BILL ANALYSIS AB 886 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 4, 2001 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION Virginia Strom-Martin, Chair AB 886 (Daucher) - As Introduced: February 22, 2001 SUBJECT : Academic Performance Index: incentive program. SUMMARY : Establishes an incentive program for school districts maintaining grade 7 or 8, who exceed their API growth target by 50% every year. Specifically, this bill : 1)Establishes that a school district maintaining grade 7 or grade 8, or both, may elect to participate in this incentive program. 2)Establishes that a school district that chooses to participate in this program must exceed its annual API growth target by 50% every year that it participates in the program. 3)Establishes that a school district that exceeds its annual API growth target by 50% will receive the statewide average base revenue limit per unit of average daily attendance for high school districts as long as it continues to participate in the incentive program. 4)Establishes that if a school district that fails to exceed its annual API growth target by 50% will not participate in the program in the next school year and will not receive the incentive funding, but can choose to participate in the following year. EXISTING LAW establishes the Public Schools Accountability Act (PSAA) of 1999, which created the API, to measure the academic performance of schools of all pupils and demonstrate comparable academic achievement by all pupils, including numerically significant ethnic and socioeconomic disadvantaged subgroups within schools. The API is designed to consist of a variety of indicators reported by the SDE, including, but not limited to the Standardized Testing And Reporting Program (STAR). Furthermore, the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) and the State Board of Education (SBE) are required to establish growth targets for schools and a statewide API performance target. AB 886 Page 2 FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown COMMENTS : Background : According to the State Department of Education (SDE), In 1999, schools received API growth targets for the school year. A school's growth target is the amount of improvement a school is expected to make in its API score in a year. In 2000, schools received the report of actual growth achieved in the previous school year. Generally, if a school meets or exceeds its target it will be eligible to receive an award, and if the school does not it may be eligible for an interventions program. The minimum school percentage growth target is five percent annually. Commencing with the 2000-01 school year, an October to August reporting cycle will take place annually. API scores, rankings, and growth targets for the upcoming school year will be disseminated in October, and actual growth for that year will be reported the following August. The API will also be used to determine comparable improvement in academic achievement by all numerically significant ethnic and socioeconomically disadvantaged subgroups of students within schools. Furthermore, according to SDE, in 2000, 71% schools met their growth target of the 7,200 eligible. What is the need for the bill ? The author's office did not provide the committee any information to substantiate the need for this bill after repeated requests. Furthermore, the Legislature and the Governor have created a substantial awards program for schools who do meet their growth targets. According to SDE, if a school meets participation and API growth criteria, it may be eligible to receive monetary awards through the Governor's Performance Award, which has $227 million appropriated for it. The School Site Employee Performance Bonus, which has $350 million allocated for it and the Certificated Staff Performance Incentive programs, which has a total of $100 million for the 5 lowest decile schools. If a school does not meet or exceed its growth targets, it may be identified for participation in the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program (II/USP), which was given a $25.6 million augmentation in the 2000-01 Budget. Clarification : The API is based on schools, not school districts as referred to in the bill. School districts are not given an AB 886 Page 3 API score, schools are. Therefore, individual schools would have to be eligible for the program not school districts. Staff recommends changing all references of school district to schools. Why should not all schools be eligible for this program ? Assuming that the author means schools and not school districts (i.e., since school districts do not receive an API score), according to the California Basic Educational Data System (CBEDS), under this bill, 4,690 elementary schools and 863 high schools will not be eligible for this program. Many of these schools are low performing and need additional resources and help just as those schools who have 7th and/or 8th grades. The committee may wish to discuss this issue further. Does this bill create a system of inequity ? Under this legislation, a high performing school, who exceeds its growth rate by 50%, would receive additional funding just as a low performing school would. For example, a school with an API score of 9 that exceeds its growth rate by 50% and a school with an API score of 3 that exceeds its growth rate by 50% would both be eligible for a revenue increase. Why should we significantly reward schools who are already doing well, when there are so many low-performing schools that need additional resources and assistance so they can achieve an API score of 9? Staff recommends targeting this program for low-performing schools only. REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION : Support None on file. Opposition None on file . Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / ED. / (916) 319-2087