Amended in Assembly March 26, 2015

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 252

Introduced by Assembly Member Holden

February 9, 2015

An act to add and repeal Section 52245 of the Education Code, relating to pupil instruction.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 252, as amended, Holden. Advanced placement program: grant program: STEM curriculum.

Existing law contains legislative findings and declarations stating that advanced placement courses, among other things, help to improve the overall curriculum at schools where they are provided and provide a cost-effective means for high school pupils to obtain college-level coursework experience. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to annually update the information on advanced placement available on the Internet Web site of the State Department of Education to include current information on the various means available to school districts to offer or access advanced placement courses, and to annually communicate with high schools that offer advanced placement courses in fewer than 5 subjects and inform them of the various options for making advanced placement courses and other rigorous courses available to pupils who may benefit from them.

This bill, until July 1, 2021, would establish a grant program overseen by the department for purposes of awarding grants to cover the costs associated with a high school establishing or expanding its advanced placement STEM begin delete curriculum , end delete begin insert curriculum, end insert as defined. The bill would require the Superintendent to submit no later than July 1, 2021, a specified report to the Legislature describing the effectiveness of the grant program.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

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begin insert SECTION 1. end insert   

end insert

begin insert (a) end insert begin insert   end insert begin insert The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following: end insert

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(1) According to a 2009 report “Technical Difficulties: Meeting
California’s Workforce Needs in Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Math (STEM) Fields,” there is a large disparity between the
continued workforce demands for degrees in the STEM fields and
a continued shortfall of STEM degrees conferred to California’s
minority population.

end insert begin insert

(2) Fifty-nine percent of California’s African American pupils
who have potential to thrive in an advanced placement STEM
course do not take the advanced placement STEM course for which
they have potential.

end insert begin insert

(3) Fifty-eight percent of California’s American Indian and
Alaska Native pupils do not take the advanced placement STEM
course for which they have potential.

end insert begin insert

(4) Fifty-five percent of California’s Hispanic or Latino pupils
do not take the advanced placement STEM course for which they
have potential.

end insert begin insert

(5) Forty-one percent of California’s female pupils do not take
the advanced placement STEM course for which they have
potential.

end insert begin insert

(6) More than ninety percent of colleges and universities across
the country offer college credit, advanced placement, or both, for
qualifying advanced placement examination scores. These credits
can potentially save pupils and their families thousands of dollars
in college tuition, fees, and textbook costs.

end insert begin insert

(7) Research shows that pupils who take advanced placement
courses are much more likely than their peers to complete a college
degree on time. Pupils have the opportunity to dig deeper into
subjects that interest them, develop advanced research and
communication skills, and learn to tap their creative,
problem-solving, and analytical potential.

end insert begin insert

(8) Advanced placement courses give pupils access to rigorous
college-level work. Advanced placement pupils build confidence
and learn the essential time management and study skills needed
for college and career success.

end insert begin insert

(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to establish an advanced
placement STEM Access Grant Program to expand diversity in
the STEM field in regards to socioeconomic standing, gender, and
race.

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begin delete SECTION 1. end delete
begin insert SEC. 2. end insert   

Section 52245 is added to the Education Code, to read:

52245.  

(a)  For purposes of this section, “STEM curriculum”
means courses in any of the following subject areas:

(1) Biology.

(2) Calculus.

(3) Chemistry.

(4) Computer science.

(5) Environmental science.

(6) Physics.

(7) Statistics.

(b)  There is hereby established a grant program for the purpose
of awarding moneys to cover the costs associated with a high
school establishing or expanding its advanced placement STEM
curriculum. begin insert Grants shall be administered in accordance with both
of the following: end insert

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(1) Grant funds may be used for professional development to
enable instructors to teach an advanced placement course in the
STEM curriculum proposed to be established by the high school.

end insert begin insert

(2) The grant amount shall be determined based on the cost of
the type of advanced placement course in the STEM curriculum,
not to exceed eight thousand dollars ($8,000) per grant application,
excluding professional development costs.

end insert

(c) A high school may apply to the department for grant funding
pursuant to this section if all of the following conditions are met:

(1) The high school meets either of the following criteria:

(A) Does not offer advanced placement courses in the STEM
curriculum.

(B) Offers advanced placement courses in the STEM curriculum,
but those courses are begin delete sufficiently end delete oversubscribed.
begin insert “Oversubscribed” means demand for the course exceeds space
by at least one-half of the number of pupils required for a full
class. end insert

(2) The high school has identified pupils who have demonstrated
they have high potential to be successful in one or more advanced
placement courses in the STEM curriculum. The high school may
identify pupils using any means it deems appropriate, including,
but not limited to, a pupil’s score on the preliminary SAT.

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(d) In awarding grants, the department shall give first priority
to applicants with no advanced placement courses in the STEM
curriculum.

end insert begin delete

(d)

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begin insert (e) end insert  (1) No later than July 1, 2021, the Superintendent shall
submit a report to the Legislature describing the effectiveness of
the grant program established pursuant to this section. The
Superintendent is encouraged to consult with the College Board
in preparing the report pursuant to this subdivision. The report
shall include both of the following:

(A)  begin delete Number end delete begin insert The increase in the number end insert of pupils who have
access to advanced placement courses in the STEM curriculum.

(B)  begin delete Success rates end delete begin insert The increase in the number of pupils end insert in the
advanced placement courses in the STEM curriculum that include
core demographics, including, but not limited to, gender and race.

(2) A report submitted pursuant to this subdivision shall be
submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government
Code.

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(e)

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begin insert (f) end insert  The department shall implement this section only to the
extent that moneys are available to the department and the
Superintendent for the purposes of this section. The moneys may
be derived from any source, including, but not limited to, state
funding, federal funding, and nonstate funding sources.

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(f)

end delete

begin insert (g) end insert  This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2021, and,
as of January 1, 2022, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2022, deletes or
extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.