BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 770
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
770 (Irwin)
As Amended April 27, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+----------------------|
|Higher |13-0 |Medina, Baker, | |
|Education | |Bloom, Chávez, | |
| | |Harper, Irwin, | |
| | |Jones-Sawyer, | |
| | |Levine, Linder, | |
| | |Low, Santiago, | |
| | |Weber, Williams | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+----------------------|
|Appropriations |17-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, | |
| | |Bonta, Calderon, | |
| | |Chang, Daly, | |
| | |Eggman, Gallagher, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Gordon, Holden, | |
| | |Jones, Quirk, | |
| | |Rendon, Wagner, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
AB 770
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| | | | |
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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
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.
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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.
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
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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.
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;
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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 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 in 8)
a) through f) above), 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 in 7)
a) through c)) above, and,
ii) Underprepared students who are enrolled at the
community college achieve the three goals (as described
above in 7) a) through c) above) within a shorter time
period than before the implementation of this measure at
the community college.
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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,
c) Annually reporting, until 2024, 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 7) a) through c) above), 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
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administering the grant program; and,
c) Aggregating, analyzing, and reporting, every other year,
commencing with the first year the Legislature appropriates
funding for this purpose, until July 1, 2024, the 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: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Given that there are 72 districts and 112 colleges, a viable
program would at least need to be in the low tens of millions of
dollars to provide one-time grants to campuses for curriculum
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redesign and professional development and changing assessment
and placement procedures. (General Fund (GF)-Proposition 98
(1988)).
2)To the extent the acceleration of remediation reduces more
students' time to commence taking college-level courses,
increases the likelihood of these students achieving their
educational goals and in less time, the students, districts, and
the state will benefit from this increased efficiency. According
to information from the author's office, in 2010-11, about
350,000 CCC students took credit basic skills course. Saving
all of these students one semester of basic skills remediation
would be the equivalent of about $160 million in funding.
3)Depending on the size of the grant program, the CCCCO would need
one or two positions to establish and administer the program, at
an ongoing GF cost of $125,000 to $250,000.
COMMENTS: Basic skills definition. Generally, definitions for
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 California
Code of Regulations (CCR), Title 5, Section 55002(c).
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 CCR, Title 5, Section 55002(b).
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
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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.
Basic skills state statistics. According to information provided
by the author's office, over 70% 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% to
90% 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% 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."
Need for this measure. According to the author, "Many community
college students are limited to the standard remedial courses in
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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."
Analysis Prepared by:
Jeanice Warden / HIGHER ED. / (916) 319-3960 FN:
0000757