BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1159
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Date of Hearing: April 3, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 1159 (Blumenfield) - As Introduced: February 22, 2013
SUBJECT : Pupils: achievement data: charter schools
SUMMARY : Requires the California Department of Education (CDE)
to provide a school district with individual pupil test score
data of pupils who attend a charter school for which the school
district is the chartering authority, along with the unique
pupil identification number of each of those pupils, in
accordance with the federal Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act of 1974.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to a Senate Appropriations Committee
analysis of an identical bill last year, significant workload
increase to CDE to share charter school pupil-level achievement
data with the authorizing districts.
COMMENTS : According to the author, California has established
rigorous academic standards for its students and has developed
specific measures to determine if these standards are being
achieved. Existing law establishes several measures of student
performance, such as the Standardized Testing and Reporting
(STAR) Program, and requires all schools, including charter
schools, to report results to the CDE. Some charter schools
independently report the information directly to CDE, while
other schools report the information through the school district
which authorized it. Currently, a school district that wishes
to obtain student-level achievement data for students who attend
an independently reporting charter school within its
jurisdiction must request the information separately from each
of the various schools, costing time and resources that school
districts cannot afford.
In 2010, LAUSD attempted to get test data directly from the CDE
for students attending charter schools that were authorized by
the district. In his October 12, 2010, response to this
request, Superintendent of Public Instruction O'Connell wrote,
"Current state law, California Education Code Section 60607
indicates that:
Any pupil results or a record of accomplishment shall be
AB 1159
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private, and may not be released to any person, other than
the pupil's parent or guardian and a teacher, counselor or
administrator directly involved with the pupil, without the
express written consent of either the parent or guardian of
the pupil if the pupil is a minor, or the pupil if the
pupil has reached the age of majority or is emancipated.
Because of the legal restrictions imposed on the release of
student-level assessment data, the CDE is unable to fulfill your
current request. If you received these data in the past they
were delivered in error."
Accordingly, LAUSD sponsored AB 1919 (Brownley) in 2012. In
support of that bill, LAUSD argued that increasing student
achievement is a key goal for school districts, and an analysis
of pupil data is necessary to ensure students' needs are met.
Access to individual achievement data is important to assess how
students are faring. With this information, districts can
determine if sub-groups such as English-learners, low income
students or certain demographic groups are succeeding. For
charter schools that are authorized by a school district,
current law only allows the district access to aggregate
school-level data. Given that districts are responsible for
renewing school charter agreements, access to pupil data for a
district's charters is necessary to properly evaluate the
performance of students at the charter school. Without this
information, it is difficult for districts to know if the needs
of certain groups of students are being met by the charter
school. Access to this information through the CDE allows
school districts to get an accurate, complete picture of student
achievement at all of its schools.
AB 1919 was vetoed by the Governor with the following message:
"This bill would require the State Department of
Education to send individual pupil level data to
school districts that request the information. The
data would cover each and every student attending a
charter school the district authorizes.
"Authorizing districts may already collect this data,
so another law is unnecessary. The locals can handle
it."
AB 1159
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Charter Schools Association Advocates
Opposition
None received
Analysis Prepared by : Rick Pratt / ED. / (916) 319-2087