BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2237
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Date of Hearing: April 13, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Patrick O'Donnell, Chair
AB 2237
(Olsen) - As Amended March 18, 2016
SUBJECT: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Partnership Academies
SUMMARY: Establishes the Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics (STEM) Partnership Academies program, for the
purpose of providing grants to school districts to establish up
to 100 partnership academies in STEM occupations. Specifically,
this bill:
1)Makes findings and declarations relative to the importance of
high-quality STEM education in the classroom.
2)Requires, beginning with the 2016-17 school year, the
California Department of Education (CDE), in coordination with
the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), to issue
grants for the establishment of 100 partnership academies
dedicated to training young people in STEM occupations,
including:
a) application software developer
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b) computer user support specialist
c) computer programmer
d) computer hardware engineer
e) industrial engineer
f) civil engineer
g) architectural engineer
h) aerospace engineer
i) dietetic technician
j) medical scientist
aa) microbiologist
bb) general medical practitioner
cc) dental services provider
dd) chemist
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3)Requires the selection of school districts to establish STEM
partnership academies, and the planning and development of
these academies, to be consistent with current requirements
for partnership academies.
4)Authorizes school districts applying to convert existing
school programs into STEM partnership academies to receive
first-year implementation funds.
5)Requires that in order to receive funding for the purposes of
this bill, each proposed partnership academy meet the
following requirements:
a) Coursework and internship or pre-apprenticeship programs
which focus significant time on the use of emerