BILL ANALYSIS
AB 391
Page 1
Date of Hearing: January 13, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 391 (Torlakson) - As Amended: January 5, 2010
SUBJECT : Pupil assessment: STAR Program
SUMMARY : Requires a one-time independent evaluation of the
Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program, and extends
the program's sunset by one year. Specifically, this bill :
1)Amends the dates on which the STAR Program becomes inoperative
and is repealed, in order to extend state testing one
additional year through 2011-12.
2)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), on or
before April 1, 2011, to contract for an independent
evaluation of the STAR Program that is required to:
a) Be based upon information gathered in field testing and
annual administrations of the assessments, all existing
reports and other studies of STAR, state and federal
requirements, a review of research-based alternative
assessment models, and a review of existing and emerging
practices in large-scale assessment from across the nation;
b) Include, but not be limited to, the STAR Program's
alignment to statewide content standards and the tests'
content validity, the standards' grade level
continuity/vertical articulation and the longitudinal
validity of the tests across grade levels, the use of
content standards from other core curriculum areas for test
items, pupil performance, compliance with testing
standards, usefulness as diagnostic or evaluative tools,
and the feasibility of alternative diagnostic testing in
new grade levels or content areas;
c) Make recommendations for improvements and revisions in
examinations and processes in the program, including
recommendations for improving grade level continuity and
vertical alignment in the tests, improving the ability to
produce scores that are longitudinally comparable,
increasing the integration of content from other core
curriculum areas into test items, using or developing
AB 391
Page 2
diagnostic information on assessments, and developing
recommendations regarding alternatives to the current
testing format to allow the greatest aggregate base for
assessing district-wide performance on content standards;
and,
d) Be provided by the SPI to the Legislature, Governor and
State Board of Education (SBE) on or before November 1,
2011.
3)Requires the advisory committee advising the SPI on matters
involving the Academic Performance Index to advise the SPI, as
specified, on the evaluation of the STAR Program, and requires
the SPI to appoint four additional members, educators or
large-scale assessment experts, to the advisory committee for
the purposes advising the SPI on the evaluation.
4)Specifies that federal funds made available under Title VI
pursuant to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), not
to exceed $150,000, be used for this evaluation.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires each charter school, school district, and county
office of education to administer designated achievement tests
to each pupil in grades 2 through 11, inclusive, as part of
the STAR Program until July 1, 2011.
2)Requires the SPI and the SBE to undertake activities in
support of STAR testing in grades 2 through 11, inclusive, as
part of the STAR Program until July 1, 2011.
3)Repeals the statute authorizing the STAR Program, the state's
content and performance standards, and other related elements
as of January 1, 2012.
FISCAL EFFECT : Federal fund costs, capped at $150,000, for the
STAR Program evaluation.
COMMENTS : California's state assessment program is comprised
of three major testing components, the STAR Program, the English
language development test (the California English Language
Development Test, CELDT, is the adopted test), and a high school
exit examination (the California High School Exit Examination,
CAHSEE, is currently the designated test). The program also
AB 391
Page 3
includes a number of smaller, more specialized assessments.
The STAR Program, initially authorized in 1997, requires testing
of students in English language arts, mathematics, science and
history/social science at specified grade levels. In 2003, the
California Standards Tests (CST) replaced a nationally published
"off the shelf" test as the primary battery of STAR tests; the
CST include only questions written specifically for California's
content standards. Today, the STAR Program includes the CSTs,
the California Alternate Performance Assessment (CAPA)
administered to students with significant cognitive
disabilities, the California Modified Assessment (CMA)
administered to students whose disabilities preclude them from
achieving grade-level proficiency on an assessment of the
California content standards with or without testing
accommodations, and a national norm-referenced test in Spanish
that is administered to Spanish speaking English learners who
have been in school in the U.S. less than 12 months or who are
receiving instruction in Spanish. Neither the high school exit
exam nor the English language development test are components of
the STAR Program; each is separately authorized in statute.
Results for STAR tests are reported for the individual pupil,
but no accountability attaches to these individual results; the
state and federal accountability systems are primarily based on
the aggregated STAR test scores from all pupils in a school or
school district. The following table summarizes the STAR
Program.
