BILL ANALYSIS
AB 391
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Date of Hearing: January 21, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 391 (Torlakson) - As Amended: January 15, 2010
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:7-3
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI), on or before April 1, 2011, to contract with an
independent evaluator for the evaluation of the Standardized
Testing and Reporting (STAR) program. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the evaluation to be a meta-analysis of existing
information and data from the STAR program, including, but not
limited to, a report on the results of prior analysis
regarding alignment between the STAR assessments and content
standards, as specified.
2)Requires the evaluation report to include specific
recommendations including the following: improving the
quality, validity, reliability of the examinations for both
groups and individuals; improving the usefulness of the test
to the state, local education agencies, schools, teachers,
pupils, and parents; and revising the STAR program to provide
pupil level diagnostic information, as specified.
3)Requires the SPI to provide the evaluation to the Legislature,
the governor, and the State Board of Education (SBE) on or
before November 1, 2011.
4)Requires the Public Schools Accountability Act (PSAA) advisory
committee to advise the SPI on the independent evaluation, as
specified. This measure also requires the SPI to appoint four
additional members who have expertise in large-scale
assessment and who will serve only for the purposes of the
AB 391
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evaluation.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)GF/98 or federal fund cost pressure, likely between $250,000
and $500,000, to the SDE to contract for an independent
evaluation of the STAR program, as specified. This bill
requires the State Department of Education (SDE) to use
federal Title VI funds under the No Child Left Behind Act of
2001 (NCLB) for this purpose and prohibits the cost from
exceeding $150,000. It is likely, however, that the cost of
an independent contractor and the required content set forth
in this measure will increase the cost of the evaluation.
2)The 2009 Budget Act allocates a total of $24 million Title VI
NCLB funds for state assessment programs, including $4 million
for the STAR program.
3)The 2009 Budget Act allocates a total of $45.6 million for the
assessment system, including $40.2 million GF/98 and $5.4
million in federal assessment funding.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . The STAR program, established by Chapter 828,
Statutes of 1997 (SB 376, Alpert), reauthorized by SB 80
(Committee on Budget), Chapter 174, Statute of 2007, consists
of three elements: (a) the California Standards Tests (CST);
(c) the Spanish Assessment of Basic Education primary language
test, and (d) the California Alternative Performance
Assessment for special education pupils. Under the STAR
program, the state requires schools to test all students in
grades 2 to 11 in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics
using a CST. However, only specified grades are assessed in
history/social and science.
Many individuals contend the STAR program should be
independently evaluated for reliability, validity, and its
ability to measure both individual and group academic
achievement. Even though the program has been reauthorized
twice, it has never been formally evaluated. Whereas, the
California High School Exit Exam is independently evaluated on
a regular basis. This bill requires the SPI to contract for
an independent evaluation of the STAR program.
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2)Related legislation .
a) SB 1 X5 (Steinberg), Chapter 2, Statutes of 2010,
extends the sunset of the STAR program by two years until
July 1, 2013.
b) AB 8 X5 (Brownley), pending in the Senate Education
Committee, required the SPI to make specified
recommendations regarding the STAR program, including
recommendations specified in this measure.
3)Previous legislation . AB 476 (Torlakson), similar to this
measure, was vetoed by the governor in October 2009, with the
following message:
"The objectives of this bill are duplicative of work already
being done by a variety of sources. Not only have there been
reviews of California's standards and assessment system by the
United States Department of Education's peer review process,
the SDE has a process which has included an independent
alignment study and review of test items by various content
and test development experts. Finally, this bill circumvents
the SBE in the selection of the independent evaluator and
approving the evaluation and its recommendations."
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081