BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1668
Author: Carter (D)
Amended: 7/5/12 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 8-0, 6/27/12
AYES: Lowenthal, Alquist, Blakeslee, Huff, Liu, Price,
Simitian, Vargas
NO VOTE RECORDED: Runner, Hancock, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 5/21/12 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Dropout recovery high schools
SOURCE : School for Integrated Academics and
Technologies
DIGEST : This bill expands the definition of dropout
recovery high school (DRHS) to include schools in which at
least 50% of the pupils were not otherwise enrolled in
school for at least 180 days. This bill requires DRHSs to
submit to the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) a
certification that the school meets the definition of DRHS
and provide a summary of California Longitudinal Pupil
Achievement Data System (CALPADS) data to support the
certification.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
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1. Requires the SPI and the State Board of Education (SBE)
to allow up to 10 DRHS to report the results of an
individual pupil growth model that the SPI certifies as
meeting specific criteria, in lieu of other indicators
under the state's alternative accountability system.
(Education Code (ED) Section 52052.3)
2. Defines a "dropout recovery high school" for this
purpose, as a school offering instruction in any of
grades 9-12 in which at least 50% 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,
D. The California Conservation Corp or local
conservation corps certified by the California
Conservation Corps. (ED Section 52052.3)
3. Prohibits graduation rates for pupils in DRHSs from
being included in the Academic Performance Index (API)
and defines DRHS for this purpose, as a high school in
which at least 50% of its pupils have been designated as
dropouts pursuant to the exit/withdrawal codes developed
by the CDE. (ED Section 52052(a)(4)(D))
4. Requires the SPI, with the approval of the SBE to
develop an alternative accountability system for schools
under the jurisdiction of a county board of education or
a county superintendent of schools, community day
schools, non-public schools, and alternative schools
serving high-risk pupils, including continuation high
schools and opportunity schools. Schools in the
alternative accountability system may receive an API
score, but are not included in the API rankings. (ED
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Section 52052)
This bill expands the definition of "dropout recovery high
school," for the purpose of reporting the results of an
individual pupil growth model, to include schools in which
at least 50% of the pupils were not otherwise enrolled in
school for at least 180 days.
This bill requires DRHSs to submit to the SPI a
certification that the school meets the definition of DRHS
and provide a summary of CALPADS data to support the
certification.
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 the bill 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.
The bill defined 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 180 days and the school provides
instruction in partnership with the specified programs.
Exit/withdrawal codes . According to information on CDE's
Web site, for state-level reporting purposes, any pupil
that is reported by a school district as transferring to
another California public school district but cannot be
found subsequently enrolled on or before Information Day
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(the first Wednesday in October) is considered a "lost
transfer" and will eventually be counted as a dropout.
However, a pupil may be considered a "lost transfer" for
over a year before he/she is counted as a dropout.
Self-certification . The CDE had concerns about the process
needed to identify schools that enroll pupils who have not
been enrolled for at least 180 days because there is
currently no mechanism in CALPADS to easily generate this
data. To address this concern, the author proposes
amendments to require DRHSs to self-certify meeting the
definition of DRHS and provide a summary of CALPADS data to
support the self-certification.
Prior Legislation
AB 2013 (Arambula, 2010) would have required schools that
enroll 100% of their pupils in independent study programs
to be included in the state's alternative accountability
system and made changes to require mandatory participation
by all alternative schools. The bill was held on the
Assembly Appropriations Committee's suspense file.
AB 429 (Brownley, 2009) would have required examination of
methods for making and reporting valid comparisons of
individual academic performance over time and for making
potential improvements in the API, so as to be able to
measure and report both a student's and a school's academic
growth over time. The bill was vetoed by the Governor,
whose message read, "I appreciate the author's intent to
address the issue of measuring annual academic achievement
growth in schools. However, this bill circumvents the
authority of the State Board of Education (SBE), by not
providing the SBE with the authority to approve or modify
the recommendations of the Public Schools Accountability
Act advisory committee."
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 7/5/12)
School for Integrated Academics and Technologies (source)
AFSCME
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California Charter Schools Association Advocates
Office of County Superintendent of Schools
Riverside County Superintendent of Schools
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : 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 ÝSchool for Integrated Academics &
Technologies] students who have previously dropped out from
another high school for a period of 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." A prior
version of this bill included schools in which 50% or more
of its pupils were either designated as dropouts or were
not otherwise enrolled for a period of at least 90 days.
However, some school districts do not consider students
continuously enrolled during the summer months and
therefore the 90-day timeframe may have led to a potential
over-identification of schools as DRHSs. This bill was
amended in the Assembly Education Committee to extend this
timeframe to 180 days.
According to the author, "Current efforts to reform the
Alternative School Accountability Model (ASAM) are focused
on limiting the assessment tools available to STAR test and
the high school exit exam. These tools are not intended to
measure an individual student's learning gains over time.
To accurately reflect the value of dropout recovery
programs, an alternative is needed. In response to this
need, AB 180 (Carter, Ch. 669, 2011) provided that, as part
of the ASAM for schools, the Superintendent and the State
Board will allow a dropout recovery high school to use an
individual student growth model that meets certain
criteria. This bill amends the definition in AB 180 to
resolve ambiguities in some of the exit and withdrawal
codes. As a result of those ambiguities, many dropout
recovery students who have previously dropped out from
another high school for a period of over 90 days would not
qualify for inclusion in the growth model pilot program."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 5/21/12
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AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall,
Bill Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos,
Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson,
Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani, Beth
Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Gorell, Grove,
Hagman, Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hill, Huber,
Hueso, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lara, Logue,
Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mansoor, Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell,
Monning, Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Norby, Olsen, Pan,
V. Manuel Pérez, Portantino, Silva, Skinner, Smyth,
Solorio, Swanson, Torres, Valadao, Wagner, Wieckowski,
Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Fletcher, Roger Hernández, Perea
PQ:k 7/5/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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