BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 928
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Date of Hearing: May 8, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 928 (Olsen) - As Introduced: February 22, 2013
[This bill is keyed non-fiscal. However, if amended, a
re-referral to the Committee on Appropriations has been approved
pursuant to Joint Rule 61(d). If this bill is passed with
amendments by the Assembly Education Committee, it will be
referred to the Committee on Appropriations to consider the
fiscal implications.]
SUBJECT : Standardized tests: sale to private schools.
SUMMARY : Allows private schools to purchase standardized
tests, including the California Assessment of Academic
Achievement, if it does not violate the terms of any contract
entered into between the publisher and the State of California.
Requires the private school to pay all costs associated with the
test, including administering the test, training, and security
costs.
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is keyed non-fiscal.
COMMENTS : The purpose of this bill, according to the author's
office, is to allow private school pupils to be tested on the
same standards-aligned measures as public school pupils. There
is a benefit to knowing how all of California's pupils in both
public and private schools are achieving vis-à-vis state content
standards and curriculum framework.
According to the California Department of Education (CDE),
however, maintaining the security and integrity of the
standardized tests and protecting the state's significant
investment in them is of overriding importance. The state
employs extraordinary measures to establish regulations, train
test administrators and proctors, and require detailed
agreements with school districts to maintain security.
This bill provides that the private school would pay for all
costs of administering the test, including security. However,
the CDE has no authority over private schools and would be
unable to apply sanctions if security is breached. In the case
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of public schools, a district's API score could be invalidated,
which is a significant sanction.
To help ensure that private schools follow all security
protocols and to protect the state's investment in the event of
a private school breach of security, staff recommends that the
bill be amended to require a private school or private school
organizations to obtain a surety bond in an amount to be
determined by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, but not
to exceed $1 million.
In addition, the bill provides that a private school may
purchase the test from the publisher. However, the publisher
does not own the test; it is owned by the State of California.
Therefore, staff recommends that the bill be amended to strike
the reference to the publisher.
Finally, the development of standardized tests represents a
significant public investment, so test scores ought to be a
matter of public record. Private schools that perform well on
the tests are likely to use those results to market their
programs by making the results public. Private schools that do
not perform well are not likely to disclose their scores. This
could mislead the public about the overall relative performance
of private schools vs. public schools on the standardized tests.
Therefore, staff recommends that the bill be amended to require
private schools that administer the state standardized tests to
post the results on their Internet websites and to report the
scores to the CDE to be posted on its website.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
One individual
Opposition
None received
Analysis Prepared by : Rick Pratt / ED. / (916) 319-2087
AB 928
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