BILL NUMBER: ABX5 8 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY DECEMBER 10, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Brownley
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bass, Carter, and Torlakson)
DECEMBER 2, 2009
An act to amend Sections 14502.1, 47602, 47605, 47605.6, 47607,
60601, 60603, 60604, 60605.6, 60606, 60640, 60643, 60643.1 of, to
amend and repeal Section 60605 of, to add Sections 44665.5, 47630.6,
and 60604.5 to, to add and repeal Sections 60605.7 and 60605.8 of,
and to add and repeal Chapter 18 (commencing with Section 53100) of
Part 28 of Division 4 of Title 2 of, the Education Code, relating to
public schools.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 8, as amended, Brownley. Public schools: Race to the Top.
(1) The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
(ARRA), provides $4.3 billion for the State Incentive Grant Fund
(Race to the Top Fund), which is a competitive grant program designed
to encourage and reward states that are implementing specified
educational objectives. The ARRA requires a Governor to apply on
behalf of a state seeking a Race to the Top grant, and requires the
application to include specified information. The United States
Secretary of Education has issued regulations and guidelines
regarding state eligibility under the Race to the Top program.
This bill would state the intent of the Legislature, as well as
findings and declarations of the Legislature relating to the Race to
the Top program. This bill would authorize the Superintendent of
Public Instruction to enter into a memorandum of understanding with a
local educational agency that is consistent with the requirements
established by the bill and the regulations and guidelines for the
Race to the Top program.
This bill would require the state plan or plans submitted to the
United States Secretary of Education for the Race to the Top program
to meet specified substantive and procedural requirements. The bill
would also require the Department of Finance to provide appropriate
policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature with a copy of the
plan or plans within 10 days of submission to the United States
Secretary of Education for the Race to the Top program. The
Department of Finance, in conjunction with the Superintendent, would,
within 30 days of receipt of any federal Race to the Top program
funds, and prior to their allocation, be required to develop and
submit to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the
Legislature an expenditure plan, as specified.
This bill would require the Superintendent, on or before January
1, 2011, to contract with an independent evaluator relating to the
implementation of the state plan to be submitted in application for a
Race to the Top Fund competitive grant award. This bill would
require the Superintendent, on or before September 1, 2010, to
convene a working group consisting of specified members to develop
parameters of the evaluation and make specified recommendations
relating to the selection of the independent evaluator. This bill
would require the Superintendent, on or before June 1, 2014, to
provide the final evaluation to the Legislature, the Governor, and
the state board, and authorize the department to use federal Race to
the Top program funds for this evaluation.
This bill would provide that the evaluation provisions shall
become inoperative on July 1, 2014, and as of January 1, 2015, are
repealed unless a later enacted statute becomes operative, as
specified.
(2) The Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999 requires the
Superintendent, with approval of the state board, to develop the
Academic Performance Index (API), consisting of a variety of
indicators, to be used to measure the performance of schools.
Existing law requires the Superintendent to develop, and the state
board to adopt, expected annual percentage growth targets for all
schools based on their API baseline score and prescribes a minimum
percentage growth target of 5% annually. The act also establishes the
Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program (IIUSP).
Schools that score below the 50th percentile on certain achievement
tests are invited to participate in the program and are provided
program funding. Twenty-four months after receiving IIUSP funding, a
school that fails to meet its growth targets each year, but
demonstrates significant growth, as determined by the state board,
continues to participate in the program for an additional year and to
receive funding. If a school fails to meet its growth targets each
year and does not demonstrate significant growth, it is deemed a
state-monitored school and the Superintendent is required to take
specified actions with regard to the school.
This bill would require the Superintendent to apportion federal
Race to the Top program funds pursuant to a specified expenditure
plan for low-achieving schools. The bill, commencing with the 2011-12
fiscal year, would require the Superintendent to apportion block
grant funds based on the number of certificated personnel employed in
eligible school districts that have one or more schools under their
jurisdiction and charter schools, that are low-achieving, as defined.
School districts and charter schools that receive funds pursuant to
these provisions would be required to expend the funds for specified
purposes relating to professional development for teachers,
administrators, and schoolsite staff. School districts and charter
schools receiving funds also would be required to annually report
specified information to the State Department of Education relating
to the expenditure of these funds.
This bill would require the Superintendent to establish a list of
persistently lowest-achieving schools, as defined, according to
specified criteria. The bill , except as specified, would
require the governing board of a school district, county office of
education, or charter school to implement, for any school identified
by the Superintendent as persistently lowest-achieving, one of four
interventions for turning around lowest-achieving schools described
in federal regulations and guidelines for the Race to the Top
program, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The bill
would authorize a persistently lowest-achieving school implementing
specified intervention models to participate in a school-to-school
partnership program by working with a mentor school that has
successfully transitioned from a low-achieving school to a
higher-achieving school. The regional consortia authorized under a
specified statute would, using specified federal funds, be required
to provide, in collaboration with the department, at a minimum,
technical assistance and support to local educational agencies with
one or more persistently lowest-achieving schools to assist with the
implementation of the duties specified for any of the 4
interventions.
This bill would require the governing board of a local educational
agency, with regard to any school identified as low-achieving, as
defined, but not identified as persistently lowest-achieving, as
defined, which continues to fail to make adequate yearly progress
under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act after one
full school year, and where at least one-half of the parents or
guardians of pupils attending the school and the elementary or middle
schools that normally matriculate into a middle or high school, as
applicable, sign a petition requesting the local educational agency
to implement a strategy to reform that school, to (a) place that
request as an item on the agenda of a regularly scheduled public
hearing no later than 90 days following receipt of that request, (b)
hear that agenda item at that regularly scheduled meeting, and (c)
allow public testimony and comment on that agenda item.
(3) Existing law requires the governing board of a school district
to develop and adopt objective evaluation and assessment guidelines
for certificated employees.
This bill would require each participating local educational
agency that executes a memorandum of understanding with the State of
California pursuant to the federal Race to the Top program to have in
place or establish a rigorous, transparent, and fair evaluation
system for its school principals.
(4) Existing law requires the Controller, in consultation with the
Department of Finance and the State Department of Education, to
develop a plan to review and report on financial and compliance
audits. Existing law requires the Controller to propose the content
of an audit guide and authorizes a supplement to the audit guide to
be suggested in the audit year to address issues resulting from new
legislation in that year that changes the conditions of
apportionment. Existing law requires the Controller to submit the
proposed content of the audit guide and any supplement to the
Education Audits Appeal Panel for review and possible amendment, and
requires the Education Audits Appeal Panel to adopt the audit guide
and any supplement pursuant to the rulemaking procedures of the
Administrative Procedure Act.
This bill would require the Controller to propose, and the
Education Audits Appeal Panel to adopt, a charter school supplement
to the audit guide in order to provide guidance to auditors regarding
which sections of the school district and county office audit guide
apply to charter schools and to create specific guidance related to
the unique nature of charter schools. The bill also would make
conforming changes.
The Charter Schools Act of 1992 (Charter Schools Act) authorizes
any one or more persons to submit a petition to the governing board
of a school district to establish a charter school that operates
independently from the existing school district structure as a method
of accomplishing specified goals. The act limits the maximum number
of charter schools authorized to operate in the state each year, as
specified.
This bill would delete that numerical limitation.
The Charter Schools Act specifies the procedures for the
submission, review, and approval or denial of a petition to establish
a standard or countywide charter school. The act
authorizes the governing board of a school district to deny a charter
petition only if the board makes written factual findings that
support certain facts regarding the petition.
This bill, in addition, would authorize a governing board to deny
a petition to establish a standard or countywide charter school
if it makes a written factual finding that other charter
schools in operation for at least 3 consecutive years and operated by
the petitioner have met any of the following criteria: (A) the
charter school has demonstrated academic achievement equivalent to a
persistently lowest-achieving school, as specified; (B) the charter
school has not been renewed; (C) the school has had its
charter revoked completed its first renewal cycle and
was not renewed by the authorizing entity, the county board of
education, or the state board, as applicable; or C) the school has
had its charter revoked, and the charter was not restored by the
county board of education or the state board, as applicable .
The Charter Schools Act limits the duration of charters to a
period not to exceed 5 years and authorizes the chartering authority
to grant one or more subsequent renewals for an additional period of
5 years. The act specifies the criteria a charter school is required
to meet in order to receive a renewal of its charter. Commencing
January 1, 2005, or after a charter school has been in operation for
4 years, whichever date occurs later, the act requires a charter
school to meet at least one of several specified criteria prior to
receiving a charter renewal, including a determination by the entity
that granted the charter that the academic performance of the charter
school is at least equal to the academic performance of the public
schools that the charter school pupils would otherwise have been
required to attend, as well as the academic performance of the
schools in the school district in which the charter school is
located, taking into account the composition of the pupil population
that is served at the charter school.
This bill would delete that criterion and replace it with a
criterion relating to attaining positive growth on the charter school'
s API score. The bill would require a chartering authority,
consistent with the federal Race to the Top guidelines, to consider
the degree to which a charter school serves pupil populations that
are similar to local district pupil populations, especially relative
to high-need pupils. The bill would prohibit a chartering authority
from granting a renewal of a charter school for longer than a 3-year
period if that charter school is in program improvement or if a
charter school is in year 5 of program improvement, except as
specified.
The Charter Schools Act requires a charter petition to include a
reasonably comprehensive description of the manner in which annual,
independent financial audits will be conducted. The act requires a
charter school to transmit a copy of its annual, independent
financial audit report for the preceding fiscal year to its
chartering entity, the Controller, the county superintendent of
schools of the county in which the charter school is sited, except as
specified, and the department by December 15 of each year.
This bill would require the Controller, by December 31 of each
fiscal year, to publish a directory of certified public accountants
and public accountants deemed by the Controller to be qualified to
conduct audits of charter schools. The bill would require each audit
of a charter school to be conducted by a certified public accountant
or public accountant selected by the charter school from the
directory. The bill would specify that it is unlawful for a public
accounting firm to provide audit services to a charter school if the
lead audit partner, or coordinating audit partner, having primary
responsibility for the audit, or the audit partner responsible for
reviewing the audit, has performed audit services for that charter
school in each of the 6 previous fiscal years, except as provided.
(5) Existing law, the Leroy Greene California Assessment of
Academic Achievement Act (hereafter the Greene Act), requires the
Superintendent to design and implement a statewide pupil assessment
program, and requires school districts, charter schools, and county
offices of education to administer to each of its pupils in grades 2
to 11, inclusive, certain achievement tests, including a
standards-based achievement test pursuant to the Standardized Testing
and Reporting (STAR) Program.
This bill would require the Superintendent to develop
recommendations for the reauthorization of the statewide pupil
assessment program that include a plan for transitioning to a system
of high-quality assessments, as defined. This bill would require the
advisory committee that is established to advise the Superintendent
and the state board on specified matters relating to the Public
School Performance Accountability Program to make recommendations by
January 1, 2011, to the Legislature, the Governor, and the state
board on, among other things, the establishment of a methodology of
generating a measurement of group and individual academic performance
growth by utilizing individual pupil results from a longitudinally
valid achievement assessment system, as specified.
The Greene Act requires the Superintendent to adopt statewide
content and performance standards in the core curriculum areas of
reading, writing, mathematics, history/social science, and science,
as specified. The Greene Act authorizes the state board to modify any
proposed content standards or performance standards prior to
adoption, and to adopt content and performance standards in
individual core curriculum areas as those standards are submitted to
the state board.
This bill would eliminate this authority and instead require the
Superintendent, to develop a set of academic content standards in
language arts and mathematics. The standards would be required to
meet specified criteria. The Superintendent, on or before August 2,
2010, would be required to present these standards to the state
board, and to present to the Governor, and the appropriate policy and
fiscal committees of the Legislature, specified information relating
to these standards. The state board, on or before September 1, 2010,
would be required to adopt or reject the standards, as specified.
The bill would require the Superintendent to participate in the
Common Core State Standards Initiative consortium sponsored by the
National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School
Officers and or any associated or
related interstate collaboration to jointly develop common
high-quality standards or assessments aligned with the
common set of standards developed by that consortium
. The bill also would make conforming changes.
Existing law makes certain provisions of that act inoperative on
July 1, 2011, and repeals all of the act's provisions on January 1,
2012.
The bill would make the act inoperative on July 1, 2012, and would
repeal the act as of January 1, 2013, except specified provisions,
which would become inoperative on July 1, 2016, and would be repealed
as of January 1, 2017. By extending the time period during which
school districts are required to perform various duties related to
the administration of achievement tests, the bill would impose a
state-mandated local program.
(6) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates
determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these
statutory provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 14502.1 of the Education Code is amended to
read:
14502.1. (a) The Controller, in consultation with the Department
of Finance and the State Department of Education, shall develop a
plan to review and report on financial and compliance audits. The
plan shall commence with the 2003-04 fiscal year for audits of school
districts, other local education agencies, and the offices of county
superintendents of schools. The Controller, in consultation with the
Department of Finance, the State Department of Education, and
representatives of the California School Boards Association, the
California Association of School Business Officials, the California
County Superintendents Educational Service Association, the
California Teachers Association, the California Society of Certified
Public Accountants, shall recommend the statements and other
information to be included in the audit reports filed with the state,
and shall propose the content of an audit guide to carry out the
purposes of this chapter. A supplement to the audit guide may be
suggested in the audit year, following the above process, to address
issues resulting from new legislation in that year that changes the
conditions of apportionment. The proposed content of the audit guide
and any supplement to the audit guide shall be submitted by the
Controller to the Education Audits Appeal Panel for review and
possible amendment.
(b) The audit guide and any supplement shall be adopted by the
Education Audits Appeal Panel pursuant to the rulemaking procedures
of the Administrative Procedure Act as set forth in Chapter 3.5
(commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of
the Government Code. It is the intent of the Legislature that, for
the 2003-04 fiscal year, the audit guide be adopted by July 1 of the
fiscal year to be audited. A supplemental audit guide may be adopted
to address legislative changes to the conditions of apportionment. It
is the intent of the Legislature that supplements be adopted before
March 1 of the audit year. Commencing with the 2004-05 fiscal year,
and each fiscal year thereafter, the audit guide shall be adopted by
July 1 of the fiscal year to be audited. A supplemental audit guide
may be adopted to address legislative changes to the conditions of
apportionment. The supplements shall be adopted before March 1 of the
audit year. To meet these goals and to ensure the accuracy of the
audit guide, the process for adopting emergency regulations set forth
in Section 11346.1 of the Government Code may be followed to adopt
the guide and supplemental audit guide. It is the intent of the
Legislature that once the audit guide has been adopted for a fiscal
year, as well as any supplement for that year, thereafter only
suggested changes to the audit guide and any additional supplements
need be adopted pursuant to the rulemaking procedures of the
Administrative Procedure Act. The audit guide and any supplement
shall be issued in booklet form and may be made available by any
means deemed appropriate. The Controller and consultants in the
development of the suggested audit guide and any supplement shall
work cooperatively on a timeline that will allow the education audits
appeal panel to meet the July 1 and March 1 issuance dates.
