BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ķ



                                                                  AB 1668
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 9, 2012

                           ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
                                Julia Brownley, Chair
                    AB 1668 (Carter) - As Amended:  April 16, 2012
           
          SUBJECT  :   School accountability: academic performance: dropout 
          recovery high schools

           SUMMARY  :   Revises the definition of "dropout recovery high 
          school" (DRHS) to include a school offering instruction in any 
          of grades 9 to 12, inclusive, in which 50% or more of its pupils 
          are either designated as dropouts, as specified, or were not 
          otherwise enrolled for a period of at least 90 days and the 
          school provides instruction in partnership with the specified 
          programs.  Specifically,  this bill  :  Amends the definition in 
          the section of the Education Code relative to the alternative 
          individual pupil growth model for dropout recovery high schools. 


           EXISTING LAW  :

          1)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) and 
            the State Board of Education (SBE) to allow DRHSs, numbering 
            no more than 10, to report the results of an individual pupil 
            growth model that the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
            (SPI) certifies as meeting specified criteria, in lieu of 
            other indicators under the state's alternative accountability 
            system.  

          2)Defines a "dropout recovery high school" for this purpose, as 
            a school offering instruction in any of grades 9-12 in which 
            50% or more of its pupils are designated as dropouts pursuant 
            to the exit and withdrawal codes developed by the California 
            Department of Education (CDE) and the school provides 
            instruction in partnership with any of the following: 

             a)   The federal Workforce Investment Act;

             b)   Federally affiliated Youthbuild programs;

             c)   Federal job corps training or instruction provided 
               pursuant to a memorandum of understanding with the federal 
               provider; or, 









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             d)   The California Conservation Corp (CCC) or local 
               conservation corps certified by the CCC.  (EC 52052.3)

          3)Prohibits graduation rates for pupils in dropout recovery high 
            schools from being included in the Academic Performance Index 
            (API) and defines DRHS for this purpose, as a high school in 
            which 50% or more of its pupils have been designated as 
            dropouts pursuant to the exit/withdrawal codes developed by 
            the CDE. (EC 52052)

          4)Requires the SPI to provide an annual report to the 
            Legislature on the graduation and dropout rates in California 
            and to make the same report available to the public.  (EC 
            48070.6)

           FISCAL EFFECT  :   This bill is keyed non-fiscal. 

           COMMENTS  :  Last year the Legislature approved and the Governor 
          signed AB 180 (Carter), Chapter 669, Statutes of 2011 to allow 
          up to 10 DRHSs to propose and use, subject to the approval of 
          the SPI and SBE, an alternative individual pupil growth model.  
          Passage of AB 180 acknowledged that DRHSs should be able to 
          measure and report the growth of individual pupils from their 
          own individual pupil-based accountability model in lieu of other 
          required indicators so as to more appropriately reflect the 
          progress that a DRHS is making.  AB 180 defines a "dropout 
          recovery high school" for this purpose, as a school offering 
          instruction in any of grades 9-12 in which 50% or more of its 
          pupils are designated as dropouts pursuant to the exit and 
          withdrawal codes developed by the CDE and the school provides 
          instruction in partnership with any of the specified federal and 
          state programs.

          This bill revises the definition of DRHS to include a school 
          offering instruction in any of grades 9 to 12, inclusive, in 
          which 50% or more of its pupils are either designated as 
          dropouts or were not otherwise enrolled for a period of at least 
          90 days and the school provides instruction in partnership with 
          the specified programs.

           Need for the bill  :  According to information provided by the 
          author, "The proposed amendment to the AB 180 definition is a 
          result of ambiguities in some of the exit and withdrawal codes.  
          As a result of these ambiguities, many SIATech students who have 
          previously dropped out from another high school for a period of 








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          over 90 days would not qualify for inclusion. These data 
          ambiguities have recently come to light and the definition would 
          have included them last year had they been known." 

          Data made available by the CDE shows that only 6 schools 
          currently meet the definition of DRHS.  The School for 
          Integrated Academics & Technologies (SIATech), the sponsor of 
          this bill and AB 180, does not meet the existing definition of a 
          dropout recovery high school.  According to the exit/withdrawal 
          codes used in the Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System 
          (CALPADS) SIATech does not enroll at least 50% dropouts.  
          SIATech, however, is a widely known dropout recovery high 
          school.  

          This bill seeks to capture, within the DRHS definition, schools 
          that enroll dropouts and/or pupils that have reenrolled in 
          school after having been out of school for 90 days or more and 
          that may not have been captured by the exit/withdrawal codes as 
          dropouts, but have rather been considered transfers for an 
          extended period of time.  

