(1) DEFINITIONS.
(a) Applicant school - any public school with grades K-12, or any combination thereof.
(b) Performance objective - a measurable outcome established and agreed upon by a school faculty, the attainment of which shall be used to evaluate whether school improvement has occurred.
(c) Pay for Performance (PfP) award - funds awarded to a local board of education for use in accordance with PfP program rules as a result of an applicant school's performance being judged exemplary.
(d) Approved application - an applicant school's PfP Program application which conforms to the requirements established for the program and which has been approved by the state board.
(2) REQUIREMENTS.
(a) Schools seeking to participate in the PfP Program shall send a letter of intent to the state superintendent of schools by January 1 of the preceding academic year for which school participation is sought. The letter shall state the local board of education process through which the school application shall be reviewed and approved.
(b) Each local board of education with applicant schools shall establish a local system approval process to ensure adequate local school board review of the application submitted by each school. The local board of education shall approve each application prior to submission to the state board.
(c) Applicant schools shall prepare their applications in accordance with published program guidelines and shall submit three copies of their applications to the state superintendent of schools describing plans to be carried out during the subsequent school year. Applications must be received by the department on or before March 1 in order to be considered for approval. The state superintendent of schools or designee shall review each application in accordance with criteria as provided in this rule and will notify the local board of education as to the disposition of the application.
(d) Applicant schools whose initial applications are not approved by the state superintendent of schools or designee, may resubmit their applications containing modifications based on the comments and recommendations prepared by the initial reviewers. Resubmitted applications shall be due to the state superintendent of schools 28 calendar days after the date of the letter advising the school of the state board's decision concerning the initial application. No other resubmissions are permitted.
(e) A local school wishing to appeal a decision regarding the disposition of a submitted application may do so by having its local school board request a review of the decision by the state board.
(3) Applications shall address each of the following:
(a) Academic achievement criteria. Three or more performance objectives shall be included, each weighted by the applicant school, with a minimum total weight of 50 percent. Objectives that emphasize growth as well as those that emphasize exemplary performance will be acceptable. The maximum weight to be assigned to performance objectives in this area is 70 percent. In this category, at least 50 points must be earned using data from standardized tests mandated by the state in accordance with Rule 160-3-1-.07 Testing Programs - Student Assessment. If a state-mandated standardized achievement test is not administered at any grade, a school will administer any standardized test that is appropriate for its grade configuration.
(b) Client involvement criteria. Two or more performance objectives shall be included, each weighted by the applicant school, with a minimum total weight of 10 percent. The maximum weight to be assigned to performance objectives in this area is 30 percent.
(c) Educational programming criteria. Two or more performance objectives shall be included, each weighted by the applicant school, with a minimum total weight of 10 percent. The maximum weight to be assigned to performance objectives in this area is 30 percent.
(d) Resource development criteria. Two or more performance objectives shall be included, each weighted by the applicant school, with a minimum total weight of 10 percent. The maximum weight to be assigned to performance objectives in this area is 30 percent.
(e) After weights have been assigned to each performance objective, the total weight of all four areas combined shall be 100 percent.
(f) When considered as a group, the total set of performance objectives shall:
1. Be comprehensive in scope.
2. Imply impact on a large part of the school population.
3. Show promise for improving educational program(s) within the school.
(g) The application shall contain sufficient information so that readers, familiar with the field of public education but not familiar with the specific school, can make judgments within the context of the individual school's characteristics about the following:
1. The appropriateness of the proposed outcomes.
2. The proposed level of change or improvement specified in each performance objective.
3. The importance of each of the outcomes in relation to the others identified in the application.
(5) Schools with approved applications shall submit a report, at the end of the school year for which the application was approved, detailing the degree to which each performance objective was achieved. The report shall be submitted through the local board of education to the state superintendent of schools by June 15 and shall be in a form that permits direct comparisons between the stated outcomes in the approved application and the end-of-year performance report. The report shall be prepared in accordance with published program guidelines.
(6) In order to be eligible to receive a PfP award, performance objectives representing 80 percent of the total weights must be successfully achieved.
(a) A local school wishing to appeal the state superintendent of schools' decision concerning the assessment of the end-of-year report results in relation to the approved performance objectives may do so by having its local school board request a review of the decision by the state board.
(7) Each local board of education with applicant schools shall adopt a policy, consistent with state law and state board rule, which specifies how PfP award funds will be disbursed to the successful school.
(a) Each local board with applicant schools is responsible for general oversight of the use of funds.
(b) In each school receiving an award, personnel in official certified positions must determine by consensus how award funds will be utilized.