Consistent with current practices for development of the audit guide
before the 2003-04 fiscal year, the Controller shall provide for the
adoption of procedures and timetables for the development of the
suggested audit guide, any supplement, and the format for additions,
deletions, and revisions.
(c) For the audit of school districts or county offices of
education electing to take formal action pursuant to Sections 22714,
22714.5, 44929, and 44929.1, the audit guide content proposed by the
Controller shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
(1) The number and type of positions vacated.
(2) The age and service credit of the retirees receiving the
additional service credit provided by Sections 22714, 22714.5, 44929,
and 44929.1.
(3) A comparison of the salary and benefits of each retiree
receiving the additional service credit with the salary and benefits
of the replacement employee, if any.
(4) The resulting retirement cost, including interest, if any, and
postretirement health care benefits costs, incurred by the employer.
(d) The Controller shall annually prepare a cost analysis, based
on the information included in the audit reports for the prior fiscal
year, to determine the net savings or costs resulting from formal
actions taken by school districts and county offices of education
pursuant to Sections 22714, 22714.5, 44929, and 44929.1, and shall
report the results of the cost analysis to the Governor and the
Legislature by April 1 of each year.
(e) All costs incurred by the Controller to implement subdivision
(c) shall be absorbed by the Controller.
(f) This section shall become operative July 1, 2003 and shall
apply to the preparation of the audit guide for school district
audits commencing with the 2003-04 fiscal year.
(g) Pursuant to subdivisions (a) and (b), the Controller shall
propose, and the Education Audits Appeal Panel shall adopt, a charter
school supplement to the audit guide to provide guidance on the
sections of the school district and county office audit guide that
apply to charter schools, and to provide specific guidance on the
unique nature of charter schools.
SEC. 2. Section 44665.5 is added to the Education Code, to read:
44665.5. (a) Each participating local educational agency, as that
term is defined in the regulations and guidelines for the federal
Race to the Top program authorized under the federal American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5), that
executes a memorandum of understanding with the State of California
pursuant to the Race to the Top program shall have in place, or shall
establish, a rigorous, transparent, and fair annual evaluation
system for its school principals.
(b) An evaluation system required pursuant to this section shall,
at a minimum, have the following characteristics:
(1) It shall be designed and developed with the involvement of
school principals.
(2) It shall include multiple factors, including data on pupil
academic growth, that contribute to a school principal's success.
(3) It shall provide timely and instructive feedback to
principals.
(4) It shall be used by the local educational agency to inform
employment-related decisions for school principals.
SEC. 3. Section 47602 of the Education Code is amended to read:
47602. (a) The state board shall assign a number to each charter
petition that it grants pursuant to subdivision (j) of Section 47605
or Section 47605.8 and to each charter notice it receives pursuant to
this part, based on the chronological order in which the notice is
received. Each number assigned by the state board on or after January
1, 2003, shall correspond to a single petition that identifies a
charter school that will operate within the geographic and site
limitations of this part. The state board shall develop a numbering
system for charter schools that identifies each school associated
with a charter. For purposes of this section, sites that share
educational programs and serve similar pupil populations may not be
counted as separate schools. Sites that do not share a common
educational program shall be considered separate schools for purposes
of this section. The limits contained in this paragraph may not be
waived by the state board pursuant to Section 33050 or any other
provision of law.
(b) A charter shall not be granted under this part that authorizes
the conversion of any private school to a charter school. A charter
school shall not receive any public funds for a pupil if the pupil
also attends a private school that charges the family of the pupil
tuition. The state board shall adopt regulations to implement this
section.
SEC. 4. Section 47605 of the Education Code is amended to read:
47605. (a) (1) Except as set forth in paragraph (2), a petition
for the establishment of a charter school within a school district
may be circulated by one or more persons seeking to establish the
charter school. A petition for the establishment of a charter school
shall identify a single charter school that will operate within the
geographic boundaries of that school district. A charter school may
propose to operate at multiple sites within the school district, as
long as each location is identified in the charter school petition.
The petition may be submitted to the governing board of the school
district for review after either of the following conditions are met:
(A) The petition has been signed by a number of parents or legal
guardians of pupils that is equivalent to at least one-half of the
number of pupils that the charter school estimates will enroll in the
school for its first year of operation.
(B) The petition has been signed by a number of teachers that is
equivalent to at least one-half of the number of teachers that the
charter school estimates will be employed at the school during its
first year of operation.
(2) A petition that proposes to convert an existing public school
to a charter school that would not be eligible for a loan pursuant to
subdivision (b) of Section 41365 may be circulated by one or more
persons seeking to establish the charter school. The petition may be
submitted to the governing board of the school district for review
after the petition has been signed by not less than 50 percent of the
permanent status teachers currently employed at the public school to
be converted.
(3) A petition shall include a prominent statement that a
signature on the petition means that the parent or legal guardian is
meaningfully interested in having his or her child or ward attend the
charter school, or in the case of a teacher's signature, means that
the teacher is meaningfully interested in teaching at the charter
school. The proposed charter shall be attached to the petition.
(4) After receiving approval of its petition, a charter school
that proposes to establish operations at one or more additional sites
shall request a material revision to its charter and shall notify
the authority that granted its charter of those additional locations.
The authority that granted its charter shall consider whether to
approve those additional locations at an open, public meeting. The
approval of additional locations of a charter school constitutes a
material revision of its charter.
(5) A charter school that is unable to locate within the
jurisdiction of the chartering school district may establish one site
outside the boundaries of the school district, but within the county
in which that school district is located, if the school district
within the jurisdiction of which the charter school proposes to
operate is notified in advance of the charter petition approval, the
county superintendent of schools and the Superintendent are notified
of the location of the charter school before it commences operations,
and either of the following circumstances exist:
(A) The school has attempted to locate a single site or facility
to house the entire program, but a site or facility is unavailable in
the area in which the school chooses to locate.
(B) The site is needed for temporary use during a construction or
expansion project.
(6) Commencing January 1, 2003, a petition to establish a charter
school may not be approved to serve pupils in a grade level that is
not served by the school district of the governing board considering
the petition, unless the petition proposes to serve pupils in all of
the grade levels served by that school district.
(b) No later than 30 days after receiving a petition, in
accordance with subdivision (a), the governing board of the school
district shall hold a public hearing on the provisions of the
charter, at which time the governing board of the school district
shall consider the level of support for the petition by teachers
employed by the district, other employees of the district, and
parents. Following review of the petition and the public hearing, the
governing board of the school district shall either grant or deny
the charter within 60 days of receipt of the petition. The 60-day
period may be extended by an additional 30 days if the governing
board and the proponents of the petition agree to the extension. In
reviewing petitions for the establishment of charter schools pursuant
to this section, the chartering authority shall be guided by the
intent of the Legislature that charter schools are and should become
an integral part of the California educational system and that
establishment of charter schools should be encouraged. The governing
board of the school district shall grant a charter for the operation
of a school under this part if it is satisfied that granting the
charter is consistent with sound educational practice. The governing
board of the school district shall not deny a petition for the
establishment of a charter school unless it makes written factual
findings, specific to the particular petition, setting forth specific
facts to support one or more of the following findings:
(1) The charter school presents an unsound educational program for
the pupils to be enrolled in the charter school.
(2) The petitioners are demonstrably unlikely to successfully
implement the program set forth in the petition.
(3) The petition does not contain the number of signatures
required by subdivision (a).
(4) The petition does not contain an affirmation of each of the
conditions described in subdivision (d).
(5) The petition does not contain reasonably comprehensive
descriptions of all of the following:
(A) (i) A description of the educational program of the school,
designed, among other things, to identify those whom the school is
attempting to educate, what it means to be an "educated person" in
the 21st century, and how learning best occurs. The goals identified
in that program shall include the objective of enabling pupils to
become self-motivated, competent, and lifelong learners.
(ii) If the proposed school will serve high school pupils, a
description of the manner in which the charter school will inform
parents about the transferability of courses to other public high
schools and the eligibility of courses to meet college entrance
requirements. Courses offered by the charter school that are
accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges may be
considered transferable and courses approved by the University of
California or the California State University as creditable under the
"A" to "G" admissions criteria may be considered to meet college
entrance requirements.
(B) The measurable pupil outcomes identified for use by the
charter school. "Pupil outcomes," for purposes of this part, means
the extent to which all pupils of the school demonstrate that they
have attained the skills, knowledge, and attitudes specified as goals
in the school's educational program.
(C) The governance structure of the school, including, but not
limited to, the process to be followed by the school to ensure
parental involvement.
(D) The qualifications to be met by individuals to be employed by
the school.
(E) The procedures that the school will follow to ensure the
health and safety of pupils and staff. These procedures shall include
the requirement that each employee of the school furnish the school
with a criminal record summary as described in Section 44237.
(F) The means by which the school will achieve a racial and ethnic
balance among its pupils that is reflective of the general
population residing within the territorial jurisdiction of the school
district to which the charter petition is submitted.
(G) Admission requirements, if applicable.
(H) The manner in which annual, independent financial audits shall
be conducted, which shall employ generally accepted accounting
principles, and the manner in which audit exceptions and deficiencies
shall be resolved to the satisfaction of the chartering authority,
consistent with the supplement to the audit guide adopted pursuant to
subdivision (g) of Section 14502.1.
(I) The procedures by which pupils can be suspended or expelled.
(J) The manner by which staff members of the charter schools will
be covered by the State Teachers' Retirement System, the Public
Employees' Retirement System, or federal social security.
(K) The public school attendance alternatives for pupils residing
within the school district who choose not to attend charter schools.
(L) A description of the rights of any employee of the school
district upon leaving the employment of the school district to work
in a charter school, and of any rights of return to the school
district after employment at a charter school.
(M) The procedures to be followed by the charter school and the
entity granting the charter to resolve disputes relating to
provisions of the charter.
(N) A declaration whether or not the charter school shall be
deemed the exclusive public school employer of the employees of the
charter school for the purposes of Chapter 10.7 (commencing with
Section 3540) of Division 4 of Title 1 of the Government Code.
(O) A description of the procedures to be used if the charter
school closes. The procedures shall ensure a final audit of the
school to determine the disposition of all assets and liabilities of
the charter school, including plans for disposing of any net assets
and for the maintenance and transfer of pupil records.
(6) For purposes of assuring high-performing charter schools
pursuant to the federal Race to the Top regulations and guidelines,
the petitioner has operated another charter school for at least three
consecutive years, and any of the following have occurred:
(A) The charter school has demonstrated academic achievement
equivalent to a persistently lowest-achieving school as set forth in
subdivision (b) of Section 53400.
(B) The charter school has not been renewed.
(C) The school has had its charter revoked.
(B) The charter school completed its first renewal cycle and was
not renewed by the authorizing entity, the county board of education,
or the state board.
(C) The school has had its charter revoked, and the charter was
not restored by the county board of education, or the state board.
(c) (1) Charter schools shall meet all statewide standards and
conduct the pupil assessments required pursuant to Sections 60605 and
60851 and any other statewide standards authorized in statute or
pupil assessments applicable to pupils in noncharter public schools.
Pupil progress shall be measured in the same manner as for noncharter
schools.
(2) Charter schools shall, on a regular basis, consult with their
parents, legal guardians, and teachers regarding the school's
educational programs.
(d) (1) In addition to any other requirement imposed under this
part, a charter school shall be nonsectarian in its programs,
admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations,
shall not charge tuition, and shall not discriminate against any
pupil on the basis of the characteristics listed in Section 220.
Except as provided in paragraph (2), admission to a charter school
shall not be determined according to the place of residence of the
pupil, or of his or her parent or legal guardian, within this state,
except that an existing public school converting partially or
entirely to a charter school under this part shall adopt and maintain
a policy giving admission preference to pupils who reside within the
former attendance area of that public school.
(2) (A) A charter school shall admit all pupils who wish to attend
the school.
(B) However, if the number of pupils who wish to attend the
charter school exceeds the school's capacity, attendance, except for
existing pupils of the charter school, shall be determined by a
public random drawing. Preference shall be extended to pupils
currently attending the charter school and pupils who reside in the
district except as provided for in Section 47614.5. Other preferences
may be permitted by the chartering authority on an individual school
basis and only if consistent with the law.
(C) In the event of a drawing, the chartering authority shall make
reasonable efforts to accommodate the growth of the charter school
and in no event shall take any action to impede the charter school
from expanding enrollment to meet pupil demand.
(3) If a pupil is expelled or leaves the charter school without
graduating or completing the school year for any reason, the charter
school shall notify the superintendent of the school district of the
pupil's last known address within 30 days, and shall, upon request,
provide that school district with a copy of the cumulative record of
the pupil, including a transcript of grades or report card, and
health information. This paragraph applies only to pupils subject to
compulsory full-time education pursuant to Section 48200.
(e) The governing board of a school district shall not require any
employee of the school district to be employed in a charter school.
(f) The governing board of a school district shall not require any
pupil enrolled in the school district to attend a charter school.
(g) The governing board of a school district shall require that
the petitioner or petitioners provide information regarding the
proposed operation and potential effects of the school, including,
but not limited to, the facilities to be utilized by the school, the
manner in which administrative services of the school are to be
provided, and potential civil liability effects, if any, upon the
school and upon the school district. The description of the
facilities to be used by the charter school shall specify where the
school intends to locate. The petitioner or petitioners shall also be
required to provide financial statements that include a proposed
first-year operational budget, including startup costs, and cashflow
and financial projections for the first three years of operation.
(h) In reviewing petitions for the establishment of charter
schools within the school district, the governing board of the school
district shall give preference to petitions that demonstrate the
capability to provide comprehensive learning experiences to pupils
identified by the petitioner or petitioners as academically
low-achieving pursuant to the standards established by the department
under Section 54032 as it read prior to July 19, 2006.
(i) Upon the approval of the petition by the governing board of
the school district, the petitioner or petitioners shall provide
written notice of that approval, including a copy of the petition, to
the applicable county superintendent of schools, the department, and
the state board.
(j) (1) If the governing board of a school district denies a
petition, the petitioner may elect to submit the petition for the
establishment of a charter school to the county board of education.
The county board of education shall review the petition pursuant to
subdivision (b). If the petitioner elects to submit a petition for
establishment of a charter school to the county board of education
and the county board of education denies the petition, the petitioner
may file a petition for establishment of a charter school with the
state board, and the state board may approve the petition, in
accordance with subdivision (b). A charter school that receives
approval of its petition from a county board of education or from the
state board on appeal shall be subject to the same requirements
concerning geographic location to which it would otherwise be subject
if it received approval from the entity to which it originally
submitted its petition. A charter petition that is submitted to
either a county board of education or to the state board shall meet
all otherwise applicable petition requirements, including the
identification of the proposed site or sites where the charter school
will operate.
(2) In assuming its role as a chartering agency, the state board
shall develop criteria to be used for the review and approval of
charter school petitions presented to the state board. The criteria
shall address all elements required for charter approval, as
identified in subdivision (b) and shall define "reasonably
comprehensive" as used in paragraph (5) of subdivision (b) in a way
that is consistent with the intent of this part. Upon satisfactory
completion of the criteria, the state board shall adopt the criteria
on or before June 30, 2001.
