BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Carol Liu, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 1200
AUTHOR: Padilla
AMENDED: April 2, 2014
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 9, 2014
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Kathleen Chavira
SUBJECT : Academic requirements for undergraduate admission.
SUMMARY
This bill requires the California State University (CSU)
Trustees and requests the University of California (UC)
Regents to create guidelines for high school computer science
courses to satisfy A-G subject requirements for the area of
mathematics, for purposes of undergraduate admissions to the
institutions.
BACKGROUND
Current law requires the CSU and requests the UC to establish
a model uniform set of academic standards for high school
courses that satisfy university admission requirements. In
addition, both the CSU and the UC were directed to implement a
speedy process whereby schools could obtain approval of their
courses for admission purposes, and require that this process
notify applicant schools whether a submitted course has been
approved or denied by August 1 each school year. (Education
Code § 66205.5)
The University of California (UC) and the California State
University (CSU) have established common high school course
requirements for undergraduate admissions to ensure that
potential university students are prepared to engage and be
successful in university-level coursework. Students who
follow the articulated sequence of courses in each of the
subject areas listed below and who meet other specified
criteria are eligible to apply and be considered for
admission. The following list is commonly referred to the
"a-g" subject area requirements:
a) 2 years of history/social science.
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b) 4 years of college preparatory English or language
instruction.
c) 3 years of college preparatory mathematics.
d) 2 years of laboratory science.
e) 2 years of the same language other than English.
f) 1 year visual and performing arts.
g) g) 1 year college preparatory electives.
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Requires the CSU trustees, and requests the UC Regents to
create guidelines for high school computer science
courses to satisfy the "a-g" subject requirements for the
area of mathematics, for purposes of undergraduate
admissions.
2) Defines "a-g" subject requirements, for purposes of the
bill, as the pattern of college preparatory courses
required for entrance as a first-year student at the UC.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author, neither the
UC nor the CSU count computer science courses as
satisfying a mathematics or science requirement ("c" or
"d" requirement) towards admission. The author is
concerned that, at best, these courses are treated as
electives ("g" requirement), if approved.
2) Current process . Generally, the process of assessing the
suitability of specific courses for meeting subject area
requirements has been in the purview of the faculty of
the UC, through the Board of Admissions and Relations
with Schools (BOARS) which oversees all matters relating
to the admissions of undergraduate students. A course's
"a-g" approval is based on the "a-g" course evaluation
guidelines and the subject-specific course criteria
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established by UC faculty. California high schools can
submit their courses to UC for "a-g" certification and
once approved, the "a-g" course is added to the school's
"a-g" course list. To satisfy the subject requirements,
the course must appear on the school's course list for
the year the student took the course.
In 2003, both the CSU and the UC made slight changes to
their "a-g" subject matter requirements in order to align
them for any students wishing to apply to both
universities. Since then, the CSU has deferred initial
recommendations of additions or revisions to the "a-g"
subject matter requirements to the UC. According to the
CSU all major shifts in these requirements are discussed
jointly between both Academic Senates for each respective
university. While CSU ultimately has the final decision
regarding the acceptance of these courses, the UC has
generally taken the lead on "a-g" subject matter
requirements for high school applicants.
3) Current status of computer science courses . The UC
Office of the President issued a status report on high
school computer science courses in January 2014.
According to the UC, in 2013-14 over 400 high schools
(about 20 percent) offered at least one UC approved
computer science course. The majority of these courses
will satisfy the "g," or elective requirement for
admissions purposes.
In March 2013, BOARS convened six faculty advisory
workgroups with representatives from across all nine
undergraduate UC campuses to address gaps in the course
criteria for "a-g" subject requirements. The UC noted
that the mathematics workgroup encouraged the development
and submission of computer science courses in either the
math "c" or the college-preparatory elective area "g."
According to the UC Office of the President, all approved
courses in the mathematics "c" requirement are expected
to satisfy specified criteria, as outlined in the
"Statement of Competencies in Mathematics Expected of
Entering College Students". Additionally, other rigorous
courses that use math concepts, include a mathematics
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prerequisite, and that are intended for 11th and 12th
grade students, such as discrete mathematics or computer
science may also satisfy the math requirement.
According to the UC, there is only one school in the
state that currently offers computer science courses
approved in area "c" under "Advanced Mathematics." The
high school offers 3 honors courses offering advanced
topics in computer science in Computer Architecture,
Digital Signal Processing, and Numeric Methods.
In its status report, the UC noted that some of the
challenges of expanding computer science education in
high schools include identifying appropriate instructors
and institutional resource limitations.
4) Common Core issues . During the 2010-11 academic year,
BOARS updated the area "b" (English) and area '"c"
(mathematics) requirements to align with the Common Core
Standards in response to said standards' adoption by the
State Board of Education. During 2012-13, the
Intersegmental Committee of Academic Senates revised the
documents used to evaluate high school mathematics
courses to align with the Common Core State Standards in
Math.
Current law required the SBE to adopt revised frameworks
that are aligned to the common core standards in
Mathematics by November 2013, and English language arts
by May 2014. Current law also authorizes the SBE to
adopt a revised framework for history social science, but
only after the CDE has completed work related to the
frameworks for the common core standards.
Staff is unaware of any discussion of high school
computer science course content being aligned to the
common core standards. Should a computer
science course be recognized as meeting the UC subject
matter mathematics requirement if the course content is
not aligned to the common core standards?
5) Is this bill necessary ? This bill requires the UC to
create guidelines for high school computer science
courses to satisfy the mathematics area subject
requirements. As outlined in staff comments 3 and 4, it
appears that the UC has already undertaken the requested
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activity, that certain computer science courses can meet
the mathematics area subject requirements, and that this
information is available to high schools. What
additional information are the bill's provisions expected
to provide?
6) Alternative approach . If the committee feels that the
bill's provisions result in additional meaningful
information for high schools, an alternative approach may
be more appropriate.
This bill creates a new code section specifically focused
on computer science courses and statutorily outlines
reference to current Academic Senate regulations defining
UC subject matter admissions policy. In light of the
issues raised in staff comments #3 and #4, it seems
essential to ensure that legislative direction to create
guidelines for the development of computer science
courses that meet math requirements not be interpreted to
undermine the existing work of university faculty to
recognize the rigor of the newly adopted common core
standards in its evaluation of courses. In addition,
rather than codify Academic Senate regulations, it may be
prudent to incorporate these provisions in the existing
statutory language regarding the responsibility of the UC
to develop academic standards for high school courses.
Staff recommends the contents of the bill be deleted and
that instead, the following additions to Education Code
section 66205.5 be inserted:
(e) Develop guidelines for high school computer science
courses that may be approved for the purposes outlined in
(a). For computer science courses determined to meet
mathematics subject area requirements, the University of
California shall ensure that these courses build upon
fundamental mathematics content provided in courses that
meet the requirements of (f).
(f) It is the intent of the Legislature that the academic
standards for high school courses, adopted pursuant to
and for the purposes outlined in (a) are aligned with the
standards developed pursuant to Education Code Section
60605.8).
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7) Related legislation . AB 1764 (Olsen & Buchanan)
authorizes the governing board of a school district that
offers more than two courses in mathematics to award a
student up to one mathematics course credit for
successfully completing a UC approved computer science
course in category "c."
SUPPORT
None received on this version.
OPPOSITION
None received.