BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2083
Page 1
GOVERNOR'S VETO
AB 2083 (Education Committee)
As Amended April 15, 2010
2/3 vote
EDUCATION 8-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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| |Brownley, Nestande, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Conway, Ammiano, |
| |Ammiano, Arambula, | |Bradford, Charles |
| |Carter, Chesbro, Norby, | |Calderon, Coto, Davis, De |
| |Torlakson | |Leon, Hall, Harkey, |
|Ayes:| | |Miller, Nielsen, Norby, |
| | | |Skinner, Solorio, |
| | | |Torlakson, Torrico |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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|ASSEMBLY: |76-0 |(May 13, 2010) |SENATE: |33-0 |(August 5, |
| | | | | |2010) |
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SUMMARY : Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI) and State Board of Education (SBE) to use the closest
approximation, using existing data, of the graduation rate
defined pursuant to federal regulations related to Title I of
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, if that rate can not
be calculated, in applying the methodology specified in state
statute for identifying persistently lowest achieving schools.
EXISTING STATE LAW :
1)Requires the SPI and SBE to identify persistently lowest
achieving schools using a specified methodology that includes
identification of any high school that has had a graduation
rate, as defined in Section 200.19 (b) of Title 34 of the Code
AB 2083
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of Federal regulations, which is less than 60 percent in each
of the previous three years.
2)Requires, for purposes of implementing the federal Race to the
Top (RTTT) program, the governing board of a school district,
county superintendent of schools, or the governing body of a
charter school or its equivalent, to implement one of the four
specified reform interventions in any school identified as
persistently lowest achieving using the statutorily specified
methodology, unless the SPI and SBE determine, to the extent
allowable under federal law, that the school has implemented a
equivalent reform within the last two years and is showing
significant progress in turning around that school.
EXISTING FEDERAL LAW requires a state to implement the same
methodology for identifying persistently lowest achieving
schools under RTTT to be used for application for awards from
the School Improvement Fund (SIF, formerly referred to as School
Improvement Grants or SIG) and for application for funding from
the School Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF).
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, minor absorbable General Fund administrative costs to
the California Department of Education (CDE) to calculate the
number of high schools on the PLAS list using the methodology
authorized in this measure.
COMMENTS : SB 1 X5 (Steinberg), Chapter 2, Statutes of
2009-2010 Fifth Extraordinary Session, mandates the methodology
for identifying persistently lowest-achieving schools by
identifying the lowest-achieving five percent of all schools in
Program Improvement under the federal No Child Left Behind Act,
the lowest-achieving five percent of secondary schools that are
eligible for but do not receive Title 1 funds, and any high
school with a graduation rate less than 60 percent in each of
the last three years. This methodology also excludes, to the
extent allowable by federal law, county community schools,
juvenile court schools, schools that provide educational
services exclusively to individuals with exceptional needs, and
any school that has experienced academic growth of at least 50
points on the API over the previous five years, unless the SPI
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and the SBE find cause not to exclude these schools. SB 1 X5
also authorizes the SPI and the SBE, to the extent allowable
under federal law, to exclude a community day school from the
definition. The total number of schools that would be deemed
persistently lowest-achieving using this methodology is unknown,
but is estimated to be between 100 and 200 schools. The CDE has
implemented a similar, but not equivalent, methodology to
identify schools eligible for SIF awards and has identified a
total of 188 schools. In addition, SB 1 X5 requires the SPI to
notify the governing board of a school district, a county
superintendent of schools or the governing body of a charter
school or its equivalent that one or more of the schools in its
jurisdiction have been identified as a persistently
lowest-achieving school. SB 1 X5 also requires, for purposes of
implementing the federal RTTT program, each of those educational
entities with a persistently lowest achieving school identified
by this statutory methodology to implement one of four
intervention models required by the RTTT, unless the SPI and the
SBE determines that the school has implemented a conforming
reform within the last two years.
After passage of SB 1 X5, CDE staff notified legislative staff
that they would be unable to implement that part of the
methodology identifying high schools with a graduation rate less
than 60 percent in each of the last three years, because the
data necessary to calculate the graduation rate defined in
federal regulations and specified in SB 1 X5 were not available.
In order to identify schools eligible for SIF awards, the CDE
implemented a methodology that made use of a graduation rate
other than that specified in state statute and, thus, other than
that defined in federal regulations; CDE's methodology also
averaged this graduation rate over a four year period. This
approach identified 5 high schools. The CDE methodology,
however, is clearly not that specified in state statute. Since
the statutory methodology, including the specific definition of
graduation rate, must be implemented independent of any federal
program, the amendment proposed in this bill is necessary in
order to provide authority to the SPI and SBE to use a
graduation rate that can be calculated with existing data when
implementing the statutory methodology for identifying
persistently lowest achieving schools. By using the best
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available approximation of the specified graduation rate in each
of the three previous years, the SPI and SBE would be able to
identify high schools having a graduation rate less than 60
percent pursuant to statute, consistent with the intent of the
Legislature, and consistent with federal law.
GOVERNOR'S VETO MESSAGE :
"The Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of
Education have already created a list of the state's
persistently-lowest achieving schools using a methodology that
has already been approved by the Federal government. Therefore,
this bill is unnecessary."
Analysis Prepared by: Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0006712