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 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |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 | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Page 2 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 Page 3 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