BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 1159
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          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  








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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  








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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 


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