BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 484 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 484 (Bonilla) As Amended September 6, 2013 Majority vote ----------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |55-16|(May 29, 2013) |SENATE: |26-7 |(September 10, | | | | | | |2013) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Original Committee Reference: ED. SUMMARY : Establishes the Measurement of Academic Performance and Progress (MAPP), commencing with the 2013-14 school year, as the statewide assessment program for specified pupils and provides direction to the State Board of Education (SBE), the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), and the California Department of Education (CDE) on the transition of California's current assessment system to the MAPP, the administration of the MAPP, and the expansion of the MAPP to include additional assessments beyond those specified in this bill. Specifically, this bill : 1)Permits the SPI to make a determination that an Academic Performance Index (API) will not be calculated for local education agencies (LEAs) if the transition to the new standards and assessments compromises the comparability of results across, but limits the SPI's authority to make this determination only for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years and only with the approval of the SBE. 2)Specifies that for LEAs without an API due to the SPI's determination specified above, similarly shall not receive a growth target and shall instead use one of the following to satisfy any statutory requirements requiring an API calculation: a) The LEA's most recent annual API calculation; b) An average of the LEA's three most recent annual API calculations; c) Alternative measures that show increases in pupil academic achievement for all groups of pupils school-wide AB 484 Page 2 and among significant subgroups. 3)Reauthorizes the Leroy Greene California Assessment of Academic Achievement Act, which is California's system of individual pupil assessment, until the year 2021. 4)Identifies the intent of the Legislature to provide an assessment system of assessments of pupils that has the primary purposes of assisting teachers, administrators, and pupils and their parents; improving teaching and learning; and promoting high-quality teaching and learning using a variety of assessment approaches and item types. 5)Declares the intent of the Legislature that in order to achieve the stated legislative goals for its system of assessments, the state should adopt a coordinated testing program that does all of the following: a) Develop and adopt a set of statewide academically rigorous content standards in all major subject areas and produce performance standards for each subject area; b) Provide information and resources to schools and LEAs to assist with the selection of local benchmark assessments, diagnostic assessments, and formative tools aligned with the state-adopted California academic content standards; c) Ensure that all assessment procedures, items, instruments, scoring systems, and results meet high standards of statistical reliability and validity, and that they do not use procedures, items, instruments, or scoring practices that are racially, culturally, socioeconomically, or gender biased; d) Provide information to pupils, parents and guardians, teachers, schools, and local educational agencies on a timely basis so the information can be used to further the development of the pupil or to improve the educational program; e) Report results of any census administration in terms describing a pupil's academic performance in relation to the statewide academically rigorous content and performance standards and in terms of college and career readiness skills possessed by the pupil, in addition to being reported as a numerical; AB 484 Page 3 f) Where feasible, administer assessments via technology; and g) Minimize the amount of instructional time devoted to assessments administered pursuant to this chapter. 6)Makes inoperative those provisions of law governing the development of the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program as of July 1, 2014. 7)Defines key terms for the development, implementation, and administration of the MAPP. 8)Requires the SPI to provide annual updates to the Legislature, Department of Finance, and the SBE, that include a five-year cost projection, implementation plan, and time table for implementing the assessment system set forth in this measure. 9)Repeals Education Code Sections 60605.5 and 60606 which required the SBE, on or before November 15, 2001, to adopt performance standards systems and established a Statewide Pupil Assessment Review (SPAR) Panel. 10)Establishes the MAPP as the pupil assessment system to replace the STAR program. 11)Requires individual pupil level data be reported from the MAPP that documents a pupil's individual level of accomplishment. 12)Permits the use of the grade 11 MAPP assessment in English language arts and mathematics to be used for the Early Assessment Program (EAP). 13)Requires the SPI to develop and post a periodic update on the implementation of the MAPP. 14)Specifies the assessments that shall be included in the MAPP, commencing with the 2013-14 school year. 15)Makes clear that in the 2013-14 school year, the consortium summative assessment in English language arts and mathematics shall be a field test only, and the results of this field test shall not be used for any other purpose, including the calculation of any accountability measure. AB 484 Page 4 16)Requires the SPI to make a recommendation to the SBE, as soon as is feasible, regarding the assessment aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards, adopted by the SBE on September 4, 2013. The measure also requires the SPI, before making these recommendations, to consult with stakeholders, as specified and requires the recommendation to include cost estimates and a plan for implementation of at least one assessment in specified grade spans. 