BILL NUMBER: SB 1425 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 27, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Senator Block
FEBRUARY 21, 2014
An act to add Article 1.7 (commencing with Section 78025) to
Chapter 1 of Part 48 of Division 7 of Title 3 of the Education Code,
relating to community colleges.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1425, as amended, Block. Community colleges: retroactive
awarding of degrees.
(1) Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges,
under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California
Community Colleges, as one of the segments of the public
postsecondary education in this state. Existing law establishes
community college districts throughout the state, and authorizes
those districts to provide instruction at community college campuses.
This bill, prior to the beginning of the spring term of each
academic year, and in accord with a specified timetable, would
require each community college district with a specified
Internet-accessible automatic degree audit system in place to conduct
a one-time inquiry as the system is put in place. That inquiry would
seek to identify the students who have completed the required units
to receive a degree or certificate, or who have completed the
transfer requirements of the California State University or the
Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum, in up to 12 of
the highest demand majors, as determined by each community college
district, during the previous 2 academic years.
The bill would require each affected community college campus to
notify the students identified under the bill as eligible to receive
a degree or certificate that they are eligible for the degree or
certificate. The bill would provide that these students would have
the choice of opting out or receiving the degree or certificate.
The bill would require the Chancellor of the California Community
Colleges to develop or identify and procure
a commercially available utility to conduct systemwide
automatic degree audits that would enable community college student
services staff to monitor student progress toward completion of a
certificate or degree, or the credits required to meet the transfer
requirements of the California State University or the Intersegmental
General Education Transfer Curriculum. The bill would require
the chancellor's office to oversee the implementation of the bill in
accordance with a timetable that would require all campuses of the
California Community Colleges to have the automatic degree audit
system in place by December 31, 2017, as specified.
The bill would require each community college campus, before the
beginning of an academic year, to conduct an inquiry, using the
online degree audit system that would be created under the bill, to
identify the students or former students who are within 12 semester
units or 18 quarter units of completing the requirements for a
certificate, degree, or transfer, as prescribed. The bill would
require community college campus staff to notify those students or
former students of the courses needed to complete those requirements.
The bill would require that certificates or degrees be awarded
retroactively to students or former students who are found, pursuant
to an audit of credits earned in the 5 academic years immediately
preceding the 2015-16 academic year, to have met requirements for
those certificates or degrees, if the students choose to receive
them.
The bill would require the chancellor
Legislative Analyst's Office to submit a report to the
Legislature and the Governor on the progress of the implementation of
the retroactive degree awarding and online degree audit system on or
before December 31, 2017, and on or before December 31 of
each year every 3 years thereafter.
This bill would not be operative until the board of governors
certifies that sufficient funds have been received from state,
federal, or private sources to implement the online degree audit
system that would be created under the bill.
Because this bill would impose new duties on community college
districts, it would constitute a state-mandated local program.
(2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates
determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these
statutory provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(1) California is falling behind in producing the necessary
postsecondary education to ensure our state's prosperity and
opportunities for individuals in the 21st century.
(2) California faces a degree and certificate gap, and is
projected to need one million more workers with bachelor's degrees
and an additional 1.3 million workers with associate degrees or
certificates by 2025. Today, one in every four jobs requires at least
an associate degree.
(3) In the near future, one in every three jobs will require at
least an associate degree. Failure to make significant improvements
in degree completion will result in a less productive economy, lower
incomes for residents, less tax revenue for the state, and more
dependence on social services. Awarding retroactive
associate degrees to the approximately 250,000 students whose records
qualify them for degrees but who never received those degrees, and
encouraging other students to return to school by making them aware
that they are close to completing their associate degree, will
mitigate this projected degree shortage.
(4) The California Community Colleges are the state's largest
workforce provider, offering associate degrees and short-term job
training certificates in more than 175 different fields.
(5) In community colleges across the country, approximately 16
percent of the students in each cohort have either qualified for a
degree but never received it, or are within 12 semester units of an
associate degree and have left the system. This percentage represents
approximately 250,000 students in the California Community Colleges
system.
(6)
( 5) Meeting the current and future need for
higher education requires that postsecondary institutions improve
their success rates with current students and attract, and graduate,
individuals from groups that have been traditionally underrepresented
in postsecondary education.
(7)
( 6) Degree audit systems efficiently
support student persistence and success efforts, and thereby save
money for the institutions in the longer term. This will be
especially true of a degree audit system that is centralized at the
Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges and paired
with the online educational planner that is being developed as part
of the Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act of 2012.
(8)
( 7) In California, only about
one-third less than one-fifth of community
colleges have online degree audit systems that can be used to inform
their students about their progress, leaving the remainder of the
state's 112 community colleges without a mechanism to identify
already earned degrees.
(9)
( 8) As movement toward performance-based
budgeting continues, retroactive degree awarding and degree audit
systems better position an institution to improve student outcomes.
(10)
( 9) Earning a certificate or degree from a
community college doubles an individual's chance of obtaining a job.
At a time when unemployment rates are nearly 9 percent, certificates
and degrees are all the more valuable.
(11)
(1 0) Earning a degree or certificate from a
California community college, on average, nearly doubles an
individual's earnings within three years, from $25,600 to $45,571.
(12)
(1 1) A national effort, Project Win-Win, is
tackling this issue in nine other states and is showing promising
results. This project introduces degree audit systems at colleges to
accomplish all both of the following:
(A) Award degrees retroactively.
(B) Identify and bring back students who are marginally short of
an associate degree to complete it.
(C)
( B) Ensure that, moving forward, students
have real-time information about their progress toward obtaining a
degree.
