BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1756
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 13, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
1756 (Bonilla) - As Amended March 29, 2016
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Policy | Education |Vote:| 6-0 |
|Committee: | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------|
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill establishes a grant program at the California
Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) to assist
postsecondary institutions with implementation or transition to
an integrated program of professional preparation. These
programs allow a student to earn a bachelor's degree and a
multiple or single subject teaching credential, including
student teaching requirements, concurrently within a four or
five year period. Specifically, this bill:
AB 1756
Page 2
1)Requires the CCTC to develop and implement a program to award
40 one-year grants ($250,000 per grant) to postsecondary
institutions to develop plans to guide the creation of four
year integrated programs of teacher preparation. Priority
will be provided to proposals designed to produce special
education teachers or teachers of subjects with chronic
teacher shortages (for example math and science).
2)Authorizes grantees to use their transition plan to: 1) create
a new program or adapt an existing integrated program; 2)
partner with a California Community College to create such a
program; and 3) use funds for any proper purpose in support of
planning for an integrated program, including: student
recruitment, faculty release time to redesign existing
courses, hiring program coordinators to assist in
collaboration with subject matter and pedagogy professors, and
creating summer courses.
3)Requires the CCTC to collect information about integrated
programs as part of the existing accreditation process.
4)Authorizes the CCTC to reserve some of the 40 grants to
provide a second grant to some or all of the postsecondary
institutions awarded grants for the subsequent fiscal year.
5)Makes the grant program and associated requirements contingent
upon an appropriation of funds in the Budget Act or another
statute.
AB 1756
Page 3
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)One-time General Fund costs of $10 million to provide 40
one-year grants to postsecondary institutions for the
development and transition to integrated teacher preparation
programs.
2)One-time General Fund costs of $250,000 for the CCTC to
administer the program over a six year period. These costs
include workload related to development of the program and the
Request for Proposal, solicitation of grant applications,
award determinations, grant administration, technical support
to grantees, and reporting outcome data provided by grant
recipients and overall program results.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, California suffers from a
shortage of qualified teachers. In 2015, more than 3,900 open
teaching positions remained in mid-October. Meanwhile,
enrollment in teacher credential programs has fallen by more
than 70% in the last decade. Many students choose not to enter
the teaching profession because of the low earning potential
and the high student loan debt. Incentivizing the creation of
four-year integrated teacher preparation programs will allow
students to earn their baccalaureate degree, finish their
teaching credential, and complete their student teaching
within four years, saving teachers one full year of tuition
costs as well as the cost of living.
2)Background. The Ryan Act of 1970 prohibited the completion of
teacher preparation during undergraduate work, instead
AB 1756
Page 4
requiring a "fifth year" of preparation as the primary route
to certification. The intent of this separation was to ensure
that teachers had robust subject matter preparation. This
approach, however, often led to the "siloing" of subject
matter and pedagogy and limited credential candidates ability
to develop cross-disciplinary understanding. Further, it has
led to increased schooling for the credential candidate, often
in excess of five years.
SB 2042 (Alpert), Chapter 548, Statutes of 1998 authorized
"integrated" or "blended" programs, allowing students working
toward their baccalaureate degree to also earn a teaching
credential. Despite this authorization, few opportunities to
receive a credential through this path appear to exist.
According to the author, in 2013-14, there were 6,992 students
in teacher credential programs at California State University
(CSU) but only 323 students in their combined programs.
3)Historical funding. When incentive programs were created
under AB 2042 in 1998, the state provided grants similar to
those proposed by this bill. According to CCTC documents,
$350,000 General Fund was provided to the CCTC to provide
grants to postsecondary institutions seeking to develop
integrated or blended programs. The CCTC awarded grants to
seven campuses for $50,000 each. From 1999 to 2001, 20
additional $50,000 grants were provided with federal Title II
funding. These grants included 12 CSU, 6 private and
independent and 2 UC grants. In addition to grants from the
CCTC, four programs received grants from the Stuart Foundation
during 1998-99.
The funds were used primarily to support faculty release time
for Arts and Sciences faculty and Education faculty to plan
programs that would meet the blended standards. Funds were
also used to involve K-12 school practitioners and community
college representatives in program planning and development.
AB 1756
Page 5
All 27 of the programs receiving grants submitted proposals,
and 22 of the programs were eventually approved.
According to the author, the original funding provided in 1998
was useful for initial program development, but many of these
programs still take five or six years to complete. According
to the author, $250,000 per grantee would be used to update
these programs to four-year programs. The author cites similar
purposes as the original grant awards: hiring faculty for
program design, faculty release time to create new courses and
time to coordinate with K-12 schools and the community to
identify workforce needs.
4)Comments. As noted in the Assembly Education Committee
analysis, the CCTC does not routinely collect information on
which institutions offer integrated programs, nor how many
credential holders they graduate, therefore, it is not clear
whether grant funding will translate to the creation of
successful programs that can be sustained. The committee may
wish to consider review of existing program data prior to
committing significant resources under another grant program.
Also, since program development needs may vary between each
campus, the committee may also wish to consider whether
$250,000 per grantee is necessary or if varied grant amounts
should be an option.
Analysis Prepared by:Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916) 319-2081
AB 1756
Page 6