BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1025
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1025 (Garcia)
As Amended March 21, 2013
Majority vote
HIGHER EDUCATION 13-0 APPROPRIATIONS 16-1
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|Ayes:|Williams, Ch�vez, Bloom, |Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, Bigelow, |
| |Fong, Fox, Jones-Sawyer, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Levine, Waldron, Medina, | |Calderon, Campos, Eggman, |
| |Olsen, Quirk-Silva, | |Gomez, Hall, Holden, |
| |Weber, Wilk | |Linder, Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Wagner, Ammiano |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | |Nays:|Donnelly |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires the California Community Colleges (CCC) and
the California State University (CSU) and requests the Regents
of the University of California (UC) to provide information
about credit by examination opportunities to students wherever
course and class information is available. This measure also
requires districts to be reimbursed for costs if the Commission
on State Mandates determines that this act contains costs
mandated by the state.
EXISTING LAW : Several statutes and regulations govern credit by
examination.
1)Authorizes the UC Regents as the governing body of the UC and
grants authority to the Regents to determine final policies
and procedures on behalf of the UC (Education Code (EC)
Sections 92020 and 92430).
2)Establishes the CSU Board of Trustees (BOT) as the governing
body of the CSU and specifies the BOT's power, duties and
functions with respect to the management, administration, and
control of the CSU (EC Sections 66600 and 66606).
3)Authorizes the governing board of each CCC district to adopt
policies and procedures pertaining to credit by examination
and allows for the governing board of the CCC district to
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grant credit to any student who satisfactorily passes an
examination approved or conducted by proper authorities of the
college (Title 5, California Code of Regulations Section
55050).
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, the three segments (UC, CSU and CCC) indicate that
they are generally in compliance with the bill's requirements,
thus any costs associated with this bill will be minor and
absorbable.
COMMENTS : A variety of credit by examination tests are used and
accepted by the UC, CSU, and CCC. Credit by examination tests
are comprised of campus-originated challenge examinations
(differentiated from placement examinations) and the
standardized external examinations, such as Advance Placement
(AP) tests, International Baccalaureate (IB) and College Level
Entrance Program (CLEP). AP and IB exams are taken by high
school pupils who were enrolled in AP and IB classes in high
school.
A recent research brief by the Council for Adult and
Experiential Learning (CAEL), found that underserved students
who earn credit through prior learning assessments have higher
degree to completion rates and shorter time-to-degree. CAEL
also found that there is a financial savings benefit for
low-income students who take and successfully pass credit by
examination tests, since the cost of having prior learning
evaluated for credit is typically less than the cost of the
tuition for the same number of credit hours.
The UC, CSU, and CCC already appear to have policies and
procedures in place to ensure students have multiple ways of
receiving all the information they need regarding credit by
examination.
1)The UC admissions Web site lists all of the UC accepted credit
by examination options. Additionally, according to the UC
Office of the President, UC confers regularly with high school
guidance counselors regarding the UC admissions policies,
including credit by examination. The UC admissions directors
and staff at each campus regularly attend college fairs on
high school and CCC campuses and speak at a variety of other
venues to address questions from prospective students
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including credit by examination.
2)Three years ago, the Academic Senate of the CSU unanimously
endorsed a policy providing guidelines for the use of CLEP
examinations as the basis for awarding general education
credit. This policy applies to CSU students and to those
planning to transfer to a CSU campus. The CSU provided their
guidelines to the CCC whose students transfer to the CSU; the
guidelines inform the CCC students how to apply CLEP
examinations toward certifications of general education
requirements prior to transfer. Additionally, the CSU
partnered with the College Board (administers of the CLEP
examinations) to ensure students are made aware of their CLEP
options. According to the CSU and the College Board, students
are made aware of their CLEP examination options in a number
of ways, including, via faculty and advisers, admissions
office, adult and/or veterans office, registrar's office and
campus testing centers. Additionally, the CSU has posted
their CLEP policies on their Web site and have included their
credit by exam policies in their catalogs and other
publications for students and parents.
3)The Academic Senate for the CCC endorsed their newest policy
providing guidelines for the use of CLEP examinations as the
basis for awarding general education credit in June of 2011.
The Academic Senate's policy is very similar to that of the
CSU (as described above). Additionally, according to a
January 2013 credit by examination survey performed by the CCC
Chancellor's Office and completed by 74 CCC campuses, every
college expressed they have credit by examination policies and
procedures clearly defined and relayed to their students. The
respondents also stated that their college credit by
examination policies and procedures are listed in all course
catalogs and on their Web sites.
Analysis Prepared by : Jeanice Warden / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN: 0000224
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