BILL ANALYSIS
SB 19
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 19 (Simitian)
As Amended September 8, 2009
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :Vote not relevant
EDUCATION 8-0 APPROPRIATIONS 10-0
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|Ayes:|Brownley, Bonnie |Ayes:|De Leon, Charles |
| |Lowenthal, Arambula, | |Calderon, Coto, Fuentes, |
| |Buchanan, Carter, Eng, | |Hall, John A. Perez, |
| |Solorio, Torlakson | |Skinner, Solorio, |
| | | |Torlakson, Hill |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Makes statutory changes, related to the collection,
reporting and use of data, some of which may be necessary for
California to qualify for specific one-time funding programs
under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes the use of federal grant funds, received pursuant
to ARRA and provides for statewide data systems, to fund
activities currently required of the working group created by
the State Chief Information Officer (CIO) related to the
creation of a strategic plan to link education data systems
from K-12 and higher education.
2)Adds an additional issue, to identify specific procedures and
policies that would facilitate the sharing and transfer of
data from one segment to another and ultimately to include
linkages to workforce data, to the strategic plan being
created by the CIO's working group; also extends the due date
for the delivery of the strategic plan by the CIO to the
Legislature and Governor from September 1, 2009, to January 1,
2010.
3)Deletes the prohibition against data in the California
Longitudinal Teacher Integrated Data Education System
(CALTIDES) being used, either solely or in conjunction with
data from the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data
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System (CALPADS), for purposes of pay, promotion, sanction, or
personnel evaluation of an individual teacher or groups of
teachers, or of any other employment decisions related to
individual teachers; also adds language clarifying that state
and federal law protecting the privacy of personally
identifiable data for all individuals applies to the uses of
data that may occur following the elimination of this
requirement.
4)Provides an exception to the prohibition against the
California Department of Education (CDE) requiring state and
federally funded center based child care and development
programs administered by the CDE to implement or maintain the
unique Statewide Student Identifiers (SSID) being used in
CALPADS until an appropriation for this purpose is provided,
by excepting the extent to which this is required by federal
law, or needed to ensure compliance with federal law.
5)Adds to the authority granted to the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) to add data elements deemed necessary to
CALPADS, with approval of the State Board of Education (SBE),
to comply with the federal reporting requirements delineated
in ARRA. Requires the SPI to submit an expenditure plan
detailing costs to the Department of Finance (DOF) prior to
data elements being added, and in turn requires DOF to notify
the Joint Legislative Budget Committee within 10 days of
receipt of that plan.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Authorizes CALPADS and requires the CDE to contract for the
development of a system that will provide for the retention
and analysis of longitudinal K-12 pupil achievement data on
Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program assessments,
the high school exit examination, and English language
development assessments.
2)Authorizes CALTIDES and requires the CDE, in collaboration
with the CTC, to contract for the development of a system that
will streamline processes, improve the efficiency of data
collection by CDE, CTC and the Employment Development
Department (EDD), and improve the quality of data collected
from local educational agencies and teacher preparation
programs; these provisions do not specifically authorize EDD
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to provide workforce or wage information for individuals.
3)Requires CDE to establish a process by which local education
agencies (LEA) issue, maintain, and report information using
the unique Statewide Student Identifiers (SSID), being used in
CALPADS, for state and federally funded center based child
care and development programs administered by the CDE, but
prohibits requiring those programs to implement or maintain
the SSIDs until an appropriation for this purpose is provided.
4)Requires each of the three public higher education systems to
establish a process by which colleges and universities within
those systems issue, maintain and report information using
SSIDs, and to provide an annual report to the Governor and the
appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature
that includes a detailed timeline for the implementation,
maintenance, and use of the SSIDs.
5)Establishes the CIO as a cabinet-level position responsible
for coordination and strategic planning in the area of
information technology, and requires the CIO to convene a
working group, representing the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI), the SBE, the three systems of California
public higher education, and any other governmental entities
that collect, report, or use individual education data that
would become part of the comprehensive educational data
system, to develop a strategic plan that would provide an
overall structural design for the linked data system, examine
current state education data systems, and examine the
interdepartmental data protocols and procedures to be used by
state agencies in collecting, storing, manipulating, sharing,
retrieving, and releasing data in order to enable the linking
of data systems; the strategic plan is required to be
delivered to the Legislature and the Governor on or before
September 1, 2009.