---------------------------------------------------------------
| | Assessment | Grade Level Tested |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
|STAR |English Language Arts | 2-11 |
|Program |(Reading) | |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |English Language Arts | 2-11 |
| |(Reading) CAPA | |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |English Language Arts | 3-11 |
| |(Reading) CMA | |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |Mathematics |2-8 and EOC in grades |
| | | 9-11 |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |Mathematics CAPA | 2-11 |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
AB 391
Page 4
| |Mathematics CMA | 3-11 |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |Science | 5, 8, and EOC in |
| | | grades 9-11 |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |History-Social Science | 8-11 |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |Primary Language Assessment |2 -11 |
| |(Spanish) | |
---------------------------------------------------------------
EOC = End-of-course exam
Many elements of the STAR Program are used by California to meet
the assessment and accountability requirements of NCLB. NCLB
requires each state to administer a standards-aligned
achievement test in reading and mathematics to all students in
grades 3-8 and grade 10; it also requires science testing in
grades 5, 8, and 10.
This bill requires an independent evaluation of the STAR
Program, and its effectiveness in measuring student progress on
California's academic standards, as well as in meeting the
requirements and needs of the state and federal accountability
systems. This evaluation would also examine the feasibility and
cost of a state-wide diagnostic testing model, to serve as both
a classroom-focused diagnostic tool and a state-wide data
tracking measure. This independent evaluation would inform the
STAR reauthorization discussion.
Given the impending sunset and potential reauthorization of the
STAR Program, the Legislature's need for an evaluation of the
program is clear. The STAR Program has tested millions of
students in multiple content areas annually for twelve years;
however, no independent evaluation has been required or
completed. A technical report on the test is completed annually
by the testing contractor responsible for administration,
scoring, and reporting the test and results, but the
independence of contractors has been called into question by the
California Department of Education and the SBE over the lifetime
of the program. A report by the SPI and SBE regarding the
status of implementation of the STAR Program was required and
provided in 2001; an annual report of test scores from the SPI
to the Legislature and SBE is also required. Neither the annual
technical reports nor any of the SPI/SBE reports were completed
by an independent entity, and none of those reports examine all
AB 391
Page 5
of the issues that the Legislature should examine prior to the
reauthorization of the STAR Program.
By contrast California's high school exit examination,
authorized in 1999 and first administered in 2001, has had an
ongoing independent evaluator that has issued both annual and
biennial evaluative reports since 2001. These evaluations are
contracted for separately from the contract issued to the vendor
or vendors responsible for the administration, development or
any other facet of the test, and have been conducted by a firm
and staff with backgrounds in measurement, and specializing in
research and program evaluation.
During this period of economic and budgetary crisis, imposing
the requirement of a new one-time evaluation and the cost that
it creates will be difficult for the Legislature to consider.
However, since the cost of implementing a one-time evaluation of
the STAR Program is minimal and constrained to be not more than
$150,000 in federal funds that are required to be expended on
assessment-related activities, this cost will likely be offset
by future savings generated by the evaluation's findings; those
findings will position the Legislature to more efficiently use
the state's resources to design and support the reauthorized
state testing program.
Committee amendments : Committee staff recommends, and the
author has accepted, amendments to:
1)Delete the proposal to extend the sunset of the STAR Program
by an additional year. This extension would allow the state
time to redesign the state testing program to incorporate
common assessments developed by interstate collaborative
efforts and to meet the definition of high-quality
assessments, both of which are requirements of the federal
Race to the Top program, and would also allow the state to
adapt to any additional federal requirements created as part
of the reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (ESEA). However, a two year extension of this
sunset was enacted as part of SBX5 1 (Steinberg), Chapter 2,
Statutes of the 2009-10 Fifth Extraordinary Session, which was
signed by the Governor on January 7, 2010; the provisions of
SBX5 1 will become law on the 91st day following adjournment
of the 2009-10 Fifth Extraordinary Session.
2)Add "formative assessment," "high-quality assessment," and
AB 391
Page 6
"interim assessment" to the assessment terms defined in
statute.
3)Make clarifying amendments as to the parameters of the
independent evaluation and the issues upon which the evaluator
is required to make findings.
Related and previous legislation : SBX5 1 (Steinberg), Chapter
2, Statutes of 2009-10 Fifth Extraordinary Session, makes
comprehensive changes to the Education Code consistent with the
requirements of the federal Race to the Top program, including
moving the dates on which the STAR Program becomes inoperative
and is repealed in order to extend state testing by two
additional years through 2012-13. AB 476 (Torlakson), vetoed in
2009, would have required a one-time independent evaluation of
the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program. SB 1448
(Alpert), Chapter 233, Statutes of 2004, reauthorizes the STAR
Program. SB 376 (Alpert), Chapter 828, Statutes of 1997,
establishes the STAR Program and authorizes testing in grades 2
through 11.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Science Teachers Association
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087