(3) A charter school for which a charter is granted by either the
county board of education or the state board based on an appeal
pursuant to this subdivision shall qualify fully as a charter school
for all funding and other purposes of this part.
(4) If either the county board of education or the state board
fails to act on a petition within 120 days of receipt, the decision
of the governing board of the school district to deny a petition
shall, thereafter, be subject to judicial review.
(5) The state board shall adopt regulations implementing this
subdivision.
(6) Upon the approval of the petition by the county board of
education, the petitioner or petitioners shall provide written notice
of that approval, including a copy of the petition to the department
and the state board.
(k) (1) The state board may, by mutual agreement, designate its
supervisorial and oversight responsibilities for a charter school
approved by the state board to any local educational agency in the
county in which the charter school is located or to the governing
board of the school district that first denied the petition.
(2) The designated local educational agency shall have all
monitoring and supervising authority of a chartering agency,
including, but not limited to, powers and duties set forth in Section
47607, except the power of revocation, which shall remain with the
state board.
(3) A charter school that has been granted its charter through an
appeal to the state board and elects to seek renewal of its charter
shall, prior to expiration of the charter, submit its petition for
renewal to the governing board of the school district that initially
denied the charter. If the governing board of the school district
denies the school's petition for renewal, the school may petition the
state board for renewal of its charter.
( l ) Teachers in charter schools shall hold a
Commission on Teacher Credentialing certificate, permit, or other
document equivalent to that which a teacher in other public schools
would be required to hold. These documents shall be maintained on
file at the charter school
and are subject to periodic inspection by the chartering authority.
It is the intent of the Legislature that charter schools be given
flexibility with regard to noncore, noncollege preparatory courses.
(m) A charter school shall transmit a copy of its annual,
independent financial audit report for the preceding fiscal year, as
described in subparagraph (H) of paragraph (5) of subdivision (b), to
its chartering entity, the Controller, the county superintendent of
schools of the county in which the charter school is sited, unless
the county board of education of the county in which the charter
school is sited is the chartering entity, and the department by
December 15 of each year. This subdivision does not apply if the
audit of the charter school is encompassed in the audit of the
chartering entity pursuant to Section 41020.
SEC. 5. Section 47605.6 of the Education Code is amended to read:
47605.6. (a) (1) In addition to the authority provided by Section
47605.5, a county board of education may also approve a petition for
the operation of a charter school that operates at one or more sites
within the geographic boundaries of the county and that provides
instructional services that are not generally provided by a county
office of education. A county board of education may only approve a
countywide charter if it finds, in addition to the other requirements
of this section, that the educational services to be provided by the
charter school will offer services to a pupil population that will
benefit from those services and that cannot be served as well by a
charter school that operates in only one school district in the
county. A petition for the establishment of a countywide charter
school pursuant to this subdivision may be circulated throughout the
county by any one or more persons seeking to establish the charter
school. The petition may be submitted to the county board of
education for review after either of the following conditions are
met:
(A) The petition has been signed by a number of parents or
guardians of pupils residing within the county that is equivalent to
at least one-half of the number of pupils that the charter school
estimates will enroll in the school for its first year of operation
and each of the school districts where the charter school petitioner
proposes to operate a facility has received at least 30 days notice
of the petitioner's intent to operate a school pursuant to this
section.
(B) The petition has been signed by a number of teachers that is
equivalent to at least one-half of the number of teachers that the
charter school estimates will be employed at the school during its
first year of operation and each of the school districts where the
charter school petitioner proposes to operate a facility has received
at least 30 days notice of the petitioner's intent to operate a
school pursuant to this section.
(2) An existing public school may not be converted to a charter
school in accordance with this section.
(3) After receiving approval of its petition, a charter school
that proposes to establish operations at additional sites within the
geographic boundaries of the county board of education shall notify
the school districts where those sites will be located. The charter
school shall also request a material revision of its charter by the
county board of education that approved its charter and the county
board shall consider whether to approve those additional locations at
an open, public meeting, held no sooner than 30 days following
notification of the school districts where the sites will be located.
If approved, the location of the approved sites shall be a material
revision of the school's approved charter.
(4) A petition shall include a prominent statement indicating that
a signature on the petition means that the parent or guardian is
meaningfully interested in having his or her child or ward attend the
charter school, or in the case of a teacher's signature, means that
the teacher is meaningfully interested in teaching at the charter
school. The proposed charter shall be attached to the petition.
(b) No later than 60 days after receiving a petition, in
accordance with subdivision (a), the county board of education shall
hold a public hearing on the provisions of the charter, at which time
the county board of education shall consider the level of support
for the petition by teachers, parents or guardians, and the school
districts where the charter school petitioner proposes to place
school facilities. Following review of the petition and the public
hearing, the county board of education shall either grant or deny the
charter within 90 days of receipt of the petition. However, this
date may be extended by an additional 30 days if both parties agree
to the extension. A county board of education may impose any
additional requirements beyond those required by this section that it
considers necessary for the sound operation of a countywide charter
school. A county board of education may grant a charter for the
operation of a school under this part only if the board is satisfied
that granting the charter is consistent with sound educational
practice and that the charter school has reasonable justification for
why it could not be established by petition to a school district
pursuant to Section 47605. The county board of education shall deny a
petition for the establishment of a charter school if the board
finds, one or more of the following:
(1) The charter school presents an unsound educational program for
the pupils to be enrolled in the charter school.
(2) The petitioners are demonstrably unlikely to successfully
implement the program set forth in the petition.
(3) The petition does not contain the number of signatures
required by subdivision (a).
(4) The petition does not contain an affirmation of each of the
conditions described in subdivision (d).
(5) The petition does not contain reasonably comprehensive
descriptions of all of the following:
(A) (i) A description of the educational program of the school,
designed, among other things, to identify those pupils whom the
school is attempting to educate, what it means to be an "educated
person" in the 21st century, and how learning best occurs. The goals
identified in that program shall include the objective of enabling
pupils to become self-motivated, competent, and lifelong learners.
(ii) If the proposed charter school will enroll high school
pupils, a description of the manner in which the manner in which the
charter school will inform parents regarding the transferability of
courses to other public high schools. Courses offered by the charter
school that are accredited by the Western Association of Schools and
Colleges may be considered to be transferable to other public high
schools.
(iii) If the proposed charter school will enroll high school
pupils, information as to the manner in which the charter school will
inform parents as to whether each individual course offered by the
charter school meets college entrance requirements. Courses approved
by the University of California or the California State University as
satisfying their prerequisites for admission may be considered as
meeting college entrance requirements for purposes of this clause.
(B) The measurable pupil outcomes identified for use by the
charter school. "Pupil outcomes," for purposes of this part, means
the extent to which all pupils of the school demonstrate that they
have attained the skills, knowledge, and attitudes specified as goals
in the school's educational program.
(C) The location of each charter school facility that the
petitioner proposes to operate.
(D) The governance structure of the school, including, but not
limited to, the process to be followed by the school to ensure
parental involvement.
(E) The qualifications to be met by individuals to be employed by
the school.
(F) The procedures that the school will follow to ensure the
health and safety of pupils and staff. These procedures shall include
the requirement that each employee of the school furnish the school
with a criminal record summary as described in Section 44237.
(G) The means by which the school will achieve a racial and ethnic
balance among its pupils that is reflective of the general
population residing within the territorial jurisdiction of the school
district to which the charter petition is submitted.
(H) The manner in which annual, independent, financial audits
shall be conducted, in accordance with regulations established by the
State Board of Education, and the manner in which audit exceptions
and deficiencies shall be resolved, consistent with the supplement to
the audit guide adopted pursuant to subdivision (g) of Section
14502.1.
(I) The procedures by which pupils can be suspended or expelled.
(J) The manner by which staff members of the charter schools will
be covered by the State Teachers' Retirement System, the Public
Employees' Retirement System, or federal social security.
(K) The procedures to be followed by the charter school and the
county board of education to resolve disputes relating to provisions
of the charter.
(L) A declaration whether or not the charter school shall be
deemed the exclusive public school employer of the employees of the
charter school for the purposes of the Educational Employment
Relations Act (Chapter 10.7 (commencing with Section 3540) of
Division 4 of Title 1 of the Government Code).
(M) Admission requirements, of the charter school, if applicable.
(N) The public school attendance alternatives for pupils residing
within the county who choose not to attend the charter school.
(O) A description of the rights of an employee of the county
office of education, upon leaving the employment of the county office
of education, to be employed by the charter school, and a
description of any rights of return to the county office of education
that an employee may have upon leaving the employ of the charter
school.
(P) A description of the procedures to be used if the charter
school closes. The procedures shall ensure a final audit of the
school to determine the disposition of all assets and liabilities of
the charter school, including plans for disposing of any net assets
and for the maintenance and transfer of public records.
(6) For purposes of assuring high-performing charter schools
pursuant to the federal Race to the Top regulations and guidelines,
the petitioner has operated another charter school for at least three
consecutive years, and any of the following have occurred:
(A) The charter school has demonstrated academic achievement
equivalent to a persistently lowest-achieving school as set forth in
subdivision (b) of Section 53400.
(B) The charter school has not been renewed.
(C) The school has had its charter revoked.
(B) The charter school completed its first renewal cycle and was
not renewed by the authorizing entity or the state board.
(C) The school has had its charter revoked, and the charter was
not restored by the state board.
(7) Any other basis that the board finds justifies the denial of
the petition.
(c) A county board of education that approves a petition for the
operation of a countywide charter may, as a condition of charter
approval, enter into an agreement with a third party, at the expense
of the charter school, to oversee, monitor, and report to the county
board of education on the operations of the charter school. The
county board of education may prescribe the aspects of the charter
school's operations to be monitored by the third party and may
prescribe appropriate requirements regarding the reporting of
information concerning the operations of the charter school to the
county board of education.
(d) (1) Charter schools shall meet all statewide standards and
conduct the pupil assessments required pursuant to Section 60605 and
any other statewide standards authorized in statute or pupil
assessments applicable to pupils in noncharter public schools. Pupil
progress shall be measured in the same manner as for noncharter
schools.
(2) Charter schools shall on a regular basis consult with their
parents and teachers regarding the school's educational programs.
(e) (1) In addition to any other requirement imposed under this
part, a charter school shall be nonsectarian in its programs,
admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations,
shall not charge tuition, and shall not discriminate against any
pupil on the basis of ethnicity, national origin, gender, or
disability. Except as provided in paragraph (2), admission to a
charter school shall not be determined according to the place of
residence of the pupil, or of his or her parent or guardian, within
this state.
(2) (A) A charter school shall admit all pupils who wish to attend
the school.
(B) However, if the number of pupils who wish to attend the
charter school exceeds the school's capacity, attendance, except for
existing pupils of the charter school, shall be determined by a
public random drawing. Preference shall be extended to pupils
currently attending the charter school and pupils who reside in the
county except as provided for in Section 47614.5. Other preferences
may be permitted by the chartering authority on an individual school
basis and only if consistent with the law.
(C) In the event of a drawing, the county board of education shall
make reasonable efforts to accommodate the growth of the charter
school and, in no event, shall take any action to impede the charter
school from expanding enrollment to meet pupil demand.
(f) No county board of education shall require any employee of the
county or a school district to be employed in a charter school.
(g) No county board of education shall require any pupil enrolled
in a county program to attend a charter school.
(h) The county board of education shall require that the
petitioner or petitioners provide information regarding the proposed
operation and potential effects of the school, including, but not
limited to, the facilities to be utilized by the school, the manner
in which administrative services of the school are to be provided,
and potential civil liability effects, if any, upon the school, any
school district where the charter school may operate and upon the
county board of education. The petitioner or petitioners shall also
be required to provide financial statements that include a proposed
first-year operational budget, including startup costs, and cashflow
and financial projections for the first three years of operation.
(i) In reviewing petitions for the establishment of charter
schools within the county, the county board of education shall give
preference to petitions that demonstrate the capability to provide
comprehensive learning experiences to pupils identified by the
petitioner or petitioners as academically low-achieving pursuant to
the standards established by the State Department of Education under
Section 54032.
(j) Upon the approval of the petition by the county board of
education, the petitioner or petitioners shall provide written notice
of that approval, including a copy of the petition, to the school
districts within the county, the Superintendent of Public Instruction
and to the State Board of Education.
(k) If a county board of education denies a petition, the
petitioner may not elect to submit the petition for the establishment
of the charter school to the State Board of Education.
(l) Teachers in charter schools shall be required to hold a
Commission on Teacher Credentialing certificate, permit, or other
document equivalent to that which a teacher in other public schools
would be required to hold. These documents shall be maintained on
file at the charter school and shall be subject to periodic
inspection by the chartering authority.
(m) A charter school shall transmit a copy of its annual,
independent, financial audit report for the preceding fiscal year, as
described in subparagraph (H) of paragraph (5) of subdivision (b),
to the County Office of Education, State Controller and the State
Department of Education by December 15 of each year. This subdivision
shall not apply if the audit of the charter school is encompassed in
the audit of the chartering entity pursuant to Section 41020.
SEC. 6. Section 47607 of the Education Code is amended to read:
47607. (a) (1) A charter may be granted pursuant to Sections
47605, 47605.5, and 47606 for a period not to exceed five years. A
charter granted by a school district governing board, a county board
of education or the state board, may be granted one or more
subsequent renewals by that entity. Each renewal shall be for a
period of five years. A material revision of the provisions of a
charter petition may be made only with the approval of the authority
that granted the charter. The authority that granted the charter may
inspect or observe any part of the charter school at any time.
(2) Renewals and material revisions of charters are governed by
the standards and criteria in Section 47605, and shall include, but
not be limited to, a reasonably comprehensive description of any new
requirement of charter schools enacted into law after the charter was
originally granted or last renewed.
(3) Consistent with the federal Race to the Top regulations and
guidelines, the chartering authority that authorizes a charter school
shall consider, as one factor in determining whether to grant a
renewal, the degree to which a charter school serves pupil
populations that are similar to local district pupil populations,
especially with regard to high-need students as that term is defined
in the federal Race to the Top regulations and guidelines.
(b) Commencing on January 1, 2005, or after a charter school has
been in operation for four years, whichever date occurs later, a
charter school shall meet at least one of the following criteria
prior to receiving a charter renewal pursuant to paragraph (1) of
subdivision (a):
(1) Attained its Academic Performance Index (API) schoolwide and
subgroup growth targets in the prior year or in two of the last three
years, or in the aggregate for the prior three years.
(2) Ranked in deciles 4 to 10, inclusive, on the API in the prior
year or in two of the last three years.
(3) Ranked in deciles 4 to 10, inclusive, on the API for a
demographically comparable school in the prior year or in two of the
last three years.
(4) Attained positive growth in its API schoolwide and for each
subgroup in the prior year or in two of the last three years, or in
the aggregate for the prior three years.
(5) Has qualified for an alternative accountability system
pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 52052.
