenge and
13       shall be educated in a liberal arts curriculum consisting of essential, ac-
14       ademic knowledge in order to provide each student with the foundational
15       preparedness to reach such student's individual potential; secondary ed-
16       ucation institutions shall enable each student to meet the requirements
17       set forth in subsection (b) of K.S.A. 76-717, and amendments thereto.
18             (b) The entity responsible for the general supervision of elementary
19       and secondary public education shall identify the components of a core
20       academic curriculum from the various learning disciplines, including, but
21       not limited to: Math, science, language arts, literature, history, social stud-
22       ies and the fine arts.
23             Sec.  2. High academic standards of learning and assessments shall
24       be constructed upon a foundation of academic competencies, and ac-
25       creditation shall be based on the measurement of academic improvement
26       by each individual student. That improvement shall be calculated by
27       measuring the individual gain of each student and calculating the average
28       thereof. Each student shall be given progressively challenging tests, ad-
29       ministered in subsequent years so as to establish a baseline and means
30       for measuring actual academic gain. A schedule for implementation of
31       these assessments shall be determined by the state education agency.
32             Sec.  3. Each school year, the state education agency shall prepare
33       and distribute to each school district and the public a report card for each
34       school. The school report cards must be based on the most current data
35       available disaggregated by student groups and easily understandable by
36       the public. School performance must be compared to previous school and
37       district performance, current district performance, state established stan-
38       dards, and comparable school group performance. 
39        Sec.  4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
40       publication in the statute book.