Reporting of student testing results in public schools and in private schools participating in a parental choice program, a school assessment guide, licensure of teachers in private schools participating in a parental choice program, and evaluation of teachers and principals

School assessment guide The bill directs the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to develop a guide for parents to use in assessing public and private schools, including charter schools.

The guide must include a variety of information, including information on how to evaluate the academic performance of pupils enrolled in a school, a school's academic opportunities, and a school's expenditures per enrolled pupil. The guide must be developed in consultation with specified public and private educational organizations. DPI must then post the guide on its Web site and make copies available to schools upon request.

Teacher licensure Under current law, a person is not required to be licensed to teach in any private school. Beginning in the 2012-13 school year, this bill requires each PCP school to ensure that every teacher, principal, administrator, and professional staff member holds a license or permit to teach issued by DPI.

Cost report for Milwaukee Public Schools The bill requires Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) to report annually to the legislature the costs it incurred in the previous school year in connection with the PCP, including transportation costs and costs of providing special education to pupils attending PCP schools.

Disclosure requirements The bill requires each PCP school to provide, annually to DPI and upon request to any person, all of the following:

1. Rates of graduation, truancy, attendance, suspension, and expulsion in the previous school year.

2. The PCP school's requirements for promotion from grade to grade and for graduation.

3. The number of pupils with disabilities enrolled in the previous school year.

4. The services provided by the PCP school to pupils with disabilities.

5. The PCP school's safety plan.

6. The PCP school's attrition rate for teachers in the previous school year, as compared to the statewide attrition rate and the attrition rate of the eligible school district or of the MPS, as appropriate, in the previous school year.

7. The PCP school's budget for the ensuing fiscal year and a five-year budget plan.

The bill directs DPI to prepare a report card for each PCP school and post the report cards on DPI's Internet site. Each PCP school must post its report card on its Internet site.

Disclosure of results of tests, assessments, and standardized examinations Under current law, each PCP school must provide to DPI (and, upon request, to any pupil who attends or who is applying to attend the PCP school) pupil scores on certain standardized examinations for each of the previous five school years. To the extent permitted by federal law and ensuring confidentiality of records, beginning in the 2012-13 school year, the bill requires each PCP school to report scores for any assessments and examinations administered to pupils attending the PCP school, and to make the information available in several formats and at a specified level of detail associated with each format. The formats include posting scores on the Internet Web site of the PCP school or the organization that oversees the PCP school; forwarding electronic copies to DPI to post on its Internet Web site;

providing written copies to the parents and guardians of pupils attending the PCP school; making copies available in a binder at the front desk of the PCP school; and posting the mean average class growth assessments on a poster on the wall of the PCP school.

Beginning in the 2012-13 school year, the bill also requires a school board and the operator of a charter school to report the scores from standardized examinations required to be administered to pupils at the same level of detail and, with some exceptions, in the same formats required of PCP schools. School boards are not required to provide copies of the scores in a binder at the front desk of the school.

Exclusion of private schools from a PCP for fraudulent representations Under current law, DPI may bar a private school from participating in a PCP if DPI determines that the school has violated certain prohibitions. For example, a PCP school that fails to submit an independent financial audit of the school that has been conducted by a certified public accountant may be barred from participating in a PCP. Current law also prohibits a person, with the intent to sell a product or service to the public or induce the public to enter into a contract, from making any assertion or statement that is untrue, deceptive, or misleading in its advertising or other representations made to the public. The bill authorizes DPI to prohibit a private school from participating in a PCP in the following school year if the private school has violated this prohibition.