BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1159
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1159 (Blumenfield and Bloom)
As Introduced February 22, 2013
Majority vote
EDUCATION 6-0 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Buchanan, Campos, Chávez, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Nazarian, Weber, Williams | |Bradford, |
| | | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Eggman, Gomez, Hall, |
| | | |Holden, Pan, Quirk, Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | |Nays:|Harkey, Bigelow, |
| | | |Donnelly, Linder, Wagner |
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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 the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, General Fund/Proposition 98 costs of approximately
$50,000 to CDE to upgrade the California Longitudinal Pupil
Achievement Data System to share charter pupil assessment data
with chartering authorities.
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
AB 1159
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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, Los Angeles Unified School District (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 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
AB 1159
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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."
Analysis Prepared by : Rick Pratt / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0000158