17)Requires the CDE to make available to LEAs a primary language assessment aligned to the English language arts standards for assessing pupils who are enrolled in a dual language immersion program. 18)Requires the SPI to consult with stakeholders, including assessment and English learner experts, to determine the content and purpose of a stand-alone language arts summative assessment in primary languages other than English that aligns with the English-language arts content standards and then report and make recommendations to the SBE regarding an implementation timeline and estimated costs of this assessment. 19)Requires the SBE to adopt and the SPI to administer a primary language assessment no later than the 2016-17 school year. 20)Requires the SPI, no later than March 1, 2016, to submit to the SBE recommendations on expanding the MAPP to include additional assessments, including, but not necessarily limited to, history-social science, technology, visual and performing arts, and other subjects as appropriate, and include a recommendation for the use of matrix sampling, if appropriate, and the use of population sampling in the administration of these assessments. Upon approval by the SBE and the appropriation of funding for this purpose, the SPI is required to develop and administer the approved assessments. 21)Requires the CDE to make available to LEAs STAR Program test forms no longer required by the MAPP, though if administered, the costs of shipping, printing, scoring, and reporting per pupil shall be borne by the LEA. 22)Requires the SPI to make available a paper and pencil version of any computer-based MAPP assessment for use by pupils who AB 484 Page 5 are unable to access the computer-based version of the assessment for a maximum of three years after a new operational test is first administered. 23)Requires all LEAs, in the 2013-14 school year, to administer the field tests in a manner described by the CDE. 24)Allows the CDE to approve additional LEAs to participate in the field test beyond the representative sample already chosen for participation. 25)Requires the CDE to use existing contract savings to fund LEA participation in one or more tests per participant for the purpose of allowing maximum participation in the field test across the state. 26)Specifies that if savings in the current contract are not available to fully fund LEA participation in the field test, the CDE is required to prorate available funds by test and specifies that LEAs shall bear any additional costs to administer these assessments that are in excess of the contracted amount. 27)Prohibits the generation of pupil-level data from the 2013-14 administration of the MAPP field tests unless it is determined that these scores are valid and reliable. 28)Requires the SPI to apportion funds to LEAs to enable them to administer assessments used to satisfy the voluntary EAP in the 2013-14 school year. 29)Requires that when the SBE annually establishes the amount of funding to be apportioned to LEAs for each test administered, that it take into account changes to LEA test administration activities under the MAPP, including, but not limited to, the number, type of tests administered, and changes in computerized test registration and administration procedures. 30)Prohibits state agencies or LEAs from using a comparison resulting from the scores and results of the MAPP assessments and the assessment scores and results from assessments that measured previously adopted content standards. 31)Requires the SBE to adopt regulations that outline a calendar for delivery and receipt of summative assessment results at AB 484 Page 6 the pupil, school, grade, district, county, and state levels. Requires these regulations to provide for the timely return of assessment results, consider the amount of paper-and-pencil administered assessments, and the number of items requiring hand scoring. Finally, the amendments require the regulations to ensure that individual assessment results are reported to LEAs within eight weeks of receipt by the contractor for scoring. 32)Requires the CDE to acquire, and offer at no cost to LEAs, interim and formative assessment tools for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, as provided through the consortium membership. 33)Permits, in approving a contract amendment to an assessment contract authorized pursuant to this section, the CDE, in consultation with the SBE, to make material amendments to the contract that do not increase the contract cost. 34)Removes many of the statutory requirements for assessment contracts and instead defers to the SPI and SBE to set the terms of the assessment contracts. 35)Requires the CDE to use a competitive and open process utilizing standardized scoring criteria through which to select a potential administration contractor or contractors for the purposes of this measure. When approving any such contract, the CDE is required to consider specified criteria. 36)Removes the requirement of test publishers to make available a reading list on the Internet by June 1 of the applicable school year. 37)Removes the requirement that a panel reviews the assessment to ensure that no assessment item solicits or invites disclosure of a pupil's beliefs, practices, morality, religion, or evaluates the pupil's personal behavioral characteristics. 38)Specifies that the first full administration of assessments aligned to the common core standards in English language arts and mathematics shall occur in the 2014-15 school year unless the SBE determines that the assessments cannot be fully implemented. AB 484 Page 7 39)Requires the CDE to determine and report on how school districts are progressing toward implementation of a technology-enabled assessment system by October 1, 2014. 