The Enhancement for Accelerated Students program was created by the Legislature in the 2011 General Session. FY 2012 represents the first year of program budgeting. Program funding is used to "enhance the academic growth of students whose academic achivement is accelerated" (House Bill 2, 2011 General Session).
The State Board of Education was directed to develop a distribution formula to allocate funding to school districts and charter schools. Statute states that the formula "may include an allocation of money for: (a) advanced placement courses; (b) gifted and talented programs, including professional development for teachers of high ability students; and (c) International Baccalaureate programs" (53A-17a-165).
During the 2015 General Session, the Legislature appropriated for Fiscal Year 2016, $4,557,500 from all sources for Enhancement for Accelerated Students. This is a 3 percent increase from Fiscal Year 2015 revised estimated amounts from all sources. The total includes $4,557,500 from the General/Education Funds, an increase of 3 percent from revised Fiscal Year 2015 estimates.
In addition to statewide compensation and internal service fund cost increases, the following appropriation adjustments were made during the 2015 General Session:
Statute requires the State Board of Education to report annually to the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee on the effectiveness of the program. Board rule requires school districts and charter schools to annually report "the following performance criteria related to the identified students whose academic achievement is accelerated: (1) Number of identified students disaggregated by subgroups; (2) Graduation rates for identified students; (3) Number of AP classes taken, competed, and exams passed with a score of 3 or above by identified students; (4) Number of IB classes taken, completed, and exams passed with a score of 4 or above by identified students; (5) Number of Concurrent Enrollment classes taken and credit earned by identified students; (6) ACT or SAT data (number of students participating, at or above the college readiness standards); (7) Gains in proficiency in language arts; and (8) Gains in proficiency in mathematics" (Board Rule R277-707-4).
Two previously independent programs were combined in to the Enhancement for Accelerated Students Program, including Accelerated Learning Programs and the High-Ability Student Initiative. Accelerated Learning Programs previously contained three separate programs, including Advanced Placement, Gifted & Talented, and the International Baccalaureate Program.
Total program funding includes the total amounts appropriated for each program in FY 2011, specifically, $3,494,781 from Accelerated Learning programs and $485,100 from the High Ability Student Initiative. Statute specifies that the greater of 1.5% or $100,000 of the total appropriation may be used to support International Baccalaureate programs.
COBI contains unaudited data as presented to the Legislature by state agencies at the time of publication. For audited financial data see the State of Utah's Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports.