Mississippi SB 2113: School District System Design Partnership Program; create.

Bill Text

SB2113 (As Introduced) - 2020 Regular Session 

MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2020 Regular Session

To: Education

By: Senator(s) Frazier

Senate Bill 2113

AN ACT TO CREATE NEW SECTIONS 37-183-1, 37-183-3, 37-183-5, 
37-183-7, 37-183-9 AND 37-183-11 MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CREATE THE 
DISTRICT SYSTEM DESIGN PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM, TO REQUIRE THE DESIGNATED SCHOOL 
DISTRICTS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE PROGRAM, TO REQUIRE EACH DESIGNATED SCHOOL 
DISTRICT TO DEVELOP A REDESIGN PLAN; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

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

���� SECTION 1.� The 
following shall be codified as Section 37-183-1, Mississippi Code of 1972:

���� 37-183-1.� This act 
shall be known and may be cited as the "District System Design Partnership 
Program Act."

���� SECTION 2.� The 
following shall be codified as Section 37-183-3, Mississippi Code of 1972:

���� 37-183-3.� The 
Mississippi Legislature finds that:

��������� (a)� The average 
student in the United States leaves high school two (2) to three (3) years 
behind the average student in a growing number of countries.� Many of those 
countries produce better results while spending less per student than in the 
United States.

��������� (b)� In order for 
Mississippi students to remain competitive in the national and world economies, 
the state must support efforts to assist Mississippi school district leadership 
teams to learn how to improve their district performance up to national and 
international education benchmarks.

��������� (c)� To dramatically 
improve student achievement for all students, superintendents must redesign 
their districts to operate differently than the models that have defined public 
education for the past century.� A school district cannot dramatically improve 
student achievement for all students until it fundamentally changes the way it 
operates as a system.� To do so, a district must be carefully and thoughtfully 
redesigned from the ground up.� This is especially true in lower performing and 
newly consolidated school districts in Mississippi.

��������� (d)� Mississippi 
superintendents must ensure that all the members of their district's leadership 
team and the community understand what makes a top-performing school system 
successful, develop a vision for their district that has their students 
competing with the nation's and the world's best, and possess the leadership 
skills to redesign their district to achieve that vision.

��������� (e)� In order to 
encourage Mississippi school districts to redesign their education systems 
consistent with evidence-based best practices drawn from top-performing 
jurisdictions across the United States and the economy into which our students 
will graduate and compete for jobs, the Mississippi Legislature shall fund this 
chapter.

���� SECTION 3.� The 
following shall be codified as Section 37-183-5, Mississippi Code of 1972:

���� 37-183-5.� The 
purpose of the District System Design Partnership Program is to lead to the 
development of redesign plans by each participating school district consistent 
with the design of top-performing education systems in order to improve student 
achievement, close achievement gaps, prepare students to succeed in flexible 
college enrollment programs accessible to high school students and enhance workforce 
development and economic growth in each participating school district.

���� SECTION 4.� The 
following shall be codified as Section 37-183-7, Mississippi Code of 1972:

���� 37-183-7.� For the 
purposes of this chapter, "leadership team" means a group of administrators, 
faculty or staff selected by superintendents of the school districts designated 
in Section 37-183-11 to participate in the District System Design Partnership 
Program.

���� SECTION 5.� The 
following shall be codified as Section 37-183-9, Mississippi Code of 1972:

���� 37-183-9.� (1)� The 
Mississippi Development Authority shall: ��� ���� (a)� Establish a District 
System Design Partnership Program to improve student achievement, prepare the 
workforce to compete in the 21st Century economy and increase economic growth 
in selected Mississippi school districts;

��������� (b)� Serve as the 
fiscal agency for the work; and 

��������� (c)� Contract with a 
nationally recognized education leadership organization.

���� (2)� The nationally 
recognized education leadership organization shall deliver the following 
services to the selected school districts in a three-phase program:

��������� (a)� Phase One - 
Compilation and analysis of the relevant context of the school 
districts.� In phase one, the nationally recognized education 
leadership organization will work with the leadership teams of the 
participating school districts to compile and analyze relevant contextual 
information about the participating districts, including a gap analysis between 
the participating districts and other top-performing education systems.

��������� (b)� Phase Two -