40)Requires the SBE, based on the report submitted by the CDE on the districts' progress toward implementation of a technology-enabled assessment, to determine whether the state shall fully implement the operational consortium computer-adaptive summative assessments in English language arts and mathematics in grades 3 to 8, inclusive, and grade 11 for the 2014-15 school year. 41)Makes the MAPP assessments inoperative on July 1, 2021, and then repeals the MAPP on January 1, 2022, unless legislative action is taken to extend the operative date. 42)Specifies, that for the purpose of the EAP and beginning in the 2014-15 school year, it is the grade 11 consortium computer-adaptive assessments in English language arts and mathematics that may be used to replace the California Standards Test and the augmented California Standards Tests. 43)Double joints this bill to SB 490 (Jackson) of the current legislative session and specifies that if both bills are enacted and this bill is enacted after SB 490, Section 28 of this bill shall not become operative. 44)Makes technical, non-substantive changes to these sections. The Senate amendments : 1)Amend Education Code Section 52052 to permit the SPI to make a determination that an API score would be an invalid measure of the performance of the school or school district based on a finding that a transition to new standards-based assessments compromises comparability of results across schools or school districts. This amendment limits the SPI's authority in this subparagraph to the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years only, with approval of the SBE. 2)Establish a repeal date of January 1, 2015, for the section of this bill that calls for the adoption of the STAR program. 3)Rename the California Measurement of Academic Performance and AB 484 Page 8 Progress for the 21st Century (CalMAPP21) to the Measurement of Academic Performance and Progress (MAPP). 4)Add definitions for the following terms: computer-adaptive assessment, computer-based assessment, field test, LEA, MAPP, matrix sampling, performance tasks, personally identifiable information, populations sampling, recently arrived English learner, state-determined assessment calendar, and summative assessment. 5)Replace the term "core curriculum areas" with the content areas of reading, writing, mathematics, history-social science, foreign languages, visual and performing arts, and science. 6)Delete the definitions of "Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) non-required subject area" and "ESEA required subject area." 7)Require the SPI to design and implement a statewide pupil assessment system that specifically contemplates summative assessments or assessments that employ matrix sampling or population sampling methods. 8)Require the SPI, when making information about and/or the results of statewide summative assessments, to consider the information already provided by assessment consortia of which California is a member or the assessment contractor. 9)Specify that, commencing with the 2013-14 school year, the MAPP shall be composed of all of the following: a) A consortium summative assessment in English language arts and mathematics for grades 3 to 8, inclusive, and grade 11 but further specifies that for the 2013-14 school year, the consortium summative assessment in English language arts and mathematics shall be a field test only; b) Science grade level assessments in grades 5, 8, and 10; c) The California Alternative Performance Assessment (CAPA) in grades 2 to 11, inclusive, in English language arts and mathematics and science in grades 5, 8, and 10; and d) The EAP. AB 484 Page 9 10)Permit the use of any data from the 2013-14 field tests of the consortium assessment in ELA and mathematics to be used only for the purpose of gauging the validity and reliability of these assessment, conducting necessary psychometric procedures and studies, and allowing the CDE to conduct studies regarding full implementation of the assessment system and specifies that the data shall not be used for any other purpose, including the calculation of any accountability measure. 11)Require the SPI to make a recommendation to the SBE, as soon as is feasible, regarding the assessment of Next Generation Science Standards, adopted by the SBE on September 4, 2013. The measure also requires the SPI, before making these recommendations, to consult with stakeholders, as specified, and requires the recommendation to include cost estimates and a plan for implementation of at least one assessment in each specified grade spans. 12)Make mandatory the previously permissive language that allowed the CDE to make available to LEAs a primary language assessment for assessing pupils who are enrolled in a dual language immersion program to require the CDE to provide this assessment. 13)Remove the date by which the SPI shall report and make recommendations to the SBE regarding an implementation timeline and estimated costs of a stand-alone language arts summative assessment in primary languages other than English and instead requires the SPI to have developed and the SBE to have adopted this assessment so that it may be administered by the SPI no later than the 2016-17 school year. 14)Change the date by which the SPI is required to submit to the SBE recommendations on expanding the MAPP to include additional assessment (e.g., history-social science, technology, visual and performing arts, and other subjects as appropriate. As passed by the Assembly, the SPI was required to present the recommendation on or before January 15, 2015. The Senate amendments require the recommendation be presented to the SBE, Legislature, and Department of Finance no later than March 1, 2016. 