BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Session AB 1153 (Calderon) - School accountability: local control and accountability plans: posting: evaluation rubrics. ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Version: April 20, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 8 - 0 | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Hearing Date: June 29, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. Bill Summary: This bill requires the State Board of Education (Board) to consider revising the local control and accountability plan (LCAP) template to include a section or appendix sufficient to monitor a school district's or county office of education's progress on outcomes related to the evaluation rubric adopted by the Board. If the Board does not make this revision, this bill requires the populated evaluation rubric of a school district or county office of education to be posted on their respective websites, if it is available. Fiscal Impact: Department costs: The State Department of Education (SDE) estimates that it would cost approximately $70,000 General Fund to revise the LCAP template. Mandate costs: Potential, minor state mandate costs to school districts and county offices of education to post available AB 1153 (Calderon) Page 1 of ? populated evaluation rubrics, if the Board does not revise the template. If the template is revised, potentially more significant mandated costs could instead be incurred by school districts and county offices of education through additional reporting of actual progress. These additional reporting costs would ultimately depend on the revised template adopted by the Board. (Proposition 98) Background: AB 97 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 47, Statutes of 2013) and subsequent legislation created the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), which consolidated most of the state's categorical programs with general purpose revenue limit funding, with additional funding to be phased in over the coming years. One of the main principles behind the LCFF is that English learners and low-income students require more attention and resources in the classroom than students who do not have these same challenges. In addition to the LCFF, the 2013 Budget established a new system for school accountability. Under the new system, school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools are required to complete an LCAP. The LCAP must include a district's annual goals in each of the following eight state priority areas: 1) student achievement; 2) student engagement; 3) other student outcomes; 4) school climate; 5) implementation of the Common Core State Standards; 6) course access; 7) basic services; and 8) parental involvement. Districts are required to consult with stakeholders on their plans and hold at least two public hearings before adopting or updating their LCAP. The LCFF legislation also requires that on or before October 1, 2015, the Board adopt evaluation rubrics for the following purposes: 1) to assist a school district, county office of education, or charter school in evaluating its strengths, weaknesses, and areas that require improvement; 2) to assist a county superintendent of schools in identifying school districts and charter schools in need of technical assistance; and 3) to assist the Superintendent of Public Instruction in identifying school districts for which state intervention is warranted. The evaluation rubrics are required to reflect a holistic, multidimensional assessment of school district and individual school site performance and to address all of the state priorities described in the LCAP. Additionally, as part of the AB 1153 (Calderon) Page 2 of ? evaluation rubrics, the Board is required to adopt standards for school district and individual school site performance and expectation for improvement with regard to each of the state priorities. Proposed Law: This bill requires the Board to consider a revision to the LCAP template to include a section or appendix sufficient to monitor actual progress with respect to the Board-adopted standards and expectations for improvement, as specified. This bill also requires the superintendent of a school district to post on the school district's website its populated evaluation rubric, if it is available, unless the Board revises the template to include a section or appendix to monitor actual progress on outcomes. Similarly, this bill requires a county superintendent of schools to post on the website of the county office of education its populated evaluation rubric, if available. Staff Comments: This bill would set forth in law two possible scenarios for tracking local educational agency progress on outcomes. First, the Board is required to consider revising the LCAP template to include a section or appendix to monitor actual progress in the context of the Board-adopted standards and expectations for improvement which are currently in development. If the Board does not make this revision, this bill requires school districts and county offices of education to post populated evaluation rubrics, if available, on their respective websites. If the Board decides to revise the LCAP template pursuant to this bill, the SDE estimates costs of about $70,000 to redirect existing staff. Activities required to update the template would include, staff time to collaborate with the Board to determine revisions, attorney staff time to review the revised template, updating the electronic LCAP and associated user manual, implementation of the regulations process to remove the existing template from regulations and adopting the revised AB 1153 (Calderon) Page 3 of ? template via the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, and providing technical assistance to the field on the template modifications. Existing law requires that if any activities related to the implementation of the LCAP provisions and regulations are found to be a state reimbursable mandate, funding provided to local educational agencies through the Local Control Funding Formula must be used to directly offset any mandated costs. To the extent the Commission on State Mandates determines LCAP activities are a state reimbursable mandate, this bill could potentially expand the mandated costs. Costs would be related to posting populated evaluation rubrics online, if they are available, or if the template is revised, additional reporting required of local educational agencies in their LCAP. The extent of additional reporting would depend on the Board-adopted revised template. Staff notes that Chapter 13, Statutes of 2015 (AB 104), the education omnibus trailer bill, extends the date by which the Board must adopt evaluation rubrics by one year to October 1, 2016. The SDE has indicated that the work required by this bill would likely take one year from the date the Board takes action to adopt the rubrics. -- END --