Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education Data topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee backs bill requiring ADE to publish annual teacher retention study and interactive dashboard
Summary
House Bill 2020 passed out of the House Appropriations Committee Jan. 22 with a due-pass recommendation. The bill directs the Arizona Department of Education to produce an annual study on teacher retention and vacancies and to maintain a publicly accessible dashboard; sponsors said the data will guide policy responses to teacher shortages.
PHOENIX
On Jan. 22, the House Appropriations Committee voted to give House Bill 2020 a due-pass recommendation after adopting an amendment that assigns data responsibilities to the Arizona Department of Education (ADE). The bill requires ADE to annually study teacher retention and turnover, publish vacancy data and maintain a publicly interactive dashboard, and appropriates $100,000 from the teacher certification fund to implement the requirement.
Sponsor remarks stressed the need for better data. "In God we trust, all others must bring data," said Chairman Livingston in explaining the intent to provide policy makers and local districts better information on where shortages and retention problems exist. He and other supporters said the information would enable more targeted responses to subject- and location-specific shortages.
Witnesses included Marco Lopez of ExcelinEd, who testified the bill would close informational gaps and help identify where to allocate recruitment and retention funds. Lopez said existing ADE dashboards provide some metrics but lack the detailed, disaggregated measures many states use to target shortages.
Opposition from some members focused on which state entity should own the work and on limits to the data to be collected. Representative Gutierrez said she preferred the State Board of Education retain the responsibility rather than ADE and expressed concern the department could use the data in ways that exceed the committee's intent.
Committee outcome: With the Livingston amendment adopted (which substituted ADE for the State Board of Education as the agency to collect certain categories) the committee gave HB 2020 a due-pass recommendation. The chairman recorded 11 yeses, 5 noes, 1 present and 1 not voting. The bill now moves forward for further legislative consideration; ADE or another implementing body would need to build the dashboard and collect the specified data if the bill becomes law.
Ending: The sponsor said he is open to narrowly tailoring any additional data fields; members asked ADE to limit collection to teacher-related measures and to work with stakeholders on definitions.
