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, AB 1668 Page 2 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 AB 1668 Page 3 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 AB 1668 Page 4 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 AB 1668 Page 5 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