15)Make mandatory the previously permissive language that AB 484 Page 10 permitted the CDE to make available to LEAs STAR Program test forms no longer required by the MAPP, though if administered, the costs of shipping, printing, scoring, and reporting per pupil shall be borne by the LEA. 16)Require the SPI to make available a paper and pencil version of any computer-based MAPP assessment for use by pupils who are unable to access the computer-based version of the assessment for a maximum of three years after a new operational test is first administered. 17)Require all LEAs, in the 2013-14 school year, to administer the field tests in a manner described by the CDE in consultation with the president or executive director of the SBE. 18)Allow the CDE to approve additional LEAs to participate in the field test beyond the representative sample already chosen for participation. 19)Require the CDE to use existing contract savings to fund LEA participation in one or more tests per participant for the purpose of allowing maximum participation in the field test across the state. 20)Specify that if savings in the current contract are not available to fully fund LEA participation in the field test, the CDE is required to prorate available funds by test and specifies that LEAs shall bear any additional costs to administer these assessments that are in excess of the contracted amount. 21)Prohibit the generation of pupil-level data from the 2013-14 administration of the MAPP field tests unless it is determined that these scores are valid and reliable. 22)Require the SPI to apportion funds to LEAs to enable them to administer assessments used to satisfy the voluntary EAP in the 2013-14 school year 23)Require that when the SBE annually establishes the amount of funding to be apportioned to LEAs for each test administered, to take into account changes LEA test administration activities under the MAPP, including, but not limited to, the number, type of tests administered, and changes in AB 484 Page 11 computerized test registration and administration procedures. 24)Prohibit state agencies or LEAs from using a comparison resulting from the scores and results of the MAPP assessments and the assessment scores and results from assessments that measured previously adopted content standards. 25)Require the SBE to adopt regulations that outline a calendar for delivery and receipt of summative assessment results at the pupil, school, grade, district, county, and state levels. Specifies that these regulations shall provide for the timely return of assessment results, consider the amount of paper-and-pencil administered assessments, and the number of items requiring hand scoring. Finally, the amendments require the regulations to ensure that individual assessment results are reported to LEAs within eight weeks of receipt by the contractor for scoring. 26)Require the CDE to acquire, and offer at no cost to LEAs, interim and formative assessment tools for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, as provided through the consortium membership. 27)Permit, in approving a contract amendment to an assessment contract authorized pursuant to this section, the CDE, in consultation with the SBE, to make material amendments to the contract that do not increase the contract cost. The Senate amendments also specify that those contract amendments that increase contract costs may only be made with the approval of the SBE and the Department of Finance. 28)Require the CDE to use a competitive and open process utilizing standardized scoring criteria through which to select a potential administration contractor or contractors for the purposes of this measure. When approving any such contract, the CDE is required to consider specified criteria. 29)Specify that the first full administration of assessments aligned to the Common Core standards in English language arts and mathematics shall occur in the 2014-15 school year unless the SBE determines that the assessments cannot be fully implemented. 30)Change the date by which the CDE is required to determine and AB 484 Page 12 report on how school districts are progressing toward implementation of a technology-enabled assessment system, from January 31, 2014, until October 1, 2014. 31)Require the SBE, based on the report submitted by the CDE on the progress toward districts' progress toward implementation of a technology-enabled assessment, to determine whether the state shall fully implement the operational consortium computer-adaptive summative assessments in English language arts and mathematics in grades 3 to 8, inclusive, and grade 11 for the 2014-15 school year. 32)Change the date on which the statutes governing the administration of the MAPP assessments become inoperative from July 1, 2025, to July 1, 2021, and the repeal dates of these statutes from January 1, 2026, to January 1, 2022. 33)Specify that for the purpose of the EAP Program and beginning in the 2014-15 school year, it is the grade 11 consortium computer-adaptive assessments in English language arts and mathematics that may be used to replace the California Standards Test and the augmented California Standards Tests. 34)Remove the urgency clause. 35)Make chaptering out amendments based on SB 490 (Jackson) and specifies that if both bills are enacted and this bill is enacted after SB 490, Section 28 of this bill shall not become operative. The provisions of SB 490 differ from the language of this in so far as SB 490 references the California Standards Test (CST) and the augmented CST, as referenced in Education Code Section 60641, or a standards-aligned successor assessment, whereas this bill references more generally the assessments referenced in Education Code Section 60641. 