BILL NUMBER: AB 391 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 30, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 25, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 15, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 5, 2010
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Torlakson
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Brownley)
FEBRUARY 23, 2009
An act to amend Section 60603 of, and to add Section 60604.6 to,
the Education Code, relating to pupil assessment.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 391, as amended, Torlakson. Pupil assessment: STAR Program.
(1) The Leroy Greene California Assessment of Academic Achievement
Act provides for the development of a statewide pupil assessment
program, and defines various terms for those purposes.
This bill would define additional terms for those purposes.
(2) The act establishes the Standardized Testing and Reporting
Program (the STAR Program), pursuant to which school districts,
charter schools, and county offices of education are required to
administer achievement tests to each of their pupils in grades 2 to
11, inclusive.
This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction,
on or before April 1, 2011, to contract for an independent evaluation
of the STAR Program, as specified. The Superintendent would be
required to provide this the evaluation
report to the Legislature, the Governor, and the State
Board of Education on or before November 1, 2011. The bill would
require the State Department of Education to use federal funds for
the purpose of contracting for the evaluation. The bill would make
the operation of these provisions contingent upon an appropriation
for their purposes in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 60603 of the Education Code, as amended by
Section 10 of Chapter 2 of the Fifth Extraordinary Session of the
Statutes of 2009, 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 history/social
science, and science.
(f) "Diagnostic assessment" means interim assessments of the
current level of achievement of a pupil that serves
serve 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 "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
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. 2. Section 60604.6 is added to the Education Code, to read:
60604.6. (a) On or before April 1, 2011, the Superintendent shall
contract with an independent evaluator, who shall report to
him or her, for conduct an evaluation of the
STAR Program and submit a report regarding the evaluation to the
Superintendent . The evaluation shall be a meta-analysis of
existing information and data from the STAR Program based upon all of
the following:
(1) Information gathered in field testing and annual
administrations of the STAR assessments.
(2) Existing technical reports, peer reviews, and other studies,
reports, and evaluations of the STAR Program conducted by or at the
request of the department, the Legislature, or the state board.
(3) State and federal requirements.
(4) A review of research-based alternative assessment models.
(5) A review of existing and emerging practices in large-scale
assessment from across the nation.
(b) The evaluation shall include, but shall not necessarily be
limited to, all of the following:
(1) A report on the results of prior analyses regarding the
alignment between the STAR assessments and the full range of the
content standards adopted pursuant to Sections 60605 and 60605.8, and
a determination of whether the STAR Program assesses pupil knowledge
in the same manner and at the same level of complexity as expected
in those content standards.
(2) An independent analysis of the grade level continuity and
vertical articulation of the content standards.
(3) An independent analysis of the ability of the tests to produce
scores for an individual pupil that can be validly compared from
year to year for both groups and individuals.
(4) An independent analysis of the use of content standards in
other core curriculum areas for testing items, as applicable.
(5) A report on the results of prior analyses regarding pupil
performance, broken down by assessment, grade level, race or
ethnicity, and end-of-course assessments, including any trends that
become apparent over time.
(6) An independent analysis of the degree to which the STAR
Program complies with professional testing standards and satisfies or
exceeds state and federal requirements for assessments for each
grade level.
(7) An independent analysis of the usefulness of the STAR Program
in terms of state and local program evaluations.
(8) An independent analysis of the usefulness of the STAR Program
in providing individual results, providing a diagnostic assessment
for classroom use, and providing formative and interim assessments in
order to better inform instruction and improve learning.
(9) An independent analysis of the feasibility and cost of the
development and administration of a diagnostic alternative test in
grade levels and content standard areas that are not required to have
an assessment under federal law.
(c) The report by the independent evaluator containing
described in subdivision (a) shall include the
findings of his or her evaluation shall include, but shall
not be limited to, all of the following and
recommendations regarding, at a minimum, each of the following
:
(1) Improving the quality, fairness, validity, and reliability of
the examinations for both groups and individuals, including pupils
with disabilities and English learners.
(2) Revising the design, administration, scoring, processing, or
use of the examinations to ensure compliance with state and federal
requirements in an efficient manner.
(3) Revising the examinations to improve grade level continuity
and vertical alignment of standards-aligned test content and the
ability of the tests to produce scores for an individual pupil that
can be validly compared from year to year.
(4) Revising the examination to improve integration of content
standards in other core curriculum areas for testing items, as
applicable.
(5) Improving the usefulness of the test to the state, local
educational agencies, schools, teachers, pupils, and parents,
including making use of test administration and scoring technologies
that will allow the return of test results to parents and teachers as
soon as possible in order to support instructional improvement.
(6) Revising the STAR Program to provide pupil-level diagnostic
information, to provide a diagnostic assessment for classroom use,
and to provide formative and interim assessments in order to better
inform instruction and improve learning.
(7) Developing and implementing alternative diagnostic assessments
that align with state academic content standards.
(8) Developing and implementing alternatives to the current
testing format to allow the greatest aggregate base for assessing
districtwide performance on content standards.
(9) Transitioning to a system of high-quality assessments, as
defined in this chapter.
(10) Aligning the assessments with the content standards adopted
pursuant to Sections 60605 and 60605.8, and the performance standards
adopted pursuant to Section 60605.5.
(11) Ensuring that no aspect of the system creates any bias with
respect to race, ethnicity, culture, religion, gender, or sexual
orientation.
(12) Incorporating a variety of item types and formats, including,
but not limited to, open-ended responses and performance-based
tasks.
(13) Generating 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.
(14) Assessing a pupil's understanding of and ability to use the
technology necessary for success in the 21st century classroom and
workplace.
(15) Minimizing testing time, while not jeopardizing the validity,
reliability, fairness, or instructional usefulness of the assessment
results.
(d) In order to provide the Legislature with adequate information
to consider reauthorization of the STAR Program, the Superintendent
shall provide the evaluation report to the Legislature, the
Governor, and the state board on or before November 1, 2011.
(e) The advisory committee established pursuant to Section 52052.5
shall advise the Superintendent on the independent evaluation by
providing all of the following:
(1) Recommendations regarding the parameters of the evaluation.
(2) Recommendations regarding any request for proposals or request
for applications used to solicit contract proposals.
(3) Recommendations regarding the selection of the contractor.
(4) A review of any reports submitted by the independent
evaluator, including any midterm reports as well as the final
evaluation.
(f) The Superintendent shall appoint four additional members, who
shall be educators or individuals having expertise in large-scale
assessment and who shall serve only for the purposes of subdivision
(f), to the advisory committee established pursuant to Section
52052.5.
(g) The department shall use federal funds for the purpose of
contracting for this evaluation. This section shall become operative
only if an appropriation is provided for its purposes in the annual
Budget Act or another statute.