          According to information on the CDE's Internet Web site, for 
          state-level reporting purposes, any pupil that is reported by a 
          local educational agency (LEA) as transferring to another 
          California public school district and cannot be found 
          subsequently enrolled in a California public school district on 
          or before Information Day (the first Wednesday in October) is 
          considered a lost transfer and will be counted as a dropout.  
          According to information provided by the sponsor, the rationale 
          for the 90-day timeframe in this bill is that this time frame 
          "serves as a proxy for the period of time that CALPADS uses for 
          'lost transfers.'  The period in which the state treats 
          transfers as drops begins on the reporting cycle date (August 16 
          or thereabouts) until Fall Census Day (first Wednesday of 
          October)."  However, CDE asserts that this timeframe is actually 
          over a year in duration since these two reporting days refer to 
          two different years.  Essentially, in some situations a pupil 
          can be considered a "lost transfer" for over a year before he or 
          she is counted as a dropout.  While larger policy questions may 
          emerge regarding the period of time a pupil can be considered a 
          lost transfer, the focus of this bill is limited to the 
          definition of DRHS for purposes of implementing AB 180 (Carter), 
          Chapter 669, Statutes of 2011.     

           Are pupils considered enrolled during summer recess  ?  Some 








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          school districts in the state report pupils as being 
          continuously enrolled even during the summer recess.  Other 
          school districts technically exit pupils at the end of a school 
          year and then enroll them at the beginning of the following 
          school year.  Hence, according to CDE some school districts will 
          report exit data at the end of the year and then enrollment data 
          at the beginning of the year.  In these school districts, pupils 
          are not considered enrolled in school during the summer break.  
          This then raises the question as to whether the 90-day timeframe 
          in this bill is reasonable and appropriate to essentially deem a 
          pupil a dropout for purposes of identifying dropout recovery 
          high schools.  This timeframe may potentially have the result of 
          over-identifying schools that do not use a continuous enrollment 
          model in reporting pupil data.   Staff recommends  the bill be 
          amended to provide for a longer timeframe in consideration of 
          the time that a pupil may be out of school for summer break.     
                 

           CDE workload  :  The CDE contends that in order to identify 
          schools that enroll pupils that have not been enrolled for a 
          specified timeframe will require CDE staff to review each of the 
          over six million statewide student identifiers (SSID) to 
          determine whether a pupil was out of school for  at least 90 
          days.  There is currently no mechanism in CALPADS to be able to 
          easily generate this data.  Given that existing law only allows 
          up to 10 schools be identified for purposes of the alternative 
          growth model, a question could be raised as to whether a more 
          efficient approach should be explored since only 10 schools or 
          less will ultimately be identified.  CDE suggests that schools 
          could be required to provide and self-certify this data and the 
          CDE be required to verify it.  As this bill moves forward, the 
          author may wish to consider working with CDE on an amendment 
          that allows for the identification of these schools in a manner 
          that is more efficient than reviewing each pupil's record 
          individually.        

           Different definitions of DRHS in the Code  :  Current law defines 
          DRHS in two different ways and for different purposes.  One 
          definition of DRHS appears in a section of the Education Code 
          prohibiting graduation rates for DRHS from being included in the 
          API and that section defines DRHS as a high school in which 50% 
          or more of its pupils have been designated as dropouts pursuant 
          to the exit/withdrawal codes developed by the CDE.  A second 
          definition appears in the section of the Education Code amended 
          by this bill for purposes of the alternative individual pupil 








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          growth model.   That definition currently includes a high school 
          for which 50% or more of its pupils are designated as dropouts 
          pursuant to the exit and withdrawal codes developed by the CDE 
          and the school provides instruction in partnership with any of 
          the specified federal and state job programs.  While the intent 
          of this bill is only to revise the definition for purposes of 
          the Section of the Code relative to the alternative growth 
          model, a future issue for consideration may be whether the 
          definitions of DRHS should be consistent throughout the 
          Education Code.    

           Previous Legislation  :  AB 180 (Carter), Chapter 669, Statutes of 
          2011 requires the SPI and the SBE to allow dropout recovery high 
          schools, numbering no more than 10, to report the results of an 
          individual pupil growth model, that the SPI certifies as meeting 
          specified criteria, in lieu of other indicators under the 
          state's alternative accountability system.

          AB 2307 (Carter) of 2010 requires the SPI and SBE to allow a 
          dropout recovery high school to use an individual pupil growth 
          model that is proposed by the school and certified by the SPI.  
          AB 2307 was held on the Senate Appropriations Committee's 
          suspense file.


           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :   

           Support 
           
          Schools for Integrated Academics & Technologies
          American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, 
          AFL-CIO (Prior version)
          California Charter School Association Advocates (Prior version)
          Riverside County Superintendent of Schools (Prior version) 

           Opposition 
           
          None on file. 
           
          Analysis Prepared by  :    Marisol Aviņa / ED. / (916) 319-2087