BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1456
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 19, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Marty Block, Chair
SB 1456 (Lowenthal) - As Amended: June 11, 2012
SENATE VOTE : 35-1
SUBJECT : Community colleges: Seymour-Campbell Student Success
Act of 2012.
SUMMARY : Establishes new requirements to be met by low-income
students in order to receive a Board of Governor's (BOG) fee
waiver at the California Community Colleges (CCC), revises and
recasts the Seymour-Campbell Matriculation Act of 1986 as the
Seymour-Campbell Success Act of 2012, and establishes new
requirements to be met in order for CCC districts to receive
matriculation funds. Specifically, this bill :
1)Finds that the Student Success Task Force (SSTF), established
pursuant to SB 1143 (Liu), Chapter 401, Statutes of 2010,
issued 22 recommendations to improve CCC student outcomes-two
of which are contained in this bill-and full
scale-implementation of the SSTF recommendations will require
greater state investment in student support services, more
faculty, and increased support for part-time faculty.
2)Establishes new requirements to be met by students in order to
be eligible for a waiver of the community college per unit fee
BOG fee waiver, as follows:
a) Requires CCC students to meet academic and progress
standards as defined by the BOG and to demonstrate
financial need, as specified in order to be eligible for a
BOG fee waiver.
b) Requires the BOG, in consultation with students,
faculty, and other key stakeholders to develop policies for
determination of the conditions outlined in (1) above and
specifically directs that the BOG consider the following:
i) Minimum uniform academic performance and progress.
ii) Criteria for reviewing extenuating circumstances and
granting appeals.
SB 1456
Page 2
iii) A process for reestablishing fee waiver eligibility.
c) Requires the BOG to establish a reasonable phased-in
implementation period for the policies outlined above to
ensure that students are not unfairly impacted by the new
requirements and to provide students with adequate
notification of requirements and information about support
services.
d) States legislative intent that academic and progress
standards defined above be implemented only as campuses
develop and implement the student support services and
interventions necessary to ensure no disproportionate
impact to students based on ethnicity, gender, or
socioeconomic status.
3)Renames and revises the Seymour-Campbell Matriculation Act of
1986 as the Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act of 2012 and
changes the requirements to be met in order to receive
matriculation funds as follows:
a) Revises the declaration of the Legislature's intent to
provide students with resources and support to establish
informed educational goals, optimize student's success in
completing their goals/studies, recognize the shared
responsibility of the institution and student for success,
and target state resources to provide critical student
services and identify delivery mechanisms to reach a
greater number of students.
b) Redefines matriculation services and the purposes of the
Act to be:
i) Increased student access and success by providing
orientation, assessment and placement, counseling and
education planning and academic intervention services.
ii) Focus on entering students' transition into college
with a priority toward serving students who enroll to
earn degrees, career technical certificates, or transfer
preparation or career advancement.
iii) Target state resources on core matriculation
services critical to increasing student ability to reach
SB 1456
Page 3
their academic and career goals.
iv) Focus funding on core areas and leverage technology
to more efficiently and effectively serve and provide a
greater number of students with a solid foundation and
opportunity for success in the community colleges.
c) Establishes the institution's responsibility to include
the provision of student services to support their academic
success and ability to achieve their educational goals and
to include, but not be limited to:
i) Orientation services, as specified.
ii) Administration of assessments, as specified.
iii) Counseling and education planning services, as
specified.
d) Expands the responsibilities to be met by students to
include, but not be limited to:
i) Declaration of a course of study after a specified
time period or unit accumulation, as defined by the BOG.
ii) Maintenance of academic progress toward an
educational goal and course of study as identified in the
student's education plan.
e) Requires that funding for the Student Success and
Support program to be targeted to fully implement
orientation, assessment, counseling and advising, and other
education planning services, and to assist students in
making informed decisions about educational goals, courses
of study and the development of an education plan.
f) Requires that districts and colleges use a system of
common assessment, as defined, once adopted by the BOG, and
authorizes districts and colleges to use supplemental
measures for course placement.
g) Using accountability metrics, as specified, requires
participating districts to evaluate the effectiveness of
their programs and services in helping students:
SB 1456
Page 4
i) Define goals and declare courses of study.