6)States legislative intent to convene a staff level working
group that is representative of the policy and fiscal staff of
both houses of the Legislature and both parties, the
Governor's office, the SPI, the Legislative Analyst's Office
(LAO), and all three systems of California public higher
education; requires the working group to make recommendations
related to the governance of educational data, including, but
not limited to, the organizational structure of the governing
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entity, its relationship to other agencies, the scope of its
authorities and responsibilities, methods for holding the
governing entity accountable, and methods for ensuring that
the governing entity's work primarily serves the purposes of
educational improvement at the same time as ensuring the
privacy of any data under its charge.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, potential General Fund Proposition 98 cost pressure,
likely in the hundreds of thousands, to LEAs to collect and
maintain data in CALPADS, as required by ARRA and deemed
necessary by the SPI. The data collection requirements are a
condition of receiving ARRA funds; however, given the severe
reductions LEAs have incurred over the last two years, the
collection and maintenance of additional data elements may
create costs. The Education Committee also notes that the state
may receive as much as $500 million in one-time federal funds
under RTTT.
COMMENTS : According to the author, this bill is "intended to
cover the data systems-related changes needed for the purposes
of competing for federal funds." The bill now proposes to enact
those statutory changes, relating to the collection, reporting
and use of data in both CALPADS and CALTIDES, that are
necessary, according to the author, to meet the requirements
recently proposed by the United State Department of Education
(USDOE) for funding under the competitive grant programs of
ARRA.
One of those programs for which California may compete is the
Grant Program for Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems
administered by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES grant)
under ARRA. Funding provided through this competitive grant
program is to be used for statewide data systems that, in
addition to P-12 data, also include postsecondary and workforce
information. Grants will support the development and
implementation of P-20 systems that have the capacity to link
individual student data across time and across databases,
including matching teachers to students, promote easy matching
and linking of data across institutions and States, and protect
privacy consistent with applicable privacy protection laws. A
total of $245 million is available nationwide, with average
grant awards estimated at from $2 to $20 million over the
lifetime of the project. The submission deadline for the
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Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Grant is November 19, 2009,
and grants awards are expected to be announced in May of 2010.
The five proposals made in this bill, if this bill is enacted,
will work to make California's application for these IES grant
funds more competitive.
ARRA also includes other formula-driven and competitive grants
for K-12 education. Approximately $5 billion in one-time
funding will be available nationwide across three separate
competitive Race to the Top grants: 1) state Incentive Grants
(herein referred to as RTTT grants), totaling over $4 Billion
nationwide; 2) state Standards and Assessments Grants, totaling
approximately $350 million; and 3) district Innovation Grants
totaling approximately $650 million. This bill also deals with
some of the requirements associated with the State Incentive
Grant program; the latter two grant programs are still under
development by the federal government and no guidance has been
released. According to the LAO, it is possible that California
could qualify for between $500 million and $1 billion in State
Incentive Grant one-time funding, depending on the number of
states that apply and various other factors; however, since this
grant program is competitive, it is also possible that
California will receive no funding under this program.
On July 29, 2009, the United States Department of Education
(USDOE) issued a notice of proposed priorities, requirements,
definitions, and selection criteria for states applying for RTTT
grants. Comments on this preliminary guidance was due back to
the USDOE August 28, 2009, final guidance will be announced at a
later date, Phase 1 of the application period will open in late
calendar year 2009, and additional states will be allowed to
apply in Phase 2 during the spring of 2010. Phase 1 and Phase 2
awards will be made in the spring and fall of 2010,
respectively. There appears to be little difference in the
requirements applied to Phase 1 versus Phase 2 applications,
with one notable exception, concerning a state's adoption of a
nationwide common core of academic content standards; this
requirement is ambiguously stated in the notice, and should be
clarified by USDOE in its final guidance. There are also no
stated penalties or rewards for application in Phase 1 versus
Phase 2.
