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Senate Bill 2 . Briefing Paper "If a local plan contains a request for a waiver of State laws, regulations or policies . . . the State superintendent Sh~il determine whether and to what extent the'identified laws, regulations, or policies should be waived. The State Superintendent shall present that plan and his determination to the State Board cf Education.,, The law, in this section of Senate Bill 2 makes much clearer the intent of the General Assembly as it applies to flexibility. It stipulates that the Stats Board, with the recommendation of the State Superintendent, may grant waivers of: "Class size, teacher certification, assignment of teacher assistants, the use of State-adopted textbooks, and the purposes for which State funds for the public schools may be used." The phrase, "the purposes for which State funds . . o may be used".implies that the State Board could grant much broader flexibility in virtually any area of state funding. Indeed, the only areas that have clearly been excluded from flexibility are salary schedules and benefits, State laws pertaining to G.S. 115C-325, Basic Education Program instructional programsj health and safety codes, compulsory school attendance, ~inimum lengths of the school day and year, and the Uniform Education Reporting System. Accountabil.ity--Ths "Price of Admission" The heart of Senate Bill 2 is the requirement that school units wanting either flexibility or differentiated pay or both must submit a local school improvement plan that has clear, measurable student performance goals. The bill makes it clear that local plans and goals are not intended'Go replace the existing accreditation requirements of'the State Board of Education. The law requires that the State Board: * Establish "guidelines for developing school improvement plans with three-to-five year student performance goals and annual milestones to measure progress in meeting these goals." * Determine .a set of student performance indicators for measuring and assessing student performance in the participating local school administrative units. These indicators may includeattendance rates, dropout rates, test scores, parent involvement ~nd post-secondary outcomes." The law also outlines a major change in that participating school units are not subject to the Opportunity standards of the accreditation system. It states that: Page 10