(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), for purposes of achieving
high-performing charter schools consistent with the federal Race to
the Top regulations and guidelines, a chartering authority shall not
do either of the following:
(1) Grant a renewal of a charter school for a period longer than
three years if that charter school is in program improvement,
pursuant to the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C.
Sec. 6301 et seq.).
(2) Grant a renewal of a charter school in year five of program
improvement, pursuant to the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
(20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.), unless that school has experienced
academic growth of at least 50 points over the previous five years as
measured by the Academic Performance Index.
(d) A charter may be revoked by the authority that granted the
charter under this chapter if the authority finds, through a showing
of substantial evidence, that the charter school did any of the
following:
(1) Committed a material violation of any of the conditions,
standards, or procedures set forth in the charter.
(2) Failed to meet or pursue any of the pupil outcomes identified
in the charter.
(3) Failed to meet generally accepted accounting principles, or
engaged in fiscal mismanagement.
(4) Violated any provision of law.
(e) Prior to revocation, the authority that granted the charter
shall notify the charter public school of any violation of this
section and give the school a reasonable opportunity to remedy the
violation, unless the authority determines, in writing, that the
violation constitutes a severe and imminent threat to the health or
safety of the pupils.
(f) Prior to revoking a charter for failure to remedy a violation
pursuant to subdivision (e), and after expiration of the school's
reasonable opportunity to remedy without successfully remedying the
violation, the chartering authority shall provide a written notice of
intent to revoke and notice of facts in support of revocation to the
charter school. No later than 30 days after providing the notice of
intent to revoke a charter, the chartering authority shall hold a
public hearing, in the normal course of business, on the issue of
whether evidence exists to revoke the charter. No later than 30 days
after the public hearing, the chartering authority shall issue a
final decision to revoke or decline to revoke the charter, unless the
chartering authority and the charter school agree to extend the
issuance of the decision by an additional 30 days. The chartering
authority shall not revoke a charter, unless it makes written factual
findings supported by substantial evidence, specific to the charter
school, that support its findings.
(g) (1) If a school district is the chartering authority and it
revokes a charter pursuant to this section, the charter school may
appeal the revocation to the county board of education within 30 days
following the final decision of the chartering authority.
(2) The county board may reverse the revocation decision if the
county board determines that the findings made by the chartering
authority under subdivision (f) are not supported by substantial
evidence. The school district may appeal the reversal to the state
board.
(3) If the county board does not issue a decision on the appeal
within 90 days of receipt, or the county board upholds the
revocation, the charter school may appeal the revocation to the state
board.
(4) The state board may reverse the revocation decision if the
state board determines that the findings made by the chartering
authority under subdivision (f) are not supported by substantial
evidence. The state board may uphold the revocation decision of the
school district if the state board determines that the findings made
by the chartering authority under subdivision (f) are supported by
substantial evidence.
(h) (1) If a county office of education is the chartering
authority and the county board revokes a charter pursuant to this
section, the charter school may appeal the revocation to the state
board within 30 days following the decision of the chartering
authority.
(2) The state board may reverse the revocation decision if the
state board determines that the findings made by the chartering
authority under subdivision (f) are not supported by substantial
evidence.
(i) If the revocation decision of the chartering authority is
reversed on appeal, the agency that granted the charter shall
continue to be regarded as the chartering authority.
(j) During the pendency of an appeal filed under this section, a
charter school, whose revocation proceedings are based on paragraph
(1) or (2) of subdivision (d), shall continue to qualify as a charter
school for funding and for all other purposes of this part, and may
continue to hold all existing grants, resources, and facilities, in
order to ensure that the education of pupils enrolled in the school
is not disrupted.
(k) Immediately following the decision of a county board to
reverse a decision of a school district to revoke a charter, the
following shall apply:
(1) The charter school shall qualify as a charter school for
funding and for all other purposes of this part.
(2) The charter school may continue to hold all existing grants,
resources, and facilities.
(3) Any funding, grants, resources, and facilities that had been
withheld from the charter school, or that the charter school had
otherwise been deprived of use, as a result of the revocation of the
charter shall be immediately reinstated or returned.
(l) A final decision of a revocation or appeal of a revocation
pursuant to subdivision (d) shall be reported to the chartering
authority, the county board, and the department.
SEC. 7. Section 47630.6 is added to the Education Code, to read:
47630.6. (a) By December 31 of each fiscal year, the Controller
shall publish a directory of certified public accountants and public
accountants deemed by the Controller to be qualified to conduct
audits of charter schools. Each audit of a charter school conducted
pursuant to this part shall be conducted by a certified public
accountant or public accountant selected by the charter school from
the directory established pursuant to this subdivision.
(b) Except as provided in subdivision (d) of Section 41320.1, it
is unlawful for a public accounting firm to provide audit services to
a charter school if the lead audit partner, or coordinating audit
partner, having primary responsibility for the audit, or the audit
partner responsible for reviewing the audit, has performed audit
services for that charter school in each of the six previous fiscal
years.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature that, notwithstanding
subdivision (b), the rotation within public accounting firms conforms
to provisions of the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Public Law
107-204; 15 U.S.C. Sec. 7201 et seq.).
SEC. 8. Chapter 18 (commencing with Section 53100) is added to
Part 28 of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Education Code, to read:
CHAPTER 18. RACE TO THE TOP
Article 1. Intent and Declarations
53100. It is the intent of the Legislature to accomplish all of
the following:
(a) Implement policies to improve the educational services and
opportunities for all pupils in California's schools.
(b) Adopt high-quality standards and assessments that prepare
pupils to succeed in college, the workplace, and the global economy,
that reflect what those pupils know and can do, and that reflect the
common goals of other state partners.
(c) Continue to expand the state's educational data systems so as
to measure pupil growth and success, and inform teachers, principals,
and parents about how they can improve each pupil's instruction and
learning.
(d) Recruit, prepare, develop, retain, train for continual
improvement, and reward effective teachers and principals, especially
in the state's lowest performing schools.
(e) Turn around the state's persistently lowest-achieving schools
by clearly identifying them, presenting them with alternative models
for reform, and supporting the school-level cultural change that is
necessary for successful school reform.
(f) Lay the statutory foundation for a successful state
application to secure a competitive grant award from the federal Race
to the Top Fund.
53101. It is the intent of the Legislature that the state
application submitted under the Race to the Top program, authorized
as the State Incentive Grant Fund under the federal American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5), commit the state to
accomplishing all of the following:
(a) Move forward in addressing all four core education reform
priorities established under the Race to the Top program.
(b) Create a vision for educational reform that is consistent with
state statute and with the intent stated in this act.
(c) Revise state content standards to incorporate the common set
of standards being developed by the Common Core State Standards
Initiative consortium or other interstate collaboration in which
the state participates, or adopt those common standards.
(d) Implement common assessments developed as a result of that
common set of standards.
(e) Continue development of the state's education information
system and the local use of data to improve instruction.
(f) Develop great teachers and leaders.
(g) Turn around persistently lowest-achieving schools by
supporting the reform efforts in those schools and providing
incentives for reform, rather than by mandating change.
(h) Make the adequate and equitable funding of education a
priority.
(i) Remove barriers to establishing and maintaining high-quality
charter schools, while implementing accountability policies that will
ensure that all charter schools are of high quality.
(j) Continue to emphasize the importance of science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics education, particularly among those
pupils who have been historically underrepresented in those areas.
53102. It is the intent of the Legislature to accomplish all of
the following:
(a) Ensure that the state continues its participation in the
Common Core State Standards Initiative, a joint effort by the
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the
Council of Chief State School Officers, or any other interstate
collaboration to develop common standards or assessments, the
purpose of which is to develop a common core of state standards in
English language arts and mathematics that are research and
evidence-based, internationally benchmarked, aligned with college and
work expectations, and include rigorous content and skills.
(b) Establish a process, consistent with federal priorities,
requirements, definitions, and selection criteria for the Race to the
Top program, to review and revise the state's academic content
standards in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to align the
state standards with the common set of standards developed by the
Common Core State Standards Initiative consortium sponsored by the
National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School
Officers or other interstate collaboration in which the state
participates .
(c) Extend the existing state assessment system by one year in
order to incorporate developing federal initiatives and changes in
federal law into that reauthorization.
(d) Develop a plan for transitioning to a system of high-quality
assessments that aligns with the standards adopted or revised
pursuant to this act and thus reflecting any set of standards
developed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative consortium,
or other interstate collaboration in which the state
participates implements and incorporates any common assessments
aligned with those standards, enables the valid, reliable, and fair
measurement of pupil achievement at a point in time and over time for
all subgroups and individuals, supports longitudinal comparisons of
pupil scores, and reflects the state's 40-year commitment to quality
assessment.
(e) Support the development or use of formative and interim
assessments at the local level as part of a continuing instructional
improvement program that provides immediate and useful information to
teachers, principals, administrators, and parents to be used to
tailor instructional practices to best meet the needs of each pupil.
53103. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) California's pupils need and deserve access to instructional
programs that reflect the knowledge and skills that will prepare them
to be successful in college, careers, and the global economy.
(b) To ensure that all pupils are provided with resources and
learning expectations necessary to succeed and be competitive in the
21st century, it is imperative that the state's academic content
standards, the backbone of the curriculum and assessment system, are
high quality, research and evidence-based and internationally
benchmarked.
(c) The state has a 40-year history of comprehensive statewide
assessment of pupils in its public schools, including both of the
following:
(1) The California Assessment Program, which tested California
pupils for more than 20 years.
(2) The state's current testing system that combines grade level
and course specific tests in grades 2 to 11, inclusive, alternative
and modified assessments for pupils with special needs, primary
language content tests in Spanish, an English language development
test, a high school exit examination, and physical fitness tests.
(d) Extending much of the state assessment system by an additional
year will allow the Legislature to examine current federal
initiatives, including the Race to the Top and the call for the
development of common assessments, and to learn more about developing
changes to federal law, including the reauthorization of the federal
Elementary and Secondary Education Act, before considering proposals
for the reauthorization of the state assessment system.
53104. It is the intent of the Legislature to accomplish both of
the following:
(a) Continue to build the statewide education information system
and support the development of local educational data systems to
provide the information necessary to inform and improve instruction,
and to allow for the understanding, evaluation, and analysis of
complex education policy and fiscal issues.
(b) Support the collection, analysis, and use of data at the local
level as part of a continuing instructional improvement program that
allows teachers, principals, administrators, and parents to
collaborate and differentiate instructional practices to best meet
the needs of pupils.
53105. The Legislature finds and declares that:
(a) The state, with the enactment of Chapter 159 of the Statutes
of 2009, has removed all barriers at the state level to linking data
on pupil achievement or pupil growth to teachers and principals for
the purpose of teacher and principal evaluation.
(b) The Legislature has previously stated, pursuant to Chapter 561
of the Statutes of 2008, and has been acting on, the intent to
design and implement a high-quality, comprehensive, and longitudinal
education data system for California that will accomplish all of the
following:
(1) Support a system of continuous learning by delivering timely,
reliable, user-friendly, and relevant information to schoolsite and
school district leaders, county offices of education, higher
education leaders, teachers and faculty, education program providers,
policymakers, researchers, parents, pupils, and the public at large.
(2) Provide educators and parents with the tools, reports, and
assistance needed to inform instruction and learning.
(3) Integrate data from disparate sources.
(4) Anticipate and provide the technological capacity for the
sharing of appropriate noneducation data from other state sources
such as health, welfare, juvenile justice, corrections, and
employment agencies, the analysis of which is necessary to fully
understand critical education policy and education finance questions.
(c) In 2002 the state authorized implementation of a longitudinal
data system for pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive,
pursuant to Chapter 1002 of the Statutes of 2002, and now has that
California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System in operation.
(d) In 2006 the state authorized implementation of a longitudinal
data system for teachers, pursuant to Chapter 840 of the Statutes of
2006, to serve as a central state repository of information on the
teacher workforce, and now has the California Longitudinal Teacher
Integrated Data Education System in development and testing.
(e) Since 2008, pursuant to Chapter 561 of the Statutes of 2008,
the state has required all of the following:
(1) The department to establish a process to extend the state's
unique student identifiers to children in all state and federally
funded center based child care and development programs administered
by the department.
(2) Each of the state's three public postsecondary education
systems to develop an implementation plan and timeline for issuing
and maintaining the state's unique student identifiers for students
in those systems.
(3) The State Chief Information Officer to develop a strategic
plan for implementing the data protocols and procedures to be used to
link all of the state's education data systems, as well as to be
used by other state agencies.
(4) The establishment of a working group to make recommendations
related to the governance of education data, including, but not
limited to, the organizational structure of the governing entity, its
relationship to other agencies, the scope of its authorities and
responsibilities, methods for ensuring that the governing entity's
work primarily serves the purposes of educational improvement while
at the same time ensuring the privacy of any data under its charge,
and how the governing entity would provide access to education data
for teachers, principals, administrators, parents, and education
researchers.
53106. It is the intent of the Legislature to accomplish all of
the following:
(a) Recruit diverse and talented teachers to provide quality
instruction to each pupil in every school in the state.
(b) Provide multiple high-quality pathways for teacher and
principal certification.
(c) Improve teacher and principal effectiveness.
(d) Support the authority for district governing boards to
establish alternative compensation schedules, including
performance-based pay, at the local level through collective
bargaining.
(e) Ensure equitable access to high-quality teachers and
principals to all pupils in every subject area and school.
53107. The Legislature finds and declares that:
(a) The state provides high-quality pathways for aspiring teachers
and principals with a focus on teacher shortage areas by offering
district intern programs (Article 7.5 (commencing with Section 44325)
of Chapter 2 of Part 25), paraprofessional teacher training (Article
12 (commencing with Section 44390) of Chapter 2 of Part 25), state
certification for teachers with National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards Certification (Article 13 (commencing with Section
44395) of Chapter 12 of Part 25), the New Careers Program (Article 5
(commencing with Section 44520) of Chapter 3 of Part 25), a
designated subjects career technical education teaching credential,
an eminence credential, alternative certification with an emphasis on
hard-to-staff subjects and geographic areas, and programs designed
to assist retired military personnel to enter the teaching profession
pursuant to Sections 44260, 44262, 44380, 44382 and 44750.
(b) The state has trained over 10,000 administrators since 2001 as
part of the Administrator Training Program (Article 4.6 (commencing
with Section 44510) of Chapter 3 of Part 25), and local educational
agencies have been reimbursed for providing training under the
Mathematics and Reading Professional Development program to over
75,000 teachers since 2001 (Article 3 (commencing with Section 99230)
of Chapter 5 of Part 65 of Division 14 of Title 3).
(c) The state has implemented rigorous, transparent, and fair
evaluation systems for teachers that take into account data on
student growth by requiring local governing boards to establish pupil
achievement standards at each grade level and regularly evaluate
teachers on pupil progress toward those standards (Article 11
(commencing with Section 44660) of Chapter 3 of Part 25).
