Since 2014, he has been vice president of global sales, initially remaining with Certiport, before shifting in 2018 to work directly for its parent company, Pearson Clinical Assessments.
[7][8] Senator Osmond has been affiliated with South Jordan Chamber of Commerce as the Vice Chair and the Provo City Planning Commission/Board of Adjustments.
The UEA is careful to note the work Osmond put in to ensure he heard and applied input from voices on all sides of the issue.
Where the initial bill made all educators at-will employees and based salary on performance evaluations, the final legislation removed both of these changes.
Some voices in the Senate wanted these stronger provisions reinstated, but Osmond decided it was better to take small steps on these issues and involve educators, rather than making sweeping changes without their input.
It directs the state board of education to make rules requiring annual performance evaluations for school district employees (with a few exceptions).
The data on those educator ratings are to be publicly reported, and procedures are set forth for non-renewal or termination of a career employee’s contract based on unsatisfactory performance.
After gleaning insight from interested parties, he wrote a piece called “Lessons Learned and Next Steps” in which he discusses what he discovered in the course of working with so many active citizens of the state.
As a result, our teachers and schools have been forced to become surrogate parents, expected to do everything from behavioral counseling, to providing adequate nutrition, to teaching sex education, as well as ensuring full college and career readiness.
Unfortunately, in this system, teachers rarely receive meaningful support or engagement from parents and occasionally face retaliation when they attempt to hold a child accountable for bad behavior or poor academic performance.
[16]"While the call for ending compulsory education is what attracted the most attention, Osmond goes on to suggest other amendments to our school systems in line with his basic beliefs that parents should be more involved.
This allowed the homeschool students to focus on their education rather than meeting a mandated number of hours or topics as decided by the state.
Osmond clarified that he believed parents should be primarily responsible for their children’s education, with the state serving in a secondary position.
The bill addressed some of these concerns by requiring homeschool students to still qualify for college entrance exams or workforce readiness metrics.
[21] Of note, this bill gave parents the freedom to retain a student on a grade level (for academic, social, emotional, or other reasons), select or change a teacher, visit and observe school freely, excuse their student without a doctor’s note, and determine placement in specialized or advanced courses.
The legislation originated in the house and made its way to the senate with a number of important provisions to protect children against sexual abuse.
When the bill was on the senate floor, an amendment was proposed that would intensify these requirements and prohibit schools from providing such instruction unless parental consent had been obtained.
Osmond even went so far as to reveal—for the first time in his life—that he had been a victim of child abuse, and that, though he came from a strong family, the proposed amendment would require a consent that his parents may not have even seen a request for, much less given.
Osmond felt very strongly that shackling all juvenile defendants was unnecessary and embarrassing, and ensured that such treatment would no longer be the norm.