ii) Assess student needs and valid course placement.
iii) Support successful completion of degree certificate
or transfer objectives.
h) Requires the BOG, in consultation with students,
faculty, student services administrators, and other key
stakeholders, to establish policies and processes (to be
phased in over a reasonable period of time as determined by
the BOG and in consideration of the resources available to
provide core services to ensure students are not unfairly
impacted by these requirements) for:
i) Requiring all nonexempt students to complete
orientation and assessment and to develop education
plans.
ii) Exempting students from participation in
orientation, assessment, or required education planning
services.
iii) Requiring districts to adopt a student appeal
process.
i) Requires the BOG to develop a formula for allocating
Student Success Act funds that considers, among other
things, the number of students who receive orientation
assessment, counseling and advising, and other education
planning services.
j) Requires that a district that receives matriculation
funds agree to implement these provisions, common
assessment and the accountability scorecard.
aa) Authorizes the BOG to identify other non-instructional
support services that can be funded under matriculation, if
a district is able to fully implement in person or
technology strategies for orientation, assessment, and
education planning services.
bb) Requires the BOG to require participating colleges to
develop a Student Success and Support Program plan that
reflects, among other things:
SB 1456
Page 5
i) A description of the college's process to identify
students at risk for academic or progress probation and
the plan for student interventions or services.
ii) Coordination with college student equity plan to
ensure identification of strategies to monitor and
address equity issues and mitigate any disproportional
impacts on student access and achievement.
iii) The extent to which the CCC is able to develop
partnerships with feeder high school districts, workforce
agencies, and other community partners to assist entering
students in career and educational exploration and
planning and leverage resources to support a successful
transition to college and career.
cc) Makes the matriculation provisions of the bill
operative, beginning in 2012-13, contingent upon the
specific appropriation of funds for these purposes.
dd) Repeals the requirements that the CCC maintain career
resource and placement centers, programs to instruct
staff/faculty on performance of matriculation services,
orientation programs, as specified, and publicity programs.
ee) Requires the LAO to review and report to the Legislature
by July 1, 2014, as specified.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the BOG to charge each student a $46 per unit per
semester fee effective with the summer term of 2012, except
for students enrolled in noncredit courses, California State
University, and University of California students enrolled in
remedial courses offered by the CCC, and students enrolled in
credit contract education courses where the full cost of the
course is paid by the contracting entity. Current law also
authorizes an exemption from these fees for special part-time
students.
2)Existing law (Education Code § 76300) also requires a waiver
of these fees for students meeting specified criteria,
including:
SB 1456
Page 6
a) Students who meet specified income requirements;
b) Students who are the dependent or surviving spouse of a
National Guard member who die or was disabled as a result
of their service;
c) The surviving spouse or child of a deceased law
enforcement or fire suppression personnel, as specified;
or,
d) The dependent of an individual killed on September 11,
2001, as specified.
3)Existing law requires that the colleges make available a
variety of "matriculation services" to students in order to
ensure that students receive educational services necessary to
optimize their opportunities for success. Matriculation
requirements are only operative if funds are specifically
appropriated for these purposes. (EC § 78210-78219)
FISCAL EFFECT : The Senate Appropriations Committee determined
the following costs:
1)BOG fee waiver mandate: Potentially significant costs to
expand CCC administrative duties under the BOG fee waiver
program. The BOG fee waiver program is an existing
reimbursable state mandate on CCCs, and this bill would expand
the administrative activities related to that $21 million
mandate.
2)Matriculation/Student Success changes: Unlikely to result in
direct state costs. The imposition of additional requirements
for students to receive BOG waivers may result in General Fund
savings if the total number of BOG fee waivers issued is
reduced.
COMMENTS : Background . CCC is the educational gateway for 2.6
million students, representing nearly 25% of the nation's
community college student population. However, students are
rapidly losing access as course offerings have been reduced due
to budget cuts, and numerous studies have noted that a
SB 1456
Page 7
significant percentage of students who are able to enroll in
courses do not complete in a timely fashion.
