BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 770
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Date of Hearing: April 21, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Jose Medina, Chair
AB 770
(Irwin) - As Amended April 6, 2015
SUBJECT: Community colleges: basic skills innovation program
SUMMARY: Authorizes the governing board of a community college
district (CCD) to apply to the Chancellor of the California
Community Colleges (CCC), for multiyear financial grants and
professional development (PD) funding, if a CCD adopts or
expands the use of evidence-based models of academic assessment
and placement, remediation, and student support that accelerate
the progress of underprepared students toward achieving
postsecondary educational and career goals. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Establishes legislative findings and declarations, including,
but not limited to the following:
a) Research in California has demonstrated that relatively
few students who enter remediation ultimately attain a
postsecondary degree, credential, or transfer to a
four-year institution, and that students of color are
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disproportionately affected;
b) Drawing on national initiatives aimed at increasing
student completion of college-level English and mathematics
courses, efforts in California have demonstrated the
success of innovative ways to deliver English and
mathematics remediation; and,
c) In those pilot efforts, students' odds of completing
college-level English courses more than double, and their
odds of completing college-level mathematics courses are
more than four times higher in comparison to students in
traditional remediation. However, at most community
college campuses, these new approaches are offered on a
small scale and are not available to most students.
2)Establishes a financial grant and professional development
funding program, administered by the CCC Chancellor.
3)Requires the CCC Chancellor to distribute multiyear financial
grants and PD funding, upon appropriation by the Legislature
for this purpose, to the governing board of a CCD that applies
and satisfies the requirements, as specified.
4)Specifies that monies allocated for the program shall be
expended for community colleges within the district to adopt
or expand the use of evidence-based models of academic
assessment and placement, remediation, and student support
that accelerate the progress of underprepared students toward
achieving postsecondary educational and career goals.
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5)Specifies that the governing board of a CCD may apply for
funds, as specified, if it is for the purposes of making more
effective, evidence-based practices available to significantly
more underprepared students who enroll at CCC campuses.
6)Specifies that a community college within the district may
receive funds for purposes of implementing these
evidence-based practices for the first time or expanding
evidence-based practices that are in effect as of the date of
the district's application for funds.
7)Requires that the evidence-based strategies implemented or
expanded by the governing board of a CCD, as specified, shall
include innovative basic skills improvement strategies that
have demonstrated effectiveness in accelerating the progress
of underprepared students toward, and increasing the number of
underprepared students who successfully achieve, one or more
of the following goals:
a) Completing a college-level English or mathematics
course, or both, within a three-course sequence or less;
b) Earning eight units applicable to a college certificate
or degree; and,
c) Earning a college certificate or degree approved by the
CCCs.
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8)Requires, as condition of receiving a grant, that the
governing board of a CCD shall demonstrate in its application
for funding that the community colleges that will participate
in the grant program will redesign their curriculum, career
pathways, assessment and placement procedures, or any
combination thereof, to implement, or expand the use or
application of, one or more of the following practices and
principles:
a) Adopting placement tests and related policies that
include multiple measures of student performance, including
grades in high school courses, especially overall grade
point average, and input from counselors;
b) Increasing the placement of students directly in gateway
English and mathematics courses and career pathways
supplemented by remediation;
c) Aligning content in remedial courses with the students'
programs of academic or vocational study to target
students' actual needs;
d) Completing a college-level English or mathematics
course, or both, within a three-course sequence or less;
recognizing that students pursuing mathematics-intensive
courses of study may require a longer sequence of
mathematics coursework;
e) Contextualizing remedial instruction in foundational
skills for the industry cluster, pathways, or both, in
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which the student seeks to advance; and,
f) Providing proactive student support services that are
integrated with the instruction provided;
9)Specifies that each participating community college shall be
responsible for all of the following:
a) Developing a plan based on one or more of the
evidence-based principles and practices (as described above
in eight - 'a through f') that demonstrates a clear
strategy for ensuring that all of the following occur
within a five-year period:
i) A significant share of the underprepared students
who enroll at participating community colleges within the
CCD achieve one or more of the three goals (as described
above in seven - 'a through c'), and,
ii) Underprepared students who are enrolled at the
community college achieve the three goals (as described
above in seven - 'a through c') within a shorter time
period than before the implementation of this measure at
the community college.