The USDOE preliminary guidance proposes various requirements and
criteria that will be applied to RTT grant applicants and
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applications. This includes two requirements and one priority
necessary for eligibility, and eight administrative application
requirements - all of which must be met in order for the
application to qualify; this guidance also includes 19 selection
criteria that will bear on an application's competitive score,
and four priorities that serve to enhance an application (only
the first of these four will be reflected in an application's
score).
Not all of the changes proposed in this bill will be necessary
to meet the requirements of the RTTT grant programs. In
addition, it is unclear as to whether the USDOE guidelines will
change between now and the winter 2009/spring 2010 application
periods, or whether the changes proposed in this bill, that are
related to the RTTT requirements and criteria, would satisfy the
judges reviewing the RTTT grant competitive applications. It
is clear that this bill proposes to enact the only statutory
change necessary, according to the LAO, for California to meet
the eligibility requirements of the RTTT grant program.
The five proposals made by this bill are related to:
1)Authorization of the use of federal funds for activities of
the CIO required under SB 1298.
2)Expansion of the SB 1298 charge given to the CIO, and
extension of a related deadline.
3)Repeal of a perceived prohibition on using pupil data to
evaluate teachers.
4)Repeal of a prohibition on requiring pre-K center based
programs to implement specific data requirements, to the
extent that federal law so requires such data collection.
5)Expansion of the scope of data elements required to be
collected under CALPADS.
Authorization of the use of federal funds for activities of the
CIO related to SB 1298 : According to the author, "SB 19
addresses one outstanding item from last year's SB 1298 related
to the state's vision for a comprehensive education data system;
specifically, the requirement of the [CIO] to prepare a
technical plan to link statewide information systems and
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education data... the bill authorizes use of the federal funds
to cover the CIO's costs related to the SB 1298 linkages work
group." This bill merely authorizes such a use, but does not
provide the necessary expenditure authority to allow these
federal funds to be so used; additional expenditure authority
would be required to be granted by the Legislature in order to
have the funds available to the CIO for this purpose. This
proposal relates to California's RTTT grant proposal only in
that it may generally further the expansion of the state's
educational data system; this action is not specifically
required to meet the RTTT grant requirements and criteria.
Expansion of the charge given to the CIO under SB 1298 : SB 1298
requires the CIO to convene a working group, representing the
SPI, the SBE, the three systems of California public higher
education, and any other governmental entities that collect,
report, or use individual education data that would become part
of the comprehensive educational data system. The CIO, along
with this working group, is required to develop a strategic
plan, to be delivered to the Legislature and the Governor on or
before September 1, 2009, that would provide an overall
structural design for the linked data system, examine current
state education data systems, and examine the interdepartmental
data protocols and procedures to be used by state agencies in
collecting, storing, manipulating, sharing, retrieving, and
releasing data in order to enable the linking of data systems.
This group began meeting in early May. This bill proposes to
add "identify specific procedures and policies that would
facilitate the sharing and transfer of data from one segment to
another and ultimately to include linkages to workforce data."
This new requirement is consistent with the charge to the
working group and with other strategic plan requirements placed
on the CIO and the working group. This bill also proposes to
extend the date by which the strategic plan is to be delivered
by the CIO to the Legislature and the Governor from September 1,
2009, to January 1, 2010. These proposals relate to
California's RTTT grant proposal only in that they may generally
further the expansion of the state's educational data system;
these actions are not specifically required to meet the RTTT
grant requirements and criteria.
Repeal of a perceived prohibition on using pupil data to
evaluate teachers : California has no effective prohibition on
the use of pupil achievement data in making performance
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evaluations of certificated employees. In fact, subdivision (b)
of Section 44662 of the Education Code (EC) clearly requires the
governing board of each school district to evaluate and assess
certificated employee performance as it reasonably relates,
among other items, to the progress of pupils toward the state
adopted academic content standards as measured by state adopted
criterion referenced assessments. However, the perception has
developed that EC Section 10601.5 prevents LEA from so
evaluating teachers, since that section prohibits the use of
CALTIDES data, either solely or in conjunction with CALPADS
data, for the purposes of any employment decision related to
individual teachers. This prohibition, of course, would not
prevent a LEA from using data that it possesses in its own local
data systems to make such evaluations; this local data includes,
in fact, the data that the LEA submits to the state and that
populates both CALTIDES and CALPADS. Thus there would be no
reason for a LEA to use CALTIDES and CALPADS to evaluate its own
teachers; it would simply be administratively easier for a LEA
to use its own data.
