BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1159
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Date of Hearing: April 10, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 1159 (Blumenfield) - As Introduced: February 22, 2013
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:6-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires the State Department of Education (SDE) to
provide a school district individual pupil assessment results
for pupils attending a charter school for which the district is
the chartering authority. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires SDE to provide individual pupil data to school
districts for the following assessments: (a) the California
Standardized Tests in the Standardized Testing and Reporting
(STAR) Program, (b) the California English Language
Development Test, and (c) the High School Exit Examination.
2)Requires SDE, to the extent the data is available, to provide
the data to the school district, along with the unique pupil
identification number of each pupil in accordance with federal
privacy law.
3)Prohibits a school district from receiving individual pupil
STAR assessment results from specified types of charter
schools, including those associated with the California
Conservation Corp, Federal Job Corp, Youth Build, and juvenile
court schools, as specified.
FISCAL EFFECT
GF/98 costs, of approximately $50,000, to SDE to upgrade the
California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System to share
charter pupil assessment data with chartering authorities, as
specified.
COMMENTS
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1)Purpose . Existing law deems any pupil's STAR results to be
private. Scores may not be released to any person (other than
the pupil's parent/guardian and a teacher, counselor, or
administrator directly involved with the pupil) without the
express written consent of either the parent/guardian of the
pupil if the pupil is a minor or the pupil if he or she is of
age or is emancipated.
Statute also authorizes a parent/guardian to release a pupil's
STAR results to a postsecondary educational institution for
the purposes of credit, placement, or admission, as specified.
In 2010, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)
requested student level assessment data for pupils attending
charter schools that it authorized. In October 2012,
Superintendent Jack O'Connell cited current law, which does
not allow a pupil's STAR results to be released, as specified
above. Specifically, Mr. O'Connell stated: "Because of the
legal restrictions imposed on the release of student-level
assessment data, SDE is unable to fulfill your current
request. If you received these data in the past they were
delivered in error."
According to LAUSD, sponsor of this bill, "Access to
individual student demographic and achievement data is
important to assess how our students are faring. For charter
schools that are authorized by a school district, current law
only allows the district access to aggregate school-level
data. Given that school 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
charter school is meeting the needs of certain groups of
students."
2)Background . A charter school is a public school that provides
instruction in any of grades K-12. It is usually created or
organized by a group of teachers, parents and community
leaders or a community-based organization. A charter school
may be authorized by an existing local public school board,
county board of education, or the State Board of Education.
Specific goals and operating procedures for the charter school
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are detailed in an agreement (charter) between the sponsoring
board and charter organizers. A charter school is generally
exempt from most laws governing school districts, except where
specifically noted in the law. As such, charter schools are
not required to provide pupils with a nutritionally adequate
free or reduced-price meal.
In 2011-12, there were 1,018 charter schools enrolling 438,474
students.
Statute authorizes a charter school to be granted one or more
renewals for a five-year period.
Current law further requires a charter school to meet one of
the following specified criteria (for the purposes of
renewal): (a) attained its Academic Performance Index (API)
growth target in the prior year or in two of the last three
years; (b) ranked in deciles 4 to 10 on the API in the prior
year or in two of the last three years; (c) ranked in deciles
4 to 10 on the API for a demographically comparable school in
the prior year or in two of the last three years; and (d) the
chartering authority determines the academic performance of
the charter school is at least equal to the performance of the
public schools the charter pupils would have otherwise
attended, as specified. The API consists primarily of
assessment results from the STAR program.
3)Previous legislation . AB 1919 (Brownley), identical to this
measure, was vetoed by Gov. Brown in September 2011 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."
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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