(d) Developing highly effective teachers and principals by
providing coaching, induction support, and professional development
is essential and has been achieved through the California Beginning
Teacher Support and Assessment System (Article 4.5 (commencing with
Section 44279.1) of Chapter 2 of Part 25) and the California Peer
Assistance and Review Program for Teachers (Article 4.5 (commencing
with Section 44500) of Chapter 3 of Part 25).
(e) Compensating, promoting, and retaining teachers by providing
opportunities for highly effective teachers to obtain additional
compensation can be an effective tool and has been accomplished
through authorization for alternative salary schedules to be
bargained at the local level pursuant to Section 45028.
(f) There is a need to ensure equitable distribution of effective
teachers and principals in hard-to-staff subjects and in high
minority and high poverty schools, and the state has authorized
principals to refuse the transfer of a teacher, at schools ranked in
deciles 1 to 3 on the Academic Performance Index, in order to ensure
equitable distribution of the highest quality teachers at the lowest
performing schools pursuant to Section 35036.
(g) The state has implemented the Assumption Program of Loans for
Education which is designed to provide teachers with loan forgiveness
to encourage them to work in subject matter shortage areas or in
schools serving a large population of pupils from low-income
families, schools with a high percentage of teachers holding
emergency, or schools ranked in the lowest two deciles on the
Academic Performance Index (Article 5 (commencing with Section 69612)
of Chapter 2 of Part 42 of Division 5 of Title 3).
(h) The state has adopted a state plan for No Child Left Behind
Highly Qualified Teachers, which requires local educational agencies
to ensure that poor and minority children are not taught by
inexperienced, underqualified, or out-of-field teachers at higher
rates than other children in the district.
(i) The state plan pursuant to subdivision (g) requires that when
an equitable distribution of high-quality teachers and principals
cannot be achieved, that the local educational agencies submit a
comprehensive plan based on pupil achievement data to ensure that
teachers become both highly qualified and more effective.
(j) The state has required schools participating in the Quality
Education Investment Act of 2006 (Article 3.7 (commencing with
section 52055.700) of Chapter 6.1) to maintain an equitable
distribution of highly qualified experienced teachers across the
district.
(k) Continually improving the effectiveness of teacher and
principal preparation programs is central to improving the quality of
teaching and learning in the classroom.
(l) The state is building a statewide longitudinal teacher data
system to provide an understanding of the teacher workforce in the
state and the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs,
including, but not limited to, university and district intern
programs and traditional university credentialing programs (Chapter 7
(commencing with Section 10600) of Part 7).
(m) The regular evaluation of teacher preparation programs through
program accreditation and review is integrally important, and that
the state has created a regular ongoing state accreditation process
for all credentialing programs (Article 10 (commencing with Section
44370) of Chapter 2 of Part 25).
(n) Providing effective support to teachers and principals is
essential to retaining and recruiting a high-quality workforce as
well as improving pupil academic success, and that the state has
implemented numerous professional support programs for teachers and
administrators, including, but not limited to, the Education
Technology Staff Development Program (Chapter 3.34 (commencing with
Section 44730) of Part 25), the Teaching As A Priority Block Grant
(Chapter 3.36 (commencing with Section 44735) of Part 25), the
Certificated Staff Mentoring Program (Article 6 (commencing with
Section 44560) of Chapter 3 of Part 25), the subject matter projects
(Article 1 (commencing with Section 99200) of Chapter 5 of Part 65);
and, the professional development block grant which may be used to
compensate teachers in hard-to-staff subjects such as mathematics,
science, and special education (Article 5 (commencing with Section
41530) of Chapter 3.2 of Part 24).
53108. It is the intent of the Legislature that both of the
following occur:
(a) The state participate in the Race to the Top program in order
to bring about additional reform by identifying those schools that
need the most improvement, requiring those schools to implement one
of the four intervention models prescribed by the Race to the Top
program, building a partnership between the federal and state
governments, districts, and schools, and providing the support
necessary to effect the cultural change necessary to turn those
schools around.
(b) The regional consortia created pursuant to subdivision (c) of
Section 53109 provide technical assistance and support to local
educational agencies and schools implementing one of the four
intervention models specified by the Race to the Top program.
53109. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Interventions for turning around low performing schools are
critically important.
(b) The state has instituted pursuant to Section 52055.57, various
efforts to provide resources and directions to support and encourage
changes at schoolsites, including statutory requirements for
corrective actions under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of
2001.
(c) In compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act of
2001, the state created a statewide system of school support,
comprised of regional consortia, to provide technical assistance to
school districts and schools in need of improvement.
(d) The state provides direct assistance to schools and districts
through school assistance intervention teams, pursuant to the
Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools and the High Priority
Schools Grant Programs (Sections 52059 and 52055.650), and district
assistance intervention teams.
(e) The state recognized the need to target low performing schools
by the enactment of the Quality Education Investment Act of 2006
(Article 3.7 (commencing with Section 52055.70) of Chapter 6.1), and
the appropriation of three billion dollars ($3,000,000,000) for its
purposes, in order to provide resources for lower class sizes,
increased access to highly qualified teachers, and availability of
counselors, and increased availability of quality training programs
for teachers and principals.
(f) Administrators and certificated and classified employees play
a critical role in pupils' academic success and school reform, and
the state has implemented strong credentialing requirements and
mentoring programs.
(g) Despite these efforts a number of pupils still attend
extremely low-achieving schools, and a persistent achievement gap
must be addressed through policy change.
53110. It is the intent of the Legislature to accomplish both of
the following:
(a) Provide adequate and equitable funding for education in the
state so as to provide quality educational services and opportunities
to all pupils regardless of their background or the public school
they attend.
(b) Convene a working group to build on previous research and
recommendations to produce a comprehensive plan for finance reform
that will adequately and equitably support pupil achievement; such a
plan should strive to simplify and improve rationality and equity in
the system, support accountability through improved fiscal
transparency and reporting, and support ongoing improvement and
reform.
53111. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Both houses of the Legislature have jointly resolved, pursuant
to Resolution Chapter 99 of the Statutes of 2009, to generate
sufficient funds for, and allocate sufficient funds to, education so
as to bring per-pupil spending up to or beyond the national average
and to a level that accounts for the actual cost of educating
California's diverse pupil population so that all pupils are prepared
at the end of their elementary and secondary education experiences
for college, careers, and successful participation in our democratic
institutions, without regard to their domicile or their economic,
racial, or ethnic background.
(b) The state's current system of education finance is overly
complex, poses an obstacle to transparency and effectiveness, can
result in funding disparities that are not aligned to pupil, school,
or educator needs, and places substantial restrictions on the use of
resources by schools and districts.
(c) Change is needed to make the allocation of funding more
rational and equitable so that revenues received by each local
educational agency reflect the actual cost of educating pupils with
varying needs in varying environments and so that all pupils are
prepared at the end of their elementary and secondary education for
college and career.
53112. It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure successful
conditions for high-performing and high-quality charter schools by
lifting the cap on the number of charter schools operating in the
state, while at the same time encouraging high levels of academic
performance and sound fiscal management practices among charter
schools.
53113. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Academic accountability standards for charter schools must be
as rigorous as those for traditional public schools.
(b) The state should ensure successful conditions for
high-performing charter schools by setting academic achievement
targets as a condition of charter renewal, accountability standards
to identify charter schools that are not high quality, and evaluation
standards to determine whether entities operating multiple charter
schools are producing high-quality charter schools.
(c) In order to ensure the most efficient and effective use of
public funds for the education of children in California, fiscal
management standards for charter schools must be as rigorous as those
for other schools and school districts.
(d) The state should ensure successful conditions for
high-performing charter schools by setting standards for the auditing
of, and financial reporting by, charter schools so as to provide for
the transparent use of public funds.
(e) There is a need to encourage charter schools to serve pupil
populations that are similar to local district populations,
especially high-need pupils, including but not limited to, pupils
with disabilities, pupils living in poverty, and English learners,
and this consideration should be incorporated into the charter school
renewal process.
(f) Charter schools should have access to available school
facilities and funding to secure appropriate facilities, and the
state provides funding specifically for charter school facility lease
programs (Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 47610) of Part 26.8),
requires school districts to provide adequate facilities for charter
schools that request facilities pursuant to Section 47614, and has
provided nine hundred million dollars ($900,000,000) in state bond
funds for new construction of charter schools.
53114. It is the intent of the Legislature to support and reward
the educational experiences and achievements of all pupils in the
fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics,
especially those pupils from groups that have been traditionally
underrepresented in those fields.
53115. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) In order to make California's pupils competitive in the global
economy, it is imperative that pupils are provided with access to
quality programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
so as to attract more pupils into those careers.
(b) California has taken steps in developing programs and policies
to promote relevant instruction and applied learning opportunities
for pupils in subject areas that include science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics.
(c) In 2002, the Legislature enacted legislation calling for the
development of career technical education model curriculum standards
and a curriculum framework, and for the standards and framework to
incorporate knowledge about careers, technology, and skills required
for pupil success in postsecondary education and careers.
(d) The career technical education standards, organized into 15
industry sectors, provide a foundation for the preparation of pupils
for advanced study and careers in areas that include, but are not
limited to, engineering, technology, and the sciences.
(e) The engineering and design, the health science and medical
technology, and the information technology industry sectors provide
opportunities to develop career pathway programs that emphasize the
areas of science, technology and engineering (Sections 51226 and
51226.1).
(f) Existing law provides for the establishment of California
partnership academies (Article 5 (commencing with Section 54690) of
Chapter 9 of Part 29) by providing grants for career-themed programs
that include rigorous academics and career technical education with a
specific career focus, and that the partnership academies integrate
technical content across disciplines and involve local business and
college partnerships so as to enable pupils to see the relationship
between academics and their application to the field of work.
(g) The areas of science, technology, and engineering are
significantly represented in the 464 existing California partnership
academies.
(h) The California partnership academies offer an effective
approach to providing an integrated academic and career technical
education curriculum to pupils at risk of dropping out of school and
to high-need pupils.
(i) Current law establishes the Health Science and Medical
Technology Project (Article 10 (commencing with Section 33430) of
Chapter 3 of Part 20)
to enhance existing or establish new health science and medical
technology career pathway programs within secondary education,
including articulation with community college programs, through the
provision of a coherent sequence of standards-based academic and
career technical education coursework in health science and medical
technology.
(j) Current law authorizes school districts to conduct programs
and classes in outdoor science education and conservation education
(Article 5 (commencing with Section 8760) of Chapter 4 of Part 1 of
Division 1 of Title 1) within or without the boundaries of the
district.
(k) Existing law creates the California State Summer School for
Mathematics and Science (Chapter 3.8 (commencing with Section 8660)
of Part 6 of Division 1 of Title 1) as an academic development
program in mathematics and science to provide opportunities for
pupils who wish to study advanced mathematics or science, or to
pursue careers that require a high degree of skills and knowledge in
mathematics or science.
(l) Current law establishes the California Summer Science and
Technology Academy pursuant to Section 8631 as a statewide program
that identifies public high school pupils with high academic
potential in mathematics, science, and technology, with an emphasis
on females and minority members, to participate in university-based
research programs, and specifies that special consideration shall be
given to recruiting pupils who are participants in the Mathematics,
Engineering, and Science Achievement program.
(m) The Legislature enacted legislation in 1997 that created a
statewide program to provide incentives to create digital high
schools (Chapter 8.5 (commencing with Section 52250)).
53116. It is the intent of the Legislature to recognize the role
early childhood education plays in closing the achievement gap,
ensuring that children are prepared to enter kindergarten, and
ensuring pupil academic success.
53117. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The state values early childhood education by establishing and
funding state preschool programs, that provide services to 500,000
children annually.
(b) The state recognizes the linkages between preschool and the
K-12 school system by expanding the state's unique identifier and
data system to include center based programs contracting with the
state pursuant to Section 10802, and instructing state-funded
preschool programs to provide the parent or guardian of a child
transferring to a local public school with information that will
beneficial to the pupil and the kindergarten teacher pursuant to
Section 8282.
(c) The state has attempted to streamline the administration of
state-funded preschool programs by consolidating state-funded
programs serving children ages three and four into the state
preschool programs pursuant to Section 8235.
(d) The state recognizes the importance of quality by
establishing, pursuant to Section 83007, an Early Learning Quality
Improvement System advisory committee to develop recommendations on
how the state can ensure that all children have access to
high-quality services.
(e) The state provides child care facilities assistance through
the Child Care Facilities Revolving Fund to provide funding for the
renovation, repair, or improvement of an existing building and for
the purchase of new relocatable child care facilities for lease to
school districts and contracting agencies that provide child care and
development services pursuant to Section 8278.3.
Article 2. General Provisions
53200. For the purposes of implementing the federal Race to the
Top program established by the federal American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5), the Superintendent of
Public Instruction may enter into a memorandum of understanding with
a local educational agency that is approved by the governing board of
that local educational agency and is consistent with the
requirements of this act and the guidelines for the Race to the Top
program issued by the United States Secretary of Education.
53201. (a) The state plan or plans for the Race to the Top
program submitted to the United States Secretary of Education
pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
(Public Law 111-5) shall meet the requirements set forth in the act
adding this section.
(b) The Department of Finance, within 10 days of submission of the
plan to the United States Secretary of Education, shall provide the
appropriate policy and fiscal committees of both houses of the
Legislature with a copy of the state plan or plans, including any
amendments, submitted to the United States Secretary of Education for
the Race to the Top program.
(c) Within 30 days of receipt any Race to the Top program funds,
and prior to their allocation, the Department of Finance, in
collaboration with the Superintendent, shall develop and submit an
expenditure plan to the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of
the Legislature. The expenditure plan shall be consistent with the
requirements set forth in the act adding this section and the
approved Race to the Top program state plan or plans, and shall do
all of the following:
(1) Specify that no more than 20 percent of the total funding
received is reserved for state-level activities, including, but not
limited to, the purposes set forth in Section 53403.
(2) Specify that no less than 80 percent of the total funding
received is reserved for allocation to local educational agencies,
including charter schools, for implementation of activities for the
Race to the Top program.
(3) Specify that participating local educational agencies, as that
term is defined in regulations and guidance governing the federal
Race to the Top program, shall receive no less than 50 percent of the
total funding received.
(4) Specify that local educational agencies, including charter
schools, with schools defined as low-achieving pursuant to
subdivision (a) of Section 53400, receive no less than 30 percent of
the total funding received, with the persistently lowest-achieving
schools, as defined pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 53400,
receiving the greatest amount of funding.
(5) Designate the amount of the funds specified in paragraph (4)
to be used for purposes of Article 3 and for purposes of mentor
schools as set forth in subdivision (c) of Section 53402.
(6) Provide a detailed description, including allocation formulas,
of any federal or state funds that may be utilized for
implementation of the Race to the Top program, including, but not
limited to, federal School Improvement Funds.
53202. (a) On or before January 1, 2011, the Superintendent shall
contract with an independent evaluator, who shall report to him or
her, for evaluation of the implementation of the state plan submitted
in application for a Race to the Top Fund competitive grant award.
