BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1985|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1985
Author: Williams (D), et al.
Amended: 8/1/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/15/16
AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Huff, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning, Pan,
Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 73-2, 5/23/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Advanced Placement credit
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires the Chancellors Office of the
California Community Colleges (CCC), in collaboration with the
Academic Senate of the CCC, to develop a uniform policy to award
credit, as specified, to a student with a minimum advanced
placement (AP) test score of 3, and requires each CCC district
to adopt the policy.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
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1)Establishes the Board of Governors (BOG) and the Chancellor of
the CCC to provide leadership and direction to the CCC while
maintaining and continuing, to the maximum degree permissible,
local authority and control in the administration of the
districts. The BOG and Chancellor are responsible for a
variety of functions, including establishing minimum
standards, providing various reports, and various annual
budgeting functions. In performing functions, BOG is required
to carry out a process of consultation with institutional
representatives, college organizations and interested
individuals and parties. (Education Code § 70901)
2)Authorizes the governing board of a community college district
to adopt policies to grant credit for satisfactory completion
of AP exams. The faculty in the appropriate discipline must
approve AP examinations, scores deemed to constitute
satisfactory performance, courses offered by the college for
which credit will be granted, and requirements that may be met
by such examinations in accordance with policies and
procedures approved by the curriculum committee. The
student's academic record must be clearly annotated to reflect
that credit was earned through an AP exam. (Title 5,
California Code of Regulations § 55052)
This bill:
1)Requires the Chancellor's Office of the CCC, in collaboration
with the Academic Senate of the CCC, to do both of the
following:
a) Beginning January 1, 2017, begin development of, and
each community college district subsequently must begin
adoption and implementation of, a uniform policy to award a
student who passes an AP examination course credit in a
similar course for the California Intersegmental General
Education Transfer Curriculum, California State University
(CSU) general education requirements, or local community
college general education requirements. Each community
college campus is required to post the policy on its Web
site.
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b) Periodically review and adjust the policy to align it
with other public postsecondary institutions.
2)Requires that if the policy is not implemented for in the fall
2017 academic term, the CCC is required to implement the AP
policy adopted by the CSU. At the CSU, all AP exams require a
minimum passing score of 3 to obtain credit.
Comments
Need for the bill. According to the author, AP credit policies
vary across each of the 113 CCCs. While the overwhelming
majority of CCC transfer students attend the CSU system, which
has an established and clear policy for awarding AP exam credit,
students who first attend a community college runs the risk of
losing the college credit they earned through their AP scores.
Students are forced to retake introductory courses although they
have already demonstrated proficiency as evidenced through their
scores. According to the author, the lack of a systemwide
credit policy for the CCC creates an unnecessary barrier for
students in receiving and transferring credits.
AP courses. According to the College Board, the provider of AP
exams, these courses are designed to provide rigorous academic
coursework opportunities for high school students. Upon
successful completion of an AP course, students are provided the
opportunity to take an AP exam, conducted by the College Board,
for which scores can range from 1-5. According to a College
Board report entitled AP Credit Policies at California Community
Colleges, 10 colleges do not grant credit or have unknown credit
policies for all available AP exams, 24 colleges require a score
of 4 to award credit, and 6 colleges require a score on some AP
exams of 5. In 2014, 16,178 AP test takers reported 47,180 AP
exam scores to CCC.
Other public institutions? It appears that the other public
postsecondary educational institutions have adopted and made
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available their AP exam/credit policies:
1)California State University. CSU Executive Order No. 1036,
issued on July 14, 2008, provides that CSU campuses shall
award baccalaureate credit toward degree and/or admissions
eligibility to students who pass standardized external
examinations (such as AP, International Baccalaureate, and
College Level Entrance Program examinations). The Chancellor,
in consultation with the General Education (GE) Advisory
Committee is required to maintain a list of external
examinations and passing scores, minimum credits toward
admissions eligibility, minimum credits toward the
baccalaureate degree, and, placement in GE Breadth area for
transfer students seeking GE certification. According to the
most recently available list, all AP exams require a minimum
passing score of three.
2)University of California (UC). According to UC, systemwide UC
grants credit for AP exams on which a student scores a 3 or
higher. Elective units awarded may be applied to UC
graduation requirements for specific subjects and/or for
general education/breadth requirements, as determined by each
campus. For transfer students, AP exams can also be used to
meet the minimum transfer admission subject requirements in
English, math and four other courses chosen from the
humanities, behavioral/social sciences, and
biological/physical sciences.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Mandate: One-time costs ranging in the low tens of thousands
to low hundreds of thousands for campuses to either create or
adapt their AP policies to a uniform policy adopted by the CCC
Chancellor's Office. These costs would likely be determined
to be a reimbursable state mandate by the Commission on State
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Mandates. (Proposition 98)
Chancellor's Office: Costs of up to about $20,000 General Fund
to hold two full day meetings with the CCC Academic Senate to
develop the uniform policy. If additional or less time is
needed to develop the policy, the costs would change
accordingly.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/16/16)
Association of California School Administrators
College Board
Education Trust West
Los Angeles Unified School District
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/16/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 73-2, 5/23/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Atkins, Baker, Bigelow,
Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle,
Daly, Dodd, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer,
Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis,
Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas,
Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Waldron,
Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NOES: Harper, Wagner
NO VOTE RECORDED: Arambula, Brough, Eggman, Jones, Patterson
Prepared by:Lenin DelCastillo / ED. / (916) 651-4105
8/16/16 10:22:26
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