36)Make chaptering out amendments based on SB 344 (Padilla) of the current legislative session and specifies that if both bills are enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2014, and this bill is enacted after SB 344, in which case Section 1 of this bill shall not become operative. The provisions of SB 344 differ from the language of this in so far as SB 344 includes "reclassified English Learners" as a subgroup for which a school or school district must demonstrate comparable improvement in academic achievement as measured by the API. AB 484 Page 13 37)Make technical, non-substantive changes to this measure. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, this bill, as amended, has the following costs: 1)Assessment Suspensions: Approximately $8 million in state savings in 2013-14, and $1.5 million in state savings in 2014-15 (General Fund). 2)Field testing: Substantial potential costs/savings, as this bill does not require schools that are not field testing new assessments to assess students in 2013-14. Additionally, schools that choose to field test the new assessments will not have to double-test (by administering current STAR tests). To the extent that more schools want to field test the new assessments, there will likely be additional state costs. To the extent that schools decline to participate in field testing, there will likely be significant additional savings from removing the testing requirements altogether for 2013-14. 3)Assessments: Approximately $81 million in 2014-15, and $82 million - $105 million (General Fund) in 2015-16, and annually thereafter. 4)Multi-year Evaluation: Approximately $200,000 in 2013-14, and $700,000 (General Fund) annually thereafter, to contract for the independent evaluation required by this bill. COMMENTS : The Senate amendments make sweeping changes to this bill namely the elimination of assessments in English language arts and mathematics for the current school year, the ability of the SBE to determine that California cannot implement the full consortium assessment in the 2014-15 school year, and the potential suspension of API calculations for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years. English Language Arts and Mathematics Assessments in the Current School Year . The Senate amendments significantly change the assessments administered during the current school year. The Assembly considered language that kept in place those assessments that met federal accountability requirements but considered a transition to consortium assessments in the 2014-15 school year. As amended, this bill eliminates the assessments AB 484 Page 14 in English language arts and mathematics for the current school year and instead requires all LEAs to participate consortium field tests in grades 3-8, and 11 in mathematics and English language arts. In an effort to encourage LEAs to provide Common Core aligned instruction, the Senate has removed the incentive to continue to provide instruction that is geared toward the previous state adopted standards as measured by the STAR program. While this means that there will be no statewide achievement data for English language arts and mathematics during the 2013-14 school year, it will, arguably, better prepare LEAs for the administration of the consortium assessment in the 2014-15 school year. It is important to note that this bill will necessitate a request from California to the United States Department of Education for a waiver from the federal requirement that California demonstrate its success in terms of the academic achievement of every student and that such evidence be derived from testing data from every student's progress toward state adopted standards by using assessments that are aligned with the standards. In the absence of this waiver, the approximate $1.6 billion in Title I funds would be put in jeopardy. Consortium Testing in the 2014-15 School Year . The Senate amendments require the CDE, no later than October 2014, to produce a report that examines how LEAs are progressing toward implementation of a technology-enabled assessment system, and the extent to which the assessments aligned to the common core standards in English language arts and mathematics can be fully implemented. Based on this report, the SBE is required to determine, whether California shall fully implement the operational consortium computer-adaptive summative assessments in English language arts and mathematics in grades 3 to 8, inclusive, and grade 11 for the 2014-15 school year. This will allow a thorough analysis of the ability of LEAs, based on the field tests in the 2013-14 school year to fully access the consortium assessment and provide relief if necessary. Changes to the Academic Performance Index (API) . The Senate amendments allow the SPI, with the approval of the SBE, to withhold the calculation of API scores if the previous API scores cannot be accurately compared to those scores under the new assessment system. This is limited to the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years. The Assembly considered language that instead required the development of a transitional API. The Senate amendments specify that in the absence of these API AB 484 Page 15 calculations an LEA shall use its most recent API calculation, an average of its three most recent annual API calculations, or alternative measures that show increases in pupil academic achievement for all groups of pupils both school-wide and among significant subgroups. While additional clean up language may be required in the future to address those LEAS who have a statutory requirement to demonstrate academic growth, but have no such data available, this addresses the concerns of LEAs that continued accountability in a time of tremendous change will do more harm than good. Analysis Prepared by : Jill Rice / ED. / (916) 319-2087 FN: 0002691