(b) On or before September 1, 2010, the Superintendent shall
convene a working group consisting of staff representing the policy
and fiscal committees of both houses of the Legislature, the
Legislative Analyst's Office, the Department of Finance, the
Governor, the state board, and the department to do all of the
following:
(1) Jointly develop the parameters of the evaluation.
(2) Make recommendations regarding development of any request for
proposals or request for applications used to solicit contract
proposals, and regarding the selection of the independent evaluator.
(c) The Superintendent shall provide the final evaluation to the
Legislature, the Governor, and the state board on or before June 1,
2014.
(d) The department shall use federal funds made available from the
Race to the Top Fund and detailed in the expenditure plan required
pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 53201 for the purpose of
contracting for this evaluation.
53203. This chapter shall become inoperative on July 1, 2014,
and, as of January 1, 2015, is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2015, deletes
or extends the dates on which this chapter becomes inoperative and
is repealed.
Article 3. Professional Development
53300. (a) The Superintendent shall apportion federal Race to the
Top program funds pursuant to the expenditure plan specified in
Section 53201 based on the number of certificated personnel employed
in eligible school districts that have one or more schools under
their jurisdiction and charter schools, defined as low-achieving,
pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 53400.
(b) A school district and charter school shall expend funds
received pursuant to this section for use at low-achieving
schoolsites for any of the following purposes:
(1) To provide professional development training to teachers,
administrators, and staff in any of the following areas:
(A) The state academic content standards adopted by the state
board pursuant to Section 60605 or 60605.8.
(B) The curriculum frameworks adopted by the state board pursuant
to Section 60005.
(C) The English language development standards adopted pursuant to
Section 60811.
(2) To provide leadership coaching and individualized support to
teachers, administrators, and schoolsite staff to become highly
effective instructional leaders and administrators. This may include
any of the following:
(A) Providing coaches or mentors to support teachers,
administrators, and schoolsite staff in increasing pupil achievement.
(B) Providing support through the California Beginning Teacher
Support and Assessment System, as set forth in Article 4.5
(commencing with Section 44279.1) of Chapter 2 of Part 25 of Division
3, and the California Peer Assistance and Review Program for
Teachers, as set forth in Article 4.5 (commencing with Section 44500)
of Chapter 3 of Part 25.
(C) Providing training to teachers and principals serving in a
leadership capacity on effective evaluation and supervision
practices.
(3) To provide common teacher and administrator collaboration time
in order to create effective strategies to teach academic content
with the goal of increasing pupil achievement, including, but not
limited to, establishing professional learning communities.
(4) To provide professional development to teachers,
administrators, and schoolsite staff to analyze state and local pupil
achievement data for the purposes of designing and differentiating
instructional strategies to increase pupil achievement, use data and
technology to improve instructional practices, use data to allocate
resources, and analyze and communicate pupil achievement data to
parents and the public.
(5) Establish teacher and administrator recruitment and retention
programs with particular emphasis on schools with high percentages of
minority and poor pupils and hard-to-staff subjects, including
special education, mathematics, science, and English language
development.
(c) A school district and charter school shall ensure that any
funding expended for purposes in subdivision (b) is consistent with
local schoolsite plans for academic achievement and the local
educational agency plan required under Section 6312 of Title 20 of
the United States Code.
(d) Commencing with the 2011-12 fiscal year and each year
thereafter, a school district and a charter school shall report the
following information to the department on or before June 1 of any
fiscal year in which it received funding allocated pursuant to
subdivision (a):
(1) A detailed description of expenditures.
(2) The number of teachers, administrators, and schoolsite staff
served, including what type of services they received.
(3) The number of teachers and administrators recruited utilizing
funds allocated pursuant to this section.
Article 4. Intervening in the Persistently Lowest-Achieving
Schools
53400. For purposes of this article, the following definitions
apply:
(a) "Low-achieving school" means a school described in
subdivision (a) subdivisions (a) and (b) of
Section 53401.
(b) "Persistently lowest-achieving school" means a school
identified pursuant to subdivisions (a) to (d), inclusive, of Section
53401 , excluding those schools determined by the
Superintendent to have impl emented
substantially similar reforms pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section
53402 .
53401. The Superintendent shall establish a list of schools
according to the following:
(a) Identify all Title I schools in year five of program
improvement pursuant to the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
(20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.) that did not experience academic growth
of at least 50 points over the previous five years as measured by
the Academic Performance Index, using the most recent data available.
(b) Calculate a number equal to 5 percent of the number of schools
identified pursuant to subdivision (a).
(c) Beginning with the school with the lowest score on the
Academic Performance Index, determine whether the school had replaced
or hired a new principal within the last two years and whether the
school is undergoing reform consistent with the intent and goals of
the Race To The Top program. If the determination is affirmative,
that school shall be eliminated from the list. The Superintendent
shall evaluate the remainder of the schools on the list in ascending
order of the scores on the Academic Performance Index in the same
manner until the number of schools calculated in subdivision (b) is
reached.
(a) Identify any Title I school in improvement, corrective action,
or restructuring.
(b) Identify the lowest 5 percent of the schools identified
pursuant to subdivision (a) as measured by the Academic Performance
Index, using the most recent data available.
(c) Identify, from the schools identified in subdivision (b), in
order to take into account the lack of progress of the schools on the
state's assessments pursuant to the Race to the Top guidelines,
those schools in year five of program improvement that did not
experience academic growth of at least 50 points over the previous
five years as measured by the Academic Performance Index, using the
most recent data available.
(d) Add to the schools identified pursuant to subdivisions (a) to
(c), inclusive, any high school that has had a graduation rate, as
defined in Section 200.19(b) of Title 34 of the Code of Federal
Regulations, that is less than 60 percent in each of the previous
five years.
53401.5. The Superintendent shall notify the governing board of a
school district, county office of education, or charter school that
one or more of the schools in its jurisdiction have been identified
as a persistently lowest-achieving school.
53402. (a) For purposes of implementing the federal Race to the
Top program established by Sections 14005 and 14006 of Title XIV of
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law
111-5), the governing board of a school district, county office of
education, or charter school shall implement, for any school
identified by the Superintendent as persistently lowest-achieving
pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 53400, unless the
Superintendent determines that the school has implemented a reform
within the last two years that is substantially similar to the
interventions required by the Race to the Top program and is showing
significant progress, one of the following four interventions
for turning around persistently lowest-achieving schools described in
Appendix C of the Notice of Final Priorities, Requirements,
Definitions, Selection Criteria for the Race to the Top program
published in Volume 74 of Number 221 of the Federal Register on
November 18, 2009:
(1) The turnaround model.
(2) The restart model.
(3) School closure.
(4) The transformation model.
(b) Prior to selecting the governing board
meeting to select one of the four interventions described in
subdivision (a), the governing board with one or more persistently
lowest-achieving schools shall hold a public hearing
at least two public hearings to notify staff, parents,
and the community of the designation and to seek input from
staff, parents, and the community regarding the option or options
most suitable for the applicable school or schools in its
jurisdiction. At least one of the public hearings shall be held
on the site of a school deemed persistently lowest-achieving.
(c) In addition to meeting the requirements specified in Appendix
C, a persistently lowest-achieving school implementing the turnaround
or transformation model may participate in a school-to-school
partnership program by working with a mentor school that has
successfully transitioned from a low-achieving school to a
higher-achieving school.
(1) For purposes of this article, a mentor school is a school that
successfully transformed from a low-achieving school to a
higher-achieving school.
(2) The principal and, at the discretion of the principal, the
staff of a mentor school shall provide guidance to a persistently
lowest-achieving school to develop a reform plan for the school using
the required elements of the turnaround or transformation model, and
provide guidance and advice on how the mentor school was able to
transform the culture of the school from low-achieving to
higher-achieving and how that transformation could be replicated at
the school implementing a turnaround or transformation model.
(3) The mentor school shall receive Race to the Top program funds
specified in Section 53201. As a condition for receipt of funds, the
principal, and at the principal's discretion, the staff, of a mentor
school shall meet regularly with the assigned persistently
lowest-achieving school for a period of at least three years.
53403. (a) The regional consortia authorized under Section 52059,
in collaboration with the department, from funds provided pursuant
to paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) of Section 53201, shall provide,
at a minimum, technical assistance and support to local educational
agencies with one or more persistently lowest-achieving schools to
assist with the implementation of the duties specified for any of the
four interventions for persistently lowest-achieving schools
pursuant to Section 53402.
(b) Funds for the regional consortia shall be distributed based on
the number of persistently lowest-achieving schools identified
pursuant to this section and the pupil enrollment of these schools.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature that the regional
consortia coordinate the duties described in subdivision (a) with the
duties performed pursuant to Section 52059 as it relates to schools
and districts identified in program improvement pursuant to the
federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et
seq.).
(d) The areas of technical assistance and support pursuant to this
section may include, but are not limited to, any of the following:
(1) Strategies that are designed to recruit, place, and retain
staff with the skills necessary to meet the needs of the pupils at
the school, including financial incentives, increased opportunities
for promotion and career growth, and more flexible work conditions.
(2) Strategies that provide increased instructional time.
(3) Implementing any of the professional development activities
authorized in Article 3 (commencing with Section 53300).
(4) Developing a new governance structure that may include the
establishment of a new turnaround office, located within the local
educational agency or the department, that a school implementing the
turnaround model will report to.
(5) Developing social-emotional and community-oriented services,
including strategies for parental involvement and services that can
be located at the schoolsite.
(6) Identifying, reviewing, and recommending quality charter
school operators, charter management organizations, or education
management organizations that can operate a persistently
lowest-achieving school.
(7) Identifying higher-achieving schools in the school district,
including charter schools, to relocate pupils attending a school that
is scheduled for closure.
(8) Developing, in consultation with teachers and principals, a
rigorous, transparent, and equitable evaluation system for teachers
and principals that includes use of pupil growth data and other
factors such as multiple observation-based assessments that all
schools implementing the turnaround or transformation model may use.
(9) Strategies to identify and reward school leaders, teachers,
and other staff who, in implementing the transformation model, have
increased student achievement and high school graduation rates and
have identified and removed those, who, after ample opportunities,
have been provided for them to improve their professional practice,
have not done so.
(10) Identifying and approving mentor schools pursuant to
subdivision (c) of Section 53402. The regional consortia shall first
seek eligible mentor schools located within the district of each of
the school implementing the turnaround or transformation model.
(11) Consistent with the collective bargaining agreement,
assisting a local educational agency in doing any of the following:
(A) Meet federal guidelines under Appendix C of the Notice of
Final Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, Selection Criteria for
the federal Race to the Top program published in Volume 74 of Number
221 of the Federal Register on November 18, 2009, which encourages
the state to ensure that persistently lowest-achieving schools are
not required to accept a teacher without mutual consent of the
teacher and principal, regardless of the teacher's seniority.
(B) Implement schoolsite-based teacher hiring decisions.
(C) Give persistently lowest-achieving schools first priority in
selecting from the qualified district applicant pool, among those
teachers who have specifically applied to work at the school.
53404. When determining a sanction for a local educational agency
pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 52055.57, the state board
shall consider whether the local educational agency has one or more
persistently lowest-achieving schools under its jurisdiction and the
intervention model or models being implemented for the school or
schools pursuant to Section 53402. The state board shall provide
written factual findings regarding how the sanction being imposed
pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 52055.57 supports and
coordinates with the intervention model or models being implemented
pursuant to Section 53402.
Article 5. Parental Empowerment
53500. For any school identified as low-achieving as defined in
subdivision (a) of section 53400, but not identified as persistently
lowest-achieving as defined in subdivision (b) of section 53400,
which continues to fail to make adequate yearly progress under the
federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301
et seq.) after one full school year, and where at least one-half of
the parents or legal guardians of pupils attending the school and the
elementary or middle schools that normally matriculate into a middle
or high school, as applicable, sign a petition requesting the local
educational agency to implement a strategy to reform that school, the
governing board of that local educational agency shall do all of the
following:
(a) Place that request as an item on the agenda of a regularly
scheduled public hearing no later than 90 days following receipt of
that request.
(b) Hear that agenda item at that regularly scheduled meeting.
(c) Allow public testimony and comment on that agenda item.
SEC. 9. Section 60601 of the Education Code is amended to read:
60601. Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, this chapter
shall become inoperative on July 1, 2012, and as of January 1, 2013,
is repealed, unless a later enacted statute that is enacted before
January 1, 2013, deletes or extends the dates on which it becomes
inoperative and is repealed.
SEC. 10. Section 60603 of the Education Code is amended to read:
60603. As used in this chapter:
(a) "Achievement test" means any standardized test that measures
the level of performance that a pupil has achieved in the core
curriculum areas.
(b) "Assessment of applied academic skills" means a form of
assessment that requires pupils to demonstrate their knowledge of,
and ability to apply, academic knowledge and skills in order to solve
problems and communicate. It may include, but is not limited to,
writing an essay response to a question, conducting an experiment, or
constructing a diagram or model. An assessment of applied academic
skills may not include assessments of personal behavioral standards
or skills, including, but not limited to, honesty, sociability,
ethics, or self-esteem.
(c) "Basic academic skills" means those skills in the subject
areas of reading, spelling, written expression, and mathematics that
provide the necessary foundation for mastery of more complex
intellectual abilities, including the synthesis and application of
knowledge.
(d) "Content standards" means the specific academic knowledge,
skills, and abilities that all public schools in this state are
expected to teach and all pupils expected to learn in each of the
core curriculum areas, at each grade level tested.
(e) "Core curriculum areas" means the areas of reading, writing,
mathematics, history-social science, and science.
(f) "Diagnostic assessment" means interim assessments of the
current level of achievement of a pupil that serves both of the
following purposes:
(1) The identification of particular academic standards or skills
a pupil has or has not yet achieved.
(2) The identification of possible reasons that a pupil has not
yet achieved particular academic standards or skills.
(g) "Direct writing assessment" means an assessment of applied
academic skills that requires pupils to use written expression to
demonstrate writing skills, including writing mechanics, grammar,
punctuation, and spelling.
(h) "End of course exam" means a comprehensive and challenging
assessment of pupil achievement in a particular subject area or
discipline.
(i) "Formative assessment" means assessment questions, tools, and
processes that are embedded in instruction and are used by teachers
and pupils to provide timely feedback for purposes of adjusting
instruction to improve learning.
(j) "High-quality assessment" means an assessment designed to
measure a pupil's knowledge of, understanding of, and ability to
apply, critical concepts through the use of a variety of item types
and formats, such as open-ended responses and performance-based
tasks. The assessments should enable measurement of pupil achievement
and pupil growth; be of high technical quality by being valid,
reliable, fair, and aligned to standards; incorporate technology
where appropriate; include the assessment of pupils with disabilities
and English learners; and, to the extent feasible, use universal
design principles, as defined in Section 3 of the federal Assistive
Technology Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. Sec. 3002) in development and
administration.
(k) "Interim assessment" means an assessment that is given at
regular and specified intervals throughout the school year, is
designed to evaluate a pupil's knowledge and skills relative to a
specific set of academic standards, and produces results that can be
aggregated by course, grade level, school, or local educational
agency, in order to inform teachers and administrators at the pupil,
classroom, school, and local educational agency levels.