b) Ensuring that its faculty participate in PD regarding
academic programs or new curriculum developed or expanded
pursuant to this measure, using grant funds to support that
faculty participation; and,
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c) Annually reporting to the CCC Chancellor's Office
(CCCCO) on program outcomes, disaggregated by demographic
characteristics of its students, for purposes of measuring
progress compared to the community college's performance
before its implementation of this measure. Specifying that
these reports should include all of the following:
i) The number and percentage of underprepared students
served by the grant program,
ii) The number and percentages of these underprepared
students achieving each of the three goals (as described
above in seven - 'a through c'), and,
iii) The number of faculty involved and faculty needs
regarding the innovation and operation of courses
pursuant to this measure.
10)Requires the CCCCO to be responsible for all of the
following:
a) Administering the grant program, and distributing and
monitoring awards to recipient CCDs;
b) Developing application criteria, administrative
guidelines, and other requirements for purposes of
administering the grant program; and,
c) Aggregating, analyzing, and reporting annually the
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information submitted, as specified, to the Legislature on
the progress of the grant program in achieving its
prescribed purpose.
EXISTING LAW: establishes the Seymour-Campbell Student Success
Act of 2012, which, among other things, specifies that each
community college, via their student services, has the
responsibility, as specified, to provide a strong foundation and
support for the educational goals of their students; cites the
services as the Student Success and Support Program (SSSP);
requires the services to include, but are not necessarily
limited to, student referral to specialized support services as
needed and available, including, but not necessarily limited to,
programs that teach basic skills education and English as a
Second Language (ESL) and evaluation of each student's progress
and referral to appropriate interventions for students who are
enrolled in basic skills courses; and, requires all CCDs, with
the assistance of the CCC Chancellor to establish and maintain
institutional research to evaluate the effectiveness of the
SSSP, specifying that the metrics used for the research shall
include, but not be limited to, academic performance, such as
the completion of specified unit thresholds, success in basic
skills courses, grade point average, course completion outcomes,
transfer readiness, and degree and certificate completion
(Education Code Section 78210, et seq.).
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: Basic skills definition. Generally, definitions for
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basic skills (often referred as "remedial" and/or "remediation")
vary, however, for the CCC, "noncredit basic skills courses" are
those courses in reading, writing, mathematics, and ESL which
are designated by a CCD as noncredit courses pursuant to C. C.
R., Title 5, Subdivision (c) of Section 55002. Additionally,
"non-degree applicable basic skills courses" are those courses
in reading, writing, mathematics, and ESL which are designated
by a CCD as non-degree applicable credit courses pursuant to C.
C. R., Title 5, Subdivision (b) of Section 55002.
Basic skills background. In 2004, the CCCCO began a
comprehensive strategic planning process with the purpose of
improving student access and success; and, in January 2006, the
CCC Board of Governors adopted the final draft of the plan. At
that time, one of the goals of the plan was to focus on basic
skills - ensuring that basic skills development became a major
focus and was an adequately funded activity at the CCCs.
To ensure the former was achieved, the CCCCO, in 2006, launched
the Basic Skills Initiative (BSI), which was a grant funded
initiative as part of the strategic planning process. The goal
of the BSI was to improve student access and success. The
project addressed credit and noncredit basic skills as well as
adult education and programs designed to help underprepared
students.
A two-tiered approach by BSI created an environment for great
accomplishments in basic skills. One tier of this plan
allocated CCCs supplemental funding to specifically address
basic skills needs. This funding was guided by locally
developed action plans documenting usage of the funding. The
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outcomes of the BSI were tracked using the Accountability Report
for Community Colleges. The second tier took the shape of a PD
grant which was designed to address training needs for faculty
and staff in basic skills, and ESL.
The CCCCO Student Success Task Force issued a report, per
legislative requirements, in 2012. This report issued several
recommendations, including, but not limited to the following:
1)The CCC system must develop more effective models of basic
skills instruction and implement them on a large scale
(indicating that there are new models of basic skills
instruction that have yet to be created and that to encourage
innovation, the CCCs should provide incentives for developing
alternative curricula and taking to scale model programs that
work);
2)The state should develop a comprehensive strategy for
addressing basic skills education in California that results
in a unified system that provides all students with the access
to basic skills courses in English and mathematics.
