BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1238
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 29, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 1238 (Hernandez) - As Amended: March 31, 2009
SUBJECT : Advanced placement program
SUMMARY : Requires school districts maintaining any of grades 9
to 12 to offer Advanced Placement (AP) courses in certain areas
of study. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires school districts to offer AP courses in the following
areas of study:
a) English language and composition;
b) United States history;
c) Spanish language;
d) Calculus; and,
e) Chemistry.
2)Allows small rural school districts to offer online courses in
order to meet this requirement.
3)Defines small rural school districts as a school district with
an annual enrollment of fewer than 600 pupils based on prior
school year California Basic Educational Data System (CBEDS)
data and designated a rural school by the Superintendent of
Public Instruction.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Encourages, but does not require, students to undertake
challenging coursework in the form of AP courses and other
honors courses.
2)Establishes a program whereby an economically disadvantaged
student enrolled in an AP course may apply to their school
district for a grant to pay a portion of their AP exam fee.
3)Establishes the Advanced Placement Challenge Grant Program
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under which a high school would design and implement a plan
that would result in its pupils having access to at least four
AP courses in core curriculum areas. Money was appropriated
to support efforts at 550 qualifying high schools with no or
few AP courses, including funds for online AP course options.
4)Allows any school district to offer high school online
classes, while claiming attendance credit, in a classroom
setting, through independent study, in a charter school, or to
any pupil who is otherwise attending for the minimum day.
5)Allows any school district to offer online classes to any
pupil, if the district is not claiming attendance credit for
that class time.
FISCAL EFFECT : State-mandated local program.
COMMENTS : This bill would require that all school districts
offer pupils a minimum number of AP courses, thereby imposing a
state-mandated local program. According to the author, this
bill will ensure that all California students have equal access
to enroll in AP courses.
Background on Advanced Placement Courses . The AP program,
sponsored by the College Board (a private non-profit education
agency), was started nearly 50 years ago to provide more
academically challenging high school courses. Because AP
courses are introductory college-level courses, most colleges
and universities provide (a) college credit or advanced
placement status to students who score a 3 or better (out of 5)
on an AP exam taken at the end of the course, and (b) add points
to a student's grade point average (GPA) for AP course grades.
Access to AP courses becomes a virtual necessity if a student
wants access to the most competitive schools and the college
credit received may assist students in graduating early and
saving on costly tuition.
Equal Access . According to 2009 data released by the College
Board, 30.8% of the public high school class of 2008 took at
least one AP Exam during high school, significantly higher than
the 20.2% five years ago. Additionally, low-income students
comprised 28.4% of the AP population in 2008, compared to only
21.6% five years ago. But despite these increases, data shows
that there are still many school districts in California,
primarily in rural areas, where student AP participation rates
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are less than 1%. Lack of access to AP courses in these
schools, especially when the popularity of AP is growing
elsewhere across the state and nation, deprives its students of
a competitive edge when applying to college.
In 1999, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit
arguing that the State's failure to assure "equal and adequate
access" to AP courses further perpetuates educational
inequalities, particularly for students enrolled in lower
income, predominantly African-American and Latino schools. The
ACLU noted that in 1998, for example, the University of
California, Berkeley rejected 8,000 applicants whose GPAs were
4.0 or higher, presumably choosing to accept students with
higher GPAs due to their enrollment in AP courses.
Advanced Placement Challenge Grant Program . The Budget Act of
2000-2001 appropriated $16.5 million to support AP expansion at
550 qualifying high schools, prioritized by: (a) schools
offering three or fewer AP courses, (b) schools not offering AP
courses in either math or science, (c) schools with low college
participation rates, and (d) schools with a majority of pupils
who qualify for free or reduced price meals. Participating high
schools were to provide students with access to a minimum of
four AP courses in core curriculum areas, including one
Mathematics, one Science, and at least two of the following
subject areas: English, Social Science, Foreign Language, or
Fine Arts. Schools were also to commit to increasing the number
of pupils in each AP course who take the AP test.
According to data gathered by the College Board, the program was
relatively successful. AP Challenge Grant Schools saw 51.6%
growth in the number of African-American AP exam takers and
60.2% growth in the number of Hispanic AP exam test takers
between the years 2000-2003. Overall, the number of AP exams
taken in those schools increased 50.4% between the years
2000-2003. Expanding such an incentive program, rather than
imposing an unfunded mandate on schools to require AP courses,
could be an alternative way to increase access.
Online Advanced Placement . Some school districts that are
unable to offer AP courses directly in the classroom have been
able to utilize online AP course programs to serve their
students. Universities offer online teaching programs that
include AP courses and there are private companies that
specialize in teaching online AP courses as well. Students
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enrolled in online classes will then take a traditionally
administered AP exam at a physical test site in May, the same as
all other AP students.
Potential Issues . The bill currently states that all districts
must offer AP courses. In a school district with multiple high
schools then, there could be one high school that offers all the
AP courses specified herein while another high school offers
none. Such a situation would contradict the author's intent to
make sure all students have access to AP courses. Staff
recommends an amendment that all high schools be required to
offer these courses.
Additionally, the bill currently mandates five specific courses,
rather than general subject areas. For example, it states that
Chemistry must be offered, when College Board data shows Biology
to be a much more popular course and exam in California.
Mandating specific courses rather than subject areas may
restrict the flexibility of schools to offer courses that match
student demand. Staff recommends an amendment that changes the
specific course requirements to specific subject requirements.
The bill states that rural districts may offer online courses
presumably because it may not have the resources to hire
appropriate teachers especially while California's public
schools face an existing and projected severe shortage of math
and science teachers, particularly in low performing schools.
There also may not be enough students who want to take the
course for an efficient student-teacher ratio. However, similar
problems exist in low-income urban districts throughout the
state that may also benefit from the online option. Existing
law already authorizes school districts to offer online classes.
Staff recommends an amendment stating that it is the intent of
the legislature for all high schools to consider alternative
means of providing AP courses, including online education, if an
AP certified teacher may not be available or if there is low AP
course enrollment, and sets criteria for high-quality online
courses.
Finally, the increasing focus on college preparatory courses in
recent years has drawn scrutiny from critics who argue that more
focus and resources should be put towards multiple pathways.
Not all students are college bound and The California Dropout
Research Project recently released a report entitled Solving
California's Dropout Crisis which estimated that only about two
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thirds of California's students graduate on time. The report
found that drop out rates and low achievement have many shared
causes such as poor attendance, low engagement and low-quality
instruction, and suggested that the state consider more options
for students to meet graduation requirements through career and
technical education courses.
Arguments in Support:
Supporters of this legislation argue that the availability of AP
courses in high school sets the frame of mind for students that
college is possible and an opportunity for all. California
needs an educated workforce and college preparedness is a huge
aspect of this goal.
Background materials on this bill were not received in a timely
manner from the author.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
California Immigrant Policy Center
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Irene Ho and Marisol Avi?a / ED. /
(916) 319-2087