§ 53A-1a-104. Characteristics of public education system.

     The Legislature shall assist in maintaining a public education system that has the following characteristics:

(1) assumes that all students have the ability to learn and that each student departing the system will be prepared to achieve success in productive employment, further education, or both;

(2) provides a personalized education plan or personalized education occupation plan for each student, which involves the student, the student's parent or guardian, and school personnel in establishing the plan;

(3) provides students with the knowledge and skills to take responsibility for their decisions and to make appropriate choices;

(4) provides opportunities for students to exhibit the capacity to learn, think, reason, and work effectively, individually and in groups;

(5) offers a world-class core curriculum that enables students to successfully compete in a global society, and to succeed as citizens of a constitutional republic;

(6) incorporates an information retrieval system that provides students, parents, and educators with reliable, useful, and timely data on the progress of each student;

(7) attracts, prepares, inducts, and retains excellent teachers for every classroom in large part through collaborative efforts among the State Board of Education, the State Board of Regents, and school districts, provides effective ongoing professional development opportunities for teachers to improve their teaching skills, and provides recognition, rewards, and compensation for their excellence;

(8) empowers each school district and public school to create its own vision and plan to achieve results consistent with the objectives outlined in this chapter;

(9) uses technology to improve teaching and learning processes and for the delivery of educational services;

(10) promotes ongoing research and development projects at the district and the school level that are directed at improving or enhancing public education;

(11) offers a public school choice program, which gives students and their parents options to best meet the student's personalized education needs;

(12) emphasizes the involvement of educators, parents, business partnerships, and the community at large in the educational process by allowing them to be involved in establishing and implementing educational goals and participating in decision-making at the school site; and

(13) emphasizes competency-based standards and progress-based assessments, including tracking and measurement systems.

Amended by Chapter 315, 2003 General Session