According to the report, "Divided We Fail: Improving Completion
& Closing Racial Gaps in California's Community Colleges" by the
Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy, 70% of
Latino first-time freshmen that enroll in a California public
college or university begin at a CCC. Only two in ten of these
students complete a certificate, associate's degree, or transfer
after six years, compared to 37% of white students. Two thirds
of African-American students who go to a public college in
California choose to start at a CCC. Once there, only 25% earns
a certificate, associate degree, or transfers after six years.
CCC Student Success Task Force (SSFT) . These poor student
success rates led to the enactment of SB 1143 of 2010, requiring
the BOG to convene a task force of stakeholders to make
recommendations to the Legislature to improve CCC student
success. The SSTF was comprised of 20 individuals (CCC chief
executive officers, faculty, students, researchers, staff and
external stake holders) who spent a year researching, studying
and debating the best methods to improve student outcomes at the
CCC.
According to the SSTF report, which was unanimously adopted by
the BOG in January 2012, it was their goal to identify best
practices for promoting student success and to develop statewide
strategies to take these approaches to scale while ensuring that
educational opportunity for historically underrepresented
students would not just be maintained but bolstered. The report
noted that while a number of disturbing statistics around
student completion reflect the challenges faced by the students
they serve, they also clearly demonstrate the need for the
system to recommit to finding new and better ways to serve its
students.
The SSTF efforts resulted in 22 specific recommendations and the
report, per the requirements of the legislation, was presented
to the Legislature at a joint informational hearing of the
Assembly Higher Education Committee and the Senate Education
Committee in February 2012. Implementation of these
recommendations will be accomplished through regulatory changes,
system-wide administrative policies, local best practices and
legislation.
SB 1456
Page 8
Similar study/findings . In February 2012, the Little Hoover
Commission issued a report, "Serving Students, Serving
California: Updating the California Community Colleges to Meet
Evolving Demands," which noted that its findings and conclusions
were consistent with many of the findings of the SSTF. Similar
to this bill, the report called for, among other things, the
implementation of a student success scorecard, establishing
additional criteria for BOG fee waivers, and strengthening of
support for entering students.
Need for this bill . This bill contains statutory changes
necessary for implementation of some of the recommendations of
the SSTF, specifically, repurposing existing Matriculation
Program funding for core matriculations services such as
orientation, assessment and placement, and counseling and
education planning.
Substantive author's amendments . Numerous concerns were raised
by faculty and others that the provisions of this bill would
limit access for low-income students, should require a broad
consultative process, that uniform policies be implemented
across districts and only as support services are provided, and
that the effect on students be monitored. To address these
issues, the bill has been amended to do the following:
1)Remove language eliminating eligibility for the BOG fee waiver
when a student reached a maximum unit cap.
2)Clarify that all policies related to the BOG fee waiver
eligibility shall be developed and adopted in consultation
with students, faculty, and other key stakeholders.
3)Ensure that these policies will include consideration of
uniform academic performance and progress standards, criteria
for review of extenuating circumstances and granting of
appeals, and a process for reestablishing fee waiver
eligibility.
4)Require the BOG to establish a reasonable and phased-in
implementation period, to provide students adequate
notification of the academic progress requirements and
information about available support services.
5)Direct the BOG to phase in these policies as resources are
available to provide students with the core services outlined
SB 1456
Page 9
in matriculation (orientation, assessment and placement,
counseling and education planning, and academic
interventions).
6)Require campuses, as a condition of receiving matriculation
funds, to include in their plan a description of their
practices for identifying students at risk for academic or
progress probation, and the college's plan for intervention
services to these students
7)Require coordination with college student equity plans to
identify strategies for monitoring and addressing equity
issues and mitigating any disproportionate impacts on student
access and achievement.
Implementation of student provisions conditioned on support
services . This bill requires students to meet academic and
progress standards to be eligible for the BOG fee waiver and to
complete orientation and assessment and to develop education
plans. According to information provided by the Chancellor's
office, several other financial aid programs establish academic
and progress standards to be met in order to continue to receive
grants/services including Extended Opportunity Programs and
Services, Cal Grants, and Pell Grants. To ensure students
receive the guidance and support they need to meet these
academic standards and to meet the orientation, assessment, and
education plan requirements, this bill requires these provisions
be implemented only as campuses develop and implement the
student support services and interventions necessary for
students to successfully meet these requirements and to ensure
no disproportionate impact to students based on ethnicity,
gender, or socio-economic status.