(l) "Performance standards" are standards that define various
levels of competence at each grade level in each of the curriculum
areas for which content standards are established. Performance
standards gauge the degree to which a pupil has met the content
standards and the degree to which a school or school district has met
the content standards.
(m) "Publisher" means a commercial publisher or any other public
or private entity, other than the department, which is able to
provide tests or test items that meet the requirements of this
chapter.
(n) "Statewide pupil assessment program" means the systematic
achievement testing of pupils in grades 2 to 11, inclusive, pursuant
to the standardized testing and reporting program under Article 4
(commencing with Section 60640) and the assessment of basic academic
skills and applied academic skills, administered to pupils in grade
levels specified in subdivision (c) of Section 60605, required by
this chapter in all schools within each school district by means of
tests designated by the state board.
SEC. 11. Section 60604 of the Education Code is amended to read:
60604. (a) The Superintendent shall design and implement,
consistent with the timetable and plan required pursuant to
subdivision (b), a statewide pupil assessment program consistent with
the testing requirements of this article in accordance with the
objectives set forth in Section 60602. That program shall include all
of the following:
(1) A plan for producing valid, reliable, and comparable
individual pupil scores in grades 2 to 11, inclusive, and a
comprehensive analysis of these scores based on the results of the
achievement test designated by the state board that assesses a broad
range of basic academic skills pursuant to the Standardized Testing
and Reporting (STAR) Program established by Article 4 (commencing
with Section 60640).
(2) A method of working with publishers to ensure valid, reliable,
and comparable individual, grade-level, school-level,
district-level, county-level, and statewide scores in grades 2 to 11,
inclusive.
(3) Statewide academically rigorous content and performance
standards that reflect the knowledge and skills that pupils will need
in order to succeed in the information-based, global economy of the
21st century. These skills shall not include personal behavioral
standards or skills, including, but not limited to, honesty,
sociability, ethics, or self-esteem.
(4) A statewide system that provides the results of testing in a
manner that reflects the degree to which pupils are achieving the
academically rigorous content and performance standards adopted by
the state board.
(5) The alignment of assessment with the statewide academically
rigorous content and performance standards adopted by the state
board.
(6) The active, ongoing involvement of parents, classroom
teachers, administrators, other educators, governing board members of
school districts, and the public in all phases of the design and
implementation of the statewide pupil assessment program.
(7) The development of a contract or contracts with a publisher or
publishers, after the approval of statewide academically rigorous
content standards by the state board, for the development of
performance standards and assessments of applied academic skills
designed to test pupils' knowledge of academic skills and abilities
to apply that knowledge and those skills in order to solve problems
and communicate.
(b) The Superintendent shall develop and annually update for the
Legislature a five-year cost projection, implementation plan, and
timetable for implementing the program described in subdivision (a).
The annual update shall be submitted on or before March 1 of each
year to the chairperson of the fiscal subcommittee considering budget
appropriations in each house. The update shall explain any
significant variations from the five-year cost projection for the
current year budget and the proposed budget.
(c) The Superintendent shall provide each school district with
guidelines for professional development that are designed to assist
classroom teachers to use the results of the assessments administered
pursuant to this chapter to modify instruction for the purpose of
improving pupil learning. These guidelines shall be developed in
consultation with classroom teachers and approved by the state board
before dissemination.
(d) The Superintendent and the state board shall consider comments
and recommendations from school districts and the public in the
development, adoption, and approval of assessment instruments.
(e) The results of the achievement test administered pursuant to
Article 4 (commencing with Section 60640) shall be returned to the
school district within the period of time specified by the state
board.
SEC. 12. Section 60604.5 is added to the Education Code, to read:
60604.5. The Superintendent shall develop recommendations for the
reauthorization of the statewide pupil assessment program.
(a) These recommendations shall include, but are not limited to, a
plan for transitioning to a system of high-quality assessments, as
defined in this chapter, that does all of the following:
(1) Aligns with the standards adopted or revised pursuant to
subdivision (a) of Section 60605.8.
(2) Implements and incorporates any common assessments aligned
with the common set of standards developed by the Common Core State
Standards Initiative consortium or other interstate
collaboration in which the state participates .
(3) Conforms to the assessment requirements of any reauthorization
of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act or any other
federal law that effectively replaces that act.
(4) Enables the valid, reliable, and fair measurement of
achievement at a point in time and over time for both groups and
individuals.
(5) Allows the comparison from one year to the next of an
individual pupil's scale scores in each content area tested, so as to
reflect the growth in that pupil's actual scores over time.
(6) Enables and includes the valid, reliable, and fair measurement
of achievement of all pupils, including pupils with disabilities and
English learners.
(7) Ensures that no aspect of the system creates any bias with
respect to race, ethnicity, culture, religion, gender, or sexual
orientation.
(8) Incorporates a variety of item types and formats, including,
but not limited to, open-ended responses and performance-based tasks.
(9) Generates multiple measures of pupil achievement, which, when
combined with other measures, can be used to determine the
effectiveness of instruction and the extent of learning.
(10) Includes the assessment of science and mathematics in all
grade levels above grade 4.
(11) Assesses a pupil's understanding of and ability to use the
technology necessary for success in the 21st century classroom and
workplace.
(12) Provides for both formative and interim assessments, as those
terms are defined in this chapter, in order to provide timely
feedback for the purposes of continually adjusting instruction to
improve learning.
(13) Makes use of test administration and scoring technologies
that will allow the return of test results to parents and teachers as
soon as is possible in order to support instructional improvement.
(14) Minimizes testing time while not jeopardizing the validity,
reliability, fairness, or instructional usefulness of the assessment
results.
(b) In developing the recommendations pursuant to subdivision (a),
the Superintendent shall consult with all of the following:
(1) The state board.
(2) The advisory committee appointed pursuant to subdivision (b)
of Section 60605.8.
(3) The committee advising the Superintendent on the Academic
Performance Index pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 52052.5.
(4) Measurement experts from California's public and private
universities.
(5) Individuals with expertise in assessing pupils with
disabilities and English learners.
(6) Teachers, administrators, and governing board members,
including those in local educational agencies that choose to work
with the state to implement California's Race to the Top plan.
(7) Parents.
(c) The Superintendent shall provide the recommendations developed
pursuant to subdivision (a) to the fiscal and appropriate policy
committees of both houses of the Legislature on or before December 1,
2010.
(d) By January 1, 2011, the advisory committee established
pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 52052.5 and the Superintendent
shall make recommendations to the Legislature, the Governor, and the
state board on both of the following:
(1) The establishment of a methodology for generating a
measurement of group and individual academic performance growth by
utilizing individual pupil results from a longitudinally valid
achievement assessment system. These recommendations should also
address any interactions between the Academic Performance Index, or
any successor measure, and individual test scores from the state's
tests, as well as implications for the reauthorization of the state's
assessment system.
(2) Alternative approaches to increasing the emphasis of science
and mathematics in the calculation of the Academic Performance Index
or any successor measure.
(e) A recommendation made pursuant to subdivision (d), or any
other proposal to develop a longitudinally valid assessment system,
shall not be implemented unless funds are appropriated for that
purpose.
SEC. 13. Section 60605 of the Education Code is amended to read:
60605. (a) (1) (A) Not later than January 1, 1998, the state
board shall adopt statewide academically rigorous content standards,
pursuant to the recommendations of the Commission for the
Establishment of Academic Content and Performance Standards, in the
core curriculum areas of reading, writing, and mathematics to serve
as the basis for assessing the academic achievement of individual
pupils and of schools, school districts, and the California
educational system. Not later than November 1, 1998, the state board
shall adopt these standards in the core curriculum areas of
history/social science and science.
(B) The state board shall adopt statewide performance standards in
the core curriculum areas of reading, writing, mathematics,
history/social science, and science based on the recommendations made
by the Superintendent of a contractor or contractors.
(C) The state board shall require the contractor or contractors to
submit performance standards to the Superintendent and the state
board not later than a specified date that allows sufficient
opportunity for the Superintendent to make a recommendation to the
state board and for the state board to conduct regional hearings
prior to the adoption of the performance standards.
(2) (A) The state performance standards shall be established
against specific grade level benchmarks of academic achievement for
each subject area tested and shall be based on the knowledge and
skills that pupils will need in order to succeed in the
information-based, global economy of the 21st century. These skills
shall not include personal behavioral standards or skills, including,
but not limited to, honesty, sociability, ethics, or self-esteem.
The standards adopted pursuant to this section shall be for the
purpose of guiding state decisions regarding the development,
adoption, and approval of assessment instruments pursuant to this
chapter and does not mandate any actions or activities by school
districts.
(B) Because these standards are models, the adoption of these
standards is not subject to the Administrative Procedure Act. This
subparagraph is declaratory of existing law.
(3) Before adopting academic content and performance standards,
the state board shall hold regional hearings for the purpose of
giving parents and other members of the public the opportunity to
comment on the proposed standards.
(b) (1) The state board shall ensure that the statewide assessment
system adopted pursuant to this chapter yields valid, reliable
individual pupil scores and, where applicable, aggregate school
scores, school district scores, and statewide scores of pupils and
assesses basic academic skills and content standards, including the
use of a direct writing assessment or other applied academic skills
if deemed valid and reliable and if resources are made available for
their use.
(2) This subdivision does not prevent the state board from
developing or adopting an assessment instrument that also contains
assessments of basic academic skills.
(c) To the extent feasible and as otherwise required, the state
board shall ensure that assessments developed, or contracted for
pursuant to Section 60642.5, by the state are aligned with the
statewide content and performance standards adopted pursuant to
subdivision (a), or pursuant to Section 60605.8. The department, with
the approval of the state board, periodically shall contract for a
review of the achievement test for conformance with these standards.
(d) After adopting statewide content and performance standards,
the state board shall review the existing curriculum frameworks for
conformity with the new statewide standards and shall modify the
curriculum frameworks where appropriate to bring them into alignment
with the standards.
(e) The state board shall adopt regulations for the conduct and
administration of the testing and assessment program.
(f) The state board shall adopt a regulation for minimum security
procedures that test and assessment publishers and school districts
must follow to ensure the security and integrity of test and
assessment questions and materials.
(g) Notwithstanding Section 60601, this section shall become
inoperative on July 1, 2016, and, as of January 1, 2017, is repealed,
unless a later enacted statute, that becomes operative on or before
January 1, 2017, deletes or extends the dates on which it becomes
inoperative and is repealed.
SEC. 14. Section 60605.6 of the Education Code is amended to read:
60605.6. Subject to the availability of funds appropriated in the
annual Budget Act for this purpose, the Superintendent, upon
approval of the state board, shall contract for the development and
distribution of workbooks, as follows:
(a) One workbook to be distributed to all pupils in grade 10.
This workbook shall contain information on the proficiency levels
that must be demonstrated by pupils on the high school exit
examination described in Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 60850).
The workbook also shall contain sample questions, with explanations
describing how these sample questions test pupil knowledge of the
language arts and mathematics content standards adopted by the state
board pursuant to Section 60605.
(b) Separate workbooks for each of grades 2 to 11, inclusive.
Each pupil in grades 2 to 11, inclusive, who is required to take the
achievement tests described in Section 60642.5 shall receive a copy
of the workbook designed for the same grade level in which the pupil
is enrolled. These workbooks shall contain material to assist pupils
and their parents with standards-based learning, including the grade
appropriate academic content standards adopted by the state board
pursuant to Section 60605 and sample questions that require knowledge
of these standards to answer. The workbooks also shall describe how
the sample questions test knowledge of the state board adopted
academic content standards.
SEC. 15. Section 60605.7 is added to the Education Code, to read:
60605.7. (a) The Superintendent shall participate in the Common
Core State Standards Initiative consortium sponsored by the National
Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers
and or any associated or related
interstate collaboration to jointly develop common high-quality
standards or assessments aligned with the common set of
standards developed by the consortium .
(b) Notwithstanding Section 60601, this section shall become
inoperative on July 1, 2016, and, as of January 1, 2017, is repealed,
unless a later enacted statute, that becomes operative on or before
January 1, 2017, deletes or extends the dates on which it becomes
inoperative and is repealed.
SEC. 16. Section 60605.8 is added to the Education Code, to read:
60605.8. (a) The Superintendent shall develop a set of academic
content standards in language arts and mathematics. The standards
shall be internationally benchmarked and build toward college and
career readiness by the time of high school graduation. At least 85
percent of these standards shall be the common core academic
standards developed by the consortium or interstate
collaboration set forth in Section 60605.7.
(b) The Superintendent may appoint one or more advisory committees
consisting of educators and subject matter experts to assist in the
development of the academic content standards pursuant to subdivision
(a).
(c) On or before August 2, 2010, the Superintendent shall do
either both of the following:
(1) Present the academic content standards developed pursuant to
subdivision (a) to the state board.
(2) Present to the Governor and to the appropriate policy and
fiscal committees of the Legislature a schedule, implementation plan,
and estimated costs of:
(A) Reviewing the statewide curriculum frameworks and
instructional materials where appropriate to bring them into
alignment with the revised standards.
(B) Collaborating with the state's institutions of higher
education to align high school exit criteria and college entrance
requirements with the new standards and assessments.
(C) Developing or acquiring, disseminating, and implementing
high-quality instructional materials and assessments, including but
not limited to, formative and interim assessments.
(D) Supporting the transition to new standards and assessments and
engaging in strategies that translate the standards and information
from assessments into classroom practice for all students, including
high-need students.
(d) On or before September 1, 2010, the state board shall do
either of the following:
(1) Adopt the academic content standards as proposed by the
Superintendent.
(2) Reject the academic content standards as proposed by the
Superintendent. If the state board rejects the standards it shall
provide a specific written explanation to the Superintendent and the
Legislature of the reasons why the proposed standards were rejected.
(e) Notwithstanding Section 60601, this section shall become
inoperative on July 1, 2016, and, as of January 1, 2017, is repealed,
unless a later enacted statute, that becomes operative on or before
January 1, 2017, deletes or extends the dates on which it becomes
inoperative and is repealed.
SEC. 17. Section 60606 of the Education Code is amended to read:
60606. (a) After adopting an assessment of applied academic
skills for use in grades 4, 5, 8, and 10 pursuant to Section 60605,
the state board shall submit the instrument, once designated or
adopted, for review by the Statewide Pupil Assessment Review Panel,
which is hereby established.
(b) The panel shall consist of six members. Three members shall
be appointed by the Governor, one member shall be appointed by the
Senate Committee on Rules, one member shall be appointed by the
Speaker of the Assembly, and one member shall be appointed by the
Superintendent. A majority of the panel shall consist of parents
whose children attend public schools in the state in kindergarten and
grades 1 to 12, inclusive.
(c) Panel members shall serve two-year terms, without
compensation. No panel member shall serve more than two consecutive
terms.
(d) The panel shall review the instrument specified in
subdivision (a) in order to ensure that the content of the instrument
complies with the requirements of Section 60614. Notwithstanding any
other provision of law, the panel may meet in closed session with a
publisher for the purpose of addressing questions and clarifying
issues that relate to ensuring that the content of the publisher's
test or assessment, as the case may be, complies with the
requirements of Section 60614.