According to Legislative Counsel, however, in the context of the
RTTT grant applications, the decision as to whether California
has or does not have a prohibition or firewall against the use
of pupil performance data to evaluate teachers is at the sole
discretion of the U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.
Secretary Duncan has been quoted as saying that California has
such a barrier and will therefore be ineligible to compete for
RTTT grant funding as long as that barrier exists. This bill
proposes to eliminate that prohibition and replace it with
explicit authority to use CALTIDES and CALPADS data to evaluate
individual teachers. According to the LAO, this repeal of the
prohibition on the use of pupil performance data in the
evaluation of teachers is the only statutory change necessary
for California to make in order to meet the eligibility
requirements of the RTTT grant program.
It should be noted that there are greater obstacles to any state
attempting to evaluate teachers solely or primarily on the basis
of pupil performance as measured by large-scale assessments;
perhaps the most significant additional obstacle is the fact
that most state testing systems, including California's, are not
designed to produce scores that clearly measure growth in
individual pupil performance from year to year and/or are not
designed to support high stakes decisions for individual pupils
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or teachers.
Repeal of the prohibition on requiring pre-K center based
programs to implement specific data requirements, to the extent
that federal law so requires such data collection : Current law,
as enacted by SB 1298 (Simitian), requires the CDE to establish
a process by which LEAs issue, maintain, and report information,
using the unique SSID being used in CALPADS, for state and
federally funded center based child care and development
programs administered by the CDE, but current law prohibits
requiring those programs to implement or maintain the SSIDs
until an appropriation for this purpose is provided. This bill
softens that prohibition by allowing the CDE to make this
requirement to the extent that it is necessary to comply with or
is otherwise required by federal law. This change does not
increase the state's exposure to mandated cost reimbursement
claims; since costs stemming from federal requirements are not
reimbursable, this proposal would continue to limit the state's
liability. This proposal also may make California's RTTT grant
application more competitive under the enhancement criterion
that calls for expansion of state longitudinal data systems to
include pre-K data.
Expansion of the data elements required to be collected in
CALPADS : This bill proposes to expand the scope of "other data
elements deemed necessary," that may be identified by the SPI,
with approval of the SBE, to be required to be retained in
individual pupil records by LEAs, from only those data elements
necessary for compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind
Act to also include those necessary for compliance with ARRA.
The expansion of authority for the SPI, with the approval of the
SBE, to require data elements necessary for compliance with ARRA
allows the state to fully adapt to the new requirements
specified in ARRA and thus to include any data elements
necessary to compete for an ARRA grant, including those under
RTTT. The bill also requires the SPI to submit an expenditure
plan, detailing any state operations and local education agency
costs, to the Department of Finance prior to any additional data
elements being deemed necessary under this authority, and in
turn requiring the Department of Finance to notify the Joint
Legislative Budget Committee within 10 days of receipt of the
expenditure plan; in this way both the administration and the
Legislature will be aware of any cost implications associated
with expansion of the data elements in this system.
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Previous and related legislation : SB 1 X5 (Romero), pending in
the Senate, proposes language repealing the perceived
prohibition on using pupil data to evaluate teachers; that bill
also makes additional proposals. SB 2 X5 (Simitian), also
pending in the Senate, is substantially similar to this bill.
SB 1298 (Simitian), Chapter 561, Statutes of 2008, established
processes by which LEAs and public institutions of higher
education issue, maintain, and report information using the
unique statewide student identifiers required under current law.
SB 1614 (Simitian), Chapter 840, Statutes of 2006, required
the development of CALTIDES to serve as a central state
repository of information on the teacher workforce. SB 1453
(Alpert), Chapter 1002, Statutes of 2002, authorized the
longitudinal data system in its current form, and specifies that
the system be known as CALPADS.
Analysis Prepared by : Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0003053