Additionally, the state should develop a comparable strategy
for addressing the needs of adults for courses in ESL; and,
3)The CCC system, with their K-12 and community-based partners,
should develop a clear strategy to respond to the continuum of
need in order to move students from educational basic skills
to college and career readiness.
Launched in 2012, the Basic Skills Cohort Tracker gives CCC
faculty online access to information about how students'
progress through their basic skills sequences in English,
reading, ESL, and mathematics. The Tracker was envisioned and
sponsored by the CCC Success Network (3CSN) and developed
through a partnership with the Research and Planning Group for
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the CCCs and the CCCCO. To note, through its regional networks
and events 3CSN has provided trainings to faculty in how to use
the tool, and through its partnership with the California
Acceleration Project (CAP), 3CSN has also supported faculty to
develop and pilot curricula models that improve completion rates
among basic skills students.
Basic skills state statistics. According to information
provided by the author's office, over 70 percent of first time
enrolled students at the CCC are classified as underprepared for
college-level course work and in need of remediation.
Additionally, according to Learning Works' 2014 brief entitled,
"New Study of the California Acceleration Project: Large and
Robust Gains in Student Completion of College English and Math,"
accelerated models of remediation are producing great increases
in student completion of gatekeeper English and mathematics
requirements at CCCs. The brief found that effective
accelerated pathways led to completion gains among all students,
regardless of their level of preparation, demographic group, or
socioeconomic status.
The brief contends that said findings are critical to note
because remedial course sequences have been identified as a key
barrier to college completion. The brief finds, "Across
California, 70-90 percent of CCC students are designated
underprepared for college and assigned to remedial courses in
English, math, or both. According to the most recent Student
Success Scorecard, just 41 percent of these students went on to
transfer or complete a certificate or degree within six years
statewide, a substantially lower completion rate than among
students designated college prepared."
California Acceleration Project. The CAP is an initiative of
the state-funded professional development network 3CSN.
According to the brief (as referenced above), 16 CCCs piloting
accelerated remediation models in 2011-12 as part of the CAP
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initiative, found that by redesigning their curricula to reduce
students' time in remedial courses by one or more semesters,
higher completion rates among students in accelerated
remediation occurred. In English, students' odds of completing
a college-level course were 2.3 times greater in high-impact
models of acceleration than students in traditional remediation;
and, in mathematics, students' odds of completing a
college-level course were 4.5 times greater than students in
traditional remediation.
To note, it presently unclear as to the exact number of CCCs
that participate in the CAP initiative, but it appears that
about half of the CCCs have at least one course (either of
English, mathematics, or both), but are only accessible to few
students.
Need for this measure. According to the author, "Many community
college students are limited to the standard remedial courses in
math and English that are yielding very poor results. Allowing
for more subjectivity and innovation in remedial courses would
allow faculty members to contextualize the remedial learning
experience to the benefit of all students, regardless of what
their educational goals may be."
Committee considerations. Presently, the measure is silent as
to when the CCDs would be able to apply for the multiyear grant
at the CCCCO. Committee staff recommends the following
amendment: 88800. A financial grant and professional
development funding program, administered by the chancellor, is
hereby established. The chancellor shall distribute multiyear
financial grants and professional development funding, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, no later than 180 days upon
receiving the appropriation for this purpose, to the governing
board of a community college district that applies and satisfies
the requirements of?.
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Additionally, the measure requires the CCCCO to submit an annual
report to the Legislature about the program, but it is unclear
as to when the initial report should be issued; and, the
required annual report is in perpetuity. Committee staff
recommends the following amendment: 88810. (3) (A) Aggregating,
analyzing, and reporting annually the information submitted
pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) to the Legislature
on the progress of the grant program in achieving its prescribed
purpose. The report shall be issued every other year commencing
the first year the Legislature appropriates funding for this
purpose, until July 1, 2024. The initial report will be due to
the Legislature on or before the end of the fiscal year in which
the Legislature initially appropriated funds for this purpose.
In subsequent years, the report will be due to the Legislature
on or before July 1.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Asian Americans Advancing Justice
California Business Roundtable
California Edge Coalition
California Manufacturers & Technology Association
Campaign for College Opportunity
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College Advance
Complete College America
Fulfillment Fund
Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
Los Rio Community College District
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Orange County Business Council
Parent Institute for Quality Education
Southern California College Access Network
2 Individuals
Opposition
None on file.
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Analysis Prepared by:Jeanice Warden / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960