(1) (a) The state board shall appoint a state superintendent of public instruction, who is the executive officer of the state board and serves at the pleasure of the state board. (b) The state board shall appoint the state superintendent on the basis of outstanding professional qualifications. (c) The state superintendent shall administer all programs assigned to the state board in accordance with the policies and the standards established by the state board. (2) The state board shall, with the state superintendent, develop a statewide education strategy focusing on core academics, including the development of: (a) core standards for Utah public schools and graduation requirements; (b) a process to select model instructional materials that best correlate with the core standards for Utah public schools and graduation requirements that are supported by generally accepted scientific standards of evidence; (c) professional development programs for teachers, superintendents, and principals; (d) model remediation programs; (e) a model method for creating individual student learning targets, and a method of measuring an individual student's performance toward those targets; (f) progress-based assessments for ongoing performance evaluations of school districts and schools; (g) incentives to achieve the desired outcome of individual student progress in core academics that do not create disincentives for setting high goals for the students; (h) an annual report card for school and school district performance, measuring learning and reporting progress-based assessments; (i) a systematic method to encourage innovation in schools and school districts as each strives to achieve improvement in performance; and (j) a method for identifying and sharing best demonstrated practices across school districts and schools. (3) The state superintendent shall perform duties assigned by the state board, including: (a) investigating all matters pertaining to the public schools; (b) adopting and keeping an official seal to authenticate the state superintendent's official acts; (c) holding and conducting meetings, seminars, and conferences on educational topics; (d) collecting and organizing education data into an automated decision support system to facilitate school district and school improvement planning, accountability reporting, performance recognition, and the evaluation of educational policy and program effectiveness to include: (i) data that are: (A) comparable across schools and school districts; (B) appropriate for use in longitudinal studies; and (C) comprehensive with regard to the data elements required under applicable state or federal law or state board rule; (ii) features that enable users, most particularly school administrators, teachers, and parents, to: (A) retrieve school and school district level data electronically; (B) interpret the data visually; and (C) draw conclusions that are statistically valid; and (iii) procedures for the collection and management of education data that: (A) require the state superintendent to: (I) collaborate with school districts and charter schools in designing and implementing uniform data standards and definitions; (II) undertake or sponsor research to implement improved methods for analyzing education data; (III) provide for data security to prevent unauthorized access to or contamination of the data; and (IV) protect the confidentiality of data under state and federal privacy laws; and (B) require all school districts and schools to comply with the data collection and management procedures established under this Subsection (3)(d); (e) administering and implementing federal educational programs in accordance with Part 8, Implementing Federal or National Education Programs; and (f) with the approval of the state board, preparing and submitting to the governor a budget for the state board to be included in the budget that the governor submits to the Legislature. (4) Upon leaving office, the state superintendent shall deliver to the state superintendent's successor all books, records, documents, maps, reports, papers, and other articles pertaining to the state superintendent's office.
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