(b) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature to do all of
the following:
(1) Build on national and local efforts to identify current or
former students who are eligible or nearly eligible
to obtain their certificate or degree , or to
attain the necessary credits for transfer, and notify those students,
as appropriate .
(2) Award degrees and certificates retroactively to those students
who have completed degree or certificate requirements.
(3) Establish a central auditing system at the California
Community Colleges that enables individual community colleges to
audit student records, identify the students who are eligible
or nearly eligible for a certificate or degree,
and notify these students of this valuable information.
SEC. 2. Article 1.7 (commencing with Section 78025) is added to
Chapter 1 of Part 48 of Division 7 of Title 3 of the Education Code,
to read:
Article 1.7. Retroactive Awarding of Degrees
78025. (a) The board of governors shall require all community
colleges to award degrees retroactively in accordance with this
article.
(b) Prior to the beginning of the spring term of the academic
year, and commencing with the 2015-16 academic year for
the first 28 campuses , each community college shall
perform an district shall perform a one-time
inquiry as the automatic degree audit system required by this
article is put in place at each campus, consistent with the timetable
prescribed in Section 78026, to identify the students who have
completed the semester or quarter required units
required to receive a degree,
degree or certificate, or who have completed the
California State University (CSU) or the Intersegmental General
Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) transfer requirements in
up to 12 of the highest demand majors, as determined by each
community college district, during the previous five
two academic years.
(c) A community college campus shall notify those students
identified pursuant to subdivision (b) as eligible to receive a
degree or certificate that they are eligible to receive
a the degree or certificate. Those
students shall have the choice to opt out or to receive the degree or
certificate.
78026. (a) The Chancellor of the California Community Colleges
shall develop or identify a commercially available
utility to conduct systemwide automatic degree audits for these
purposes. The system shall satisfy all of
the following conditions: purposes, and procure that
utility in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State
Contract Act (Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 10100) of Part 2 of
Division 2 of the Public Contract Code). Once this utility is
procured, the chancellor's office shall oversee the implementation of
this article in accordance with the following timetable:
(1) At least 28 campuses of the California Community Colleges
shall have the automatic degree audit system in place by December 31,
2015.
(2) At least 56 campuses of the California Community Colleges
shall have the automatic degree audit system in place by December 31,
2016.
(3) All campuses of the California Community Colleges shall have
the automatic degree audit system in place by December 31, 2017.
(b) The automatic degree audit system procured under this section
shall satisfy all of the following conditions:
(1) It shall comply with all pertinent privacy and security
considerations and requirements.
(2) It shall be centrally housed at
purchased by the Chancellor's Office of the California
Community Colleges in order to reduce costs through a bulk
procurement process .
(3) It shall be managed by each community college district for use
among the campuses within each respective district.
(3)
( 4) It shall enable community college
counselors, advisors, and other student services staff to monitor
student progress toward completing a degree or certificate program,
or achieving the minimum requirements for CSU or IGETC transfer.
(4)
( 5) It shall be accessible to community
college personnel and students through an Internet Web portal that
provides a degree progress profile, generated for each student upon
request, that includes all information regarding credits earned that
is available in the community college's data.
(b) Prior to the beginning of each spring term, each community
college shall perform an inquiry to identify students who are within
12 semester units or 18 quarter units of completing a degree or
certificate, or achieving the minimum requirements for CSU or IGETC
transfer.
(c) A community college shall notify those students or former
students identified pursuant to subdivision (b) of the courses needed
to complete a degree, a certification, or transfer requirements.
78027. (a) Each
community college district, with the assistance of the chancellor,
shall study and to evaluate the effectiveness of the retroactive
degree awarding and audit program established by this article and of
any other programs or services designed to facilitate students'
completion of their educational goals and courses of study.
Notwithstanding Section 10231.5 of the Government Code, the
chancellor The Legislative Analyst's Office
shall submit a report to the Legislature and the Governor on the
progress of the implementation of the retroactive degree awarding and
online degree audit system on or before December 31, 2017, and on or
before December 31 of each year every three
years thereafter.
(b) The report required by this section shall be submitted in
compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
78028. (a) The metrics to
be determined and reported pursuant to Section 78027 shall include,
but not necessarily be limited to, all of the following:
(1)
( a) The number and percentage of community
college students who were identified , reenrolled,
and were awarded associate degrees or certificates, or who were
determined to have completed the CSU or IGETC transfer
requirements because of the degree audit system.
(2) The average amount of time spent and number of units earned by
community college students in order to complete their associate
degree, certificate, or transfer requirements, after being notified
that they were within the 12 semester units or 18 quarter units of
completion.
(3)
( b) The estimated economic benefits for the
college and labor market of the degree audit system .
(4)
( c) Other relevant indicators of student
success resulting from having a degree audit system in place
.
(b) Information specified in subdivision (a) shall be
disaggregated data, classified by ethnicity, gender, disability, age,
and socioeconomic status, to the extent this information is
available.
(c) The evaluation required by Section 78027 shall include an
assessment of the effectiveness of the programs and services in
attaining at least the following objectives:
(1) Identifying students within 12 semester units or 18 quarter
units of meeting the requirements for a degree or certificate or
completing the CSU or IGETC transfer requirements.
(2) Assisting institutions in reenrolling these students,
assessing these students' educational needs, and identifying
appropriate course placement for these students.
(3) Helping support students' successful completion of associate
degree, certificate, or transfer requirements.
(4) Matching institutional resources with students' educational
needs.
79029. 78029. This article shall
not be operative until the board of governors certifies that
sufficient funds have been received from state, federal, or private
sources to implement the online degree audit system that would be
created under this section. The board of governors shall prominently
post this certification promptly on its Internet Web site.
SEC. 3. If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this
act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local
agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant
to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of
the Government Code.