(e) The panel shall report its findings and recommendations to
the state board within 10 days of its receipt of the instrument. If
the panel fails to report within the required 10 days, the test or
assessment shall be deemed acceptable to the panel.
SEC. 18. Section 60640 of the Education Code is amended to read:
60640. (a) There is hereby established the Standardized Testing
and Reporting Program, to be known as the STAR Program.
(b) From the funds available for that purpose, each school
district, charter school, and county office of education shall
administer to each of its pupils in grades 2 to 11, inclusive, the
standards-based achievement test provided for in Section 60642.5. The
state board shall establish a testing period to provide that all
schools administer these tests to pupils at approximately the same
time during the instructional year, except as necessary to ensure
test security and to meet the final filing date.
(c) The publisher and the school district shall provide two makeup
days for the testing of previously absent pupils within the testing
period established by the state board in subdivision (b).
(d) The governing board of the school district may administer
achievement tests in grades other than those required by subdivision
(b) as it deems appropriate.
(e) Pursuant to Section 1412(a)(17) of Title 20 of the United
States Code, individuals with exceptional needs, as defined in
Section 56026, shall be included in the testing requirement of
subdivision (b) with appropriate accommodations in administration,
where necessary, and those individuals with exceptional needs who are
unable to participate in the testing, even with accommodations,
shall be given an alternate assessment.
(f) (1) At the option of the school district, pupils with limited
English proficiency who are enrolled in any of grades 2 to 11,
inclusive, may take a second achievement test in their primary
language. Primary language tests administered pursuant to this
subdivision and subdivision (g) shall be subject to the requirements
of subdivision (a) of Section 60641. These primary language tests
shall produce individual pupil scores that are valid and reliable.
(2) Notwithstanding any other law, the state board shall designate
for use, as part of this program, a single primary language test in
each language for which a test is available for grades 2 to 11,
inclusive, pursuant to the process used for designation of the
assessment chosen in the 1997-98 fiscal year, as specified in Section
60643, as applicable.
(3) (A) The department shall use funds made available pursuant to
Title VI of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C.
Sec. 6301 et seq.) and appropriated by the annual Budget Act for the
purpose of developing and adopting primary language assessments that
are aligned to the state academic content standards. Subject to the
availability of funds, primary language assessments shall be
developed and adopted for reading/language arts and mathematics in
the dominant primary language of limited-English-proficient pupils.
The dominant primary language shall be determined by the count in the
annual language census of the primary language of each
limited-English-proficient pupil enrolled in the California public
schools.
(B) Once a dominant primary language assessment is available for
use for a specific grade level, it shall be administered in place of
the assessment designated pursuant to paragraph (1) for that grade
level.
(C) In choosing a contractor to develop a primary language
assessment the state board shall consider the criteria for choosing a
contractor or test publisher as specified by Section 60643, and as
specified by Section 60642.5, as applicable.
(D) Subject to the availability of funds, the assessments shall be
developed in grade order starting with the lowest grade subject to
the STAR Program.
(E) If the state board contracts for the development of primary
language assessments or test items to augment an existing assessment,
the state shall retain ownership rights to the assessment and the
test items. With the approval of the state board, the department may
license the test for use in other states subject to a compensation
agreement approved by the Department of Finance.
(F) On or before January 1, 2006, the department shall submit to
the Legislature a report on the development and implementation of the
initial primary language assessments and recommendations on the
development and implementation of future assessments and funding
requirements.
(g) A pupil identified as limited English proficient pursuant to
the administration of a test made available pursuant to Section 60810
who is enrolled in any of grades 2 to 11, inclusive, and who either
receives instruction in his or her primary language or has been
enrolled in a school in the United States for less than 12 months
shall be required to take a test in his or her primary language if a
test is available.
(h) (1) The Superintendent shall apportion funds to school
districts to enable school districts to meet the requirements of
subdivisions (b), (e), (f),
and (g).
(2) The state board annually shall establish the amount of funding
to be apportioned to school districts for each test administered and
annually shall establish the amount that each publisher shall be
paid for each test administered under the agreements required
pursuant to Section 60643. The amounts to be paid to the publishers
shall be determined by considering the cost estimates submitted by
each publisher each September and the amount included in the annual
Budget Act, and by making allowance for the estimated costs to school
districts for compliance with the requirements of subdivisions (b),
(e), (f), and (g).
(3) An adjustment to the amount of funding to be apportioned per
test shall not be valid without the approval of the Director of
Finance. A request for approval of an adjustment to the amount of
funding to be apportioned per test shall be submitted in writing to
the Director of Finance and the chairpersons of the fiscal committees
of both houses of the Legislature with accompanying material
justifying the proposed adjustment. The Director of Finance is
authorized to approve only those adjustments related to activities
required by statute. The Director of Finance shall approve or
disapprove the amount within 30 days of receipt of the request and
shall notify the chairpersons of the fiscal committees of both houses
of the Legislature of the decision.
(i) For purposes of making the computations required by Section 8
of Article XVI of the California Constitution, the appropriation for
the apportionments made pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (h),
and the payments made to the publishers under the contracts required
pursuant to Section 60643 or subparagraph (C) of paragraph (1) of
subdivision (a) of Section 60605 between the department and the
contractor, are "General Fund revenues appropriated for school
districts," as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 41202, for the
applicable fiscal year, and included within the "total allocations to
school districts and community college districts from General Fund
proceeds of taxes appropriated pursuant to Article XIII B," as
defined in subdivision (e) of Section 41202, for that fiscal year.
(j) As a condition to receiving an apportionment pursuant to
subdivision (h), a school district shall report to the Superintendent
all of the following:
(1) The number of pupils enrolled in the school district in grades
2 to 11, inclusive.
(2) The number of pupils to whom an achievement test was
administered in grades 2 to 11, inclusive, in the school district.
(3) The number of pupils in paragraph (1) who were exempted from
the test at the request of their parents or guardians.
(k) The Superintendent and the state board are authorized and
encouraged to assist postsecondary educational institutions to use
the assessment results of the California Standards Tests, including,
but not limited to, the augmented California Standards Tests, for
academic credit, placement, or admissions processes.
(l) The Superintendent, with the approval of the state board,
annually shall release to the public test items from the
standards-based achievement tests pursuant to Section 60642.5
administered in previous years. The minimum number of test items
released per year shall be equal to 25 percent of the total number of
test items on the test administered in the previous year.
SEC. 19. Section 60643 of the Education Code is amended to read:
60643. (a) To be eligible for consideration under Section
60642.5 by the state board, test publishers shall agree in writing
each year to meet the following requirements, as applicable, if
selected:
(1) Enter into an agreement, pursuant to subdivision (e) or (f),
with the department by October 15 of that year.
(2) Align the standards-based achievement test provided for in
Section 60642.5 to the academically rigorous content and performance
standards adopted by the state board.
(3) Comply with subdivisions (c) and (d) of Section 60645.
(4) Provide valid and reliable individual pupil scores to parents
or guardians, teachers, and school administrators.
(5) Provide valid and reliable aggregate scores to school
districts and county boards of education in all of the following
forms and formats:
(A) Grade level.
(B) School level.
(C) District level.
(D) Countywide.
(E) Statewide.
(F) Comparison of statewide scores relative to other states.
(6) Provide disaggregated scores, based on
limited-English-proficient status and nonlimited-English-proficient
status. For purposes of this section, pupils with
"nonlimited-English-proficient status" shall include the total of
those pupils who are English-only pupils, fluent-English-proficient
pupils, and redesignated fluent-English-proficient pupils. These
scores shall be provided to school districts and county boards of
education in the same forms and formats listed in paragraph (5).
(7) Provide disaggregated scores by pupil gender and ethnicity and
provide disaggregated scores based on whether pupils are
economically disadvantaged or not. These disaggregated scores shall
be in the same forms and formats as listed in paragraph (5). In any
one year, the disaggregation shall entail information already being
collected by school districts, county offices of education, or
charter schools.
(8) Provide disaggregated scores for pupils who have
individualized education programs and have enrolled in special
education, to the extent required by federal law. These scores shall
be provided in the same forms and formats listed in paragraph (5).
This section shall not be construed to exclude the scores of special
education pupils from any state or federal accountability system.
(9) Provide information listed in paragraphs (5), (6), (7), and
(8) to the department and the state board in the medium requested by
each entity, respectively.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the publisher work
with the Superintendent and the state board in developing a
methodology to disaggregate statewide scores as required in
paragraphs (6) and (7) of subdivision (a), and in determining which
variable indicated on the STAR testing document shall serve as a
proxy for "economically disadvantaged" status pursuant to paragraph
(7) of subdivision (a).
(c) Access to information about individual pupils or their
families shall be granted to the publisher only for purposes of
correctly associating test results with the pupils who produced those
results or for reporting and disaggregating test results as required
by this section. School districts are prohibited from excluding a
pupil from the test if a parent or parents decline to disclose
income. This chapter does not abridge or deny rights to
confidentiality contained in the federal Family Educational Rights
and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1232g) or other applicable
state and federal law that protect the confidentiality of information
collected by educational institutions.
(d) Notwithstanding any other law, the publisher of the
standards-based achievement test provided for in Section 60642.5 or
any contractor under subdivision (f) shall comply with all of the
conditions and requirements enumerated in subdivision (a), as
applicable, to the satisfaction of the state board.
(e) (1) A publisher shall not provide a test described in Section
60642.5 or 60650 or in subdivision (f) of Section 60640 for use in
California public schools, unless the publisher enters into a written
contract with the department as set forth in this subdivision.
(2) The department shall develop, and the state board shall
approve, a contract to be entered into with a publisher pursuant to
paragraph (1). The department may develop the contract through
negotiations with the publisher.
(3) For purposes of the contracts authorized pursuant to this
subdivision, the department is exempt from the requirements of Part 2
(commencing with Section 10100) of Division 2 of the Public Contract
Code and from the requirements of Article 6 (commencing with Section
999) of Chapter 6 of Division 4 of the Military and Veterans Code.
(4) The contracts shall include provisions for progress payments
to the publisher for work performed or costs incurred in the
performance of the contract. Not less than 10 percent of the amount
budgeted for each separate and distinct component task provided for
in each contract shall be withheld pending final completion of all
component tasks by that publisher. The total amount withheld pending
final completion shall not exceed 10 percent of the total contract
price.
(5) The contracts shall require liquidated damages to be paid by
the publisher in the amount of up to 10 percent of the total cost of
the contract for any component task that the publisher through its
own fault or that of its subcontractors fails to substantially
perform by the date specified in the agreement.
(6) The contracts shall establish the process and criteria by
which the successful completion of each component task shall be
recommended by the department and approved by the state board.
(7) The publishers shall submit, as part of the contract
negotiation process, a proposed budget and invoice schedule, that
includes a detailed listing of the costs for each component task and
the expected date of the invoice for each completed component task.
(8) The contracts shall specify the following component tasks, as
applicable, that are separate and distinct:
(A) Development of new tests or test items as required by
paragraph (2) of subdivision (a).
(B) Test materials production or publication.
(C) Delivery of test materials to school districts.
(D) Test processing, scoring, and analyses.
(E) Reporting of test results to the school districts, including,
but not limited to, all reports specified in this section.
(F) Reporting of test results to the department, including, but
not limited to, the electronic files required pursuant to this
section.
(G) All other analyses or reports required by the Superintendent
to meet the requirements of state and federal law and set forth in
the agreement.
(9) The contracts shall specify the specific reports and data
files, if any, that are to be provided to school districts by the
publisher and the number of copies of each report or file to be
provided.
(10) The contracts shall specify the means by which any delivery
date for materials to each school district shall be verified by the
publisher and the school district.
(11) School districts may negotiate a separate agreement with the
publisher for any additional materials or services not within the
contracts specified in this subdivision, including, but not limited
to, the administration of the tests to pupils in grade levels other
than grades 2 to 11, inclusive. Any separate agreement is not within
the scope of the contract specified in this subdivision.
(f) The department, with approval of the state board, may enter
into a separate contract for the development or administration of a
test authorized pursuant to this part, including, but not limited to,
item development, coordination of tests, assemblage of tests or test
items, scoring, or reporting. The liquidated damages provision set
forth in paragraph (5) of subdivision (e) shall apply to a contract
entered into pursuant to this subdivision.
SEC. 20. Section 60643.1 of the Education Code is amended to read:
60643.1. (a) (1) The test publisher designated by the state board
pursuant to Section 60642 shall make available a reading list on the
Internet by June 1 of the applicable school year. The reading list
shall include an index that correlates ranges of pupil reading scores
on the English language arts portion of the achievement test
designated pursuant to Section 60642 to titles of materials that
would be suitable for pupils in each of grades 2 to 11, inclusive, to
read in order to improve their reading skills. This reading list
shall include titles of books that allow a pupil to practice reading
at his or her current reading level and that will assist the pupil in
achieving a higher level of proficiency. To the extent possible, the
index also shall include information related to the subject matter
of each title. At a minimum, the reading list also shall categorize
titles by subject matter and identify age-appropriate distinctions in
the list.
(2) The test publisher, in each school year, shall make available
for purchase by school districts a report that provides a numerical
distribution of the reading scores of all pupils in California who
took the achievement test designated pursuant to Section 60642.
(3) The test publisher, in each school year, shall make available
for purchase by school districts reading lists that can be
distributed to pupils based on a pupil's age and the ranges of scores
on the English language arts portion of the achievement test
designated pursuant to Section 60642.
(4) The requirements of this subdivision shall become operative
only upon a determination by the Director of Finance that funds are
available to make an adjustment pursuant to subdivision (h) of
Section 60640.
(b) The state board and the Superintendent jointly shall certify
that the process used by the publisher to determine the reading
levels of the corresponding reading list pursuant to paragraph (1) of
subdivision (a) meets the following criteria:
(1) The process is educationally valid.
(2) The process results in a reading list for each reading span
that provides titles at the pupil's current reading level and the
next higher level for challenging practice.
(3) The process results in a selection from the universe of titles
from the list developed pursuant to subdivision (d) that matches
each reading level.
(4) The process is unbiased in the selection of publishers' titles
from the legal compliance list.
(c) The titles listed at each reading level range posted on the
Internet and the reading lists made available to school districts
pursuant to subdivision (a), at a minimum, shall include all relevant
literature materials approved as of September 1, 1999, as being
legally compliant pursuant to Article 3 (commencing with Section
60040) of Chapter 1 of Part 33, and the titles listed in all of the
content area reading and literature lists that are developed and
published by the department and that have been determined by the
department to meet the relevant reading level as certified pursuant
to subdivision (b).
(d) By imposing the requirements of this section on publishers, it
is not the intent of the Legislature to unfairly disadvantage any
publisher who has otherwise met the requirements of this section or
of Article 3 (commencing with Section 60040) of Chapter 1 of Part 33.
SEC. 21. If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this
act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local
agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant
to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of
the Government Code.