Author's amendments . The author has agreed to accept the
following amendments to address some of the concerns raised by
faculty, disabled students, and career technical education
advocates:
1)Page 3, line 35: success . In enacting this measure, the
Legislature acknowledges the commitment of the Board of
Governors of the California Community Colleges to, through its
regular budget process, evaluate resource needs and seek
funding for essential educational priorities that contribute
to student success, which include but are not limited to by
investing in counselors, advisors, and technology tools needed
SB 1456
Page 10
to assist students; increasing categorical funding for student
support services; hiring more full-time faculty; and
increasing support for part-time faculty.
2)Page 5, line 36: (3) It is the intent of the Legislature
that academic and progress standards defined pursuant to
paragraph (1) be implemented only as campuses develop and
implement the student support services and interventions
necessary to ensure no disproportionate impact to students
based on ethnicity, gender, disability, or socioeconomic
status.
3)Page 16, line 12: (3) The impacts of the Seymour-Campbell
Student Success Act of 2012 on student participation,
progress, and completion, disaggregated by ethnicity, age,
gender, disability, and socioeconomic status.
4)Page 10, line 24: (iv) Development of an education plan
leading to a course of study and guidance on course selection
that is informed by and related to a student's academic and
career goals .
5)Page 11, line 6: but are not limited to, the identification
of an educational the academic and career goal
6)Page 13, line 12: (1) Helping students to define their
educational academic and career goals and declare a course of
study.
Related legislation . AB 1741 (Fong), pending in the Senate,
would require the BOG to develop a plan to support the goals of
SB 1456 and the following priorities: increasing the ratio of
counselors to students; increasing funding for categorical
programs that provide student support services; increasing the
percentage of hours of credit instruction that are taught by
full-time instructors consistent with existing law that sets a
goal of 75:25 full-time to part-time faculty; and expanding
part-time faculty office hours consistent with student needs.
SB 1062 (Liu), to be heard by this Committee on June 19, 2012,
would implement a SSFT recommendation to strengthen the
Chancellor's office to provide greater oversight and
accountability of efforts to increase student success.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
SB 1456
Page 11
Support
Academic Senate for California Community Colleges
Accrediting Commission for Community Colleges, Western
Association of Schools and Colleges
Advancement Project
Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities
AVID
Alliance for a Better Community
Association of California Community College Administrators
Bay Area Council
Barrio Logan College Institute
Beverly Hills Picture Framing, Inc.
Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges
California Association of Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning
Contractors' National Association
California Catholic Conference
California Communities United Institute
California Competes: Higher Education for a Strong Economy
California Manufacturers and Technology Association
California State Student Association
California State University
Californians for Justice Education Fund
Campaign for College Opportunity
College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita
College OPTIONS
Community College League of California
EARN
Education Trust-West
Families in Schools
Fresno State Associated Students, Inc.
Girls Incorporated of Orange County
Greater Long Beach Interfaith Community Organization
Greater Sacramento Urban League
Greenlining Institute
Hispanas Organized for Political Equality
Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley
Hispanic Scholarship Fund
Inland Empire Economic Partnership
InnerCity Struggle
Daniel Katz, Director of Development at One Voice
Kern Community College District
Little Hoover Commission
Long Beach Community College District
Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
SB 1456
Page 12
Los Angeles Community College District
Los Rios Community College Districts
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Melinda Nish, Ed.D., Superintendent/President of Southwestern
Community College District
North Bay Leadership Council
Orange County Business Council
Alex Pader, Past President, Student Senate for California
Community Colleges
Parent Institute for Quality Education
Progressive Christians Uniting
Project GRAD Log Angeles
Public Advocates Inc.
Regional Economic Association Leaders Coalition
San Bernardino Community College District
San Diego Community College District
San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce
San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation
San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership
San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce
Shasta-Tehama-Trinity Joint Community College District
Silicon Valley Leadership Group
Southern California College Access Network
Stanislaus County Office of Education
State Building and Construction Trades Council
State Center Community College District
Valley Industry and Commerce Association
Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles
Women's Foundation of California
Youth Policy Institute
2 Individuals
Opposition
California Teachers Association's Community College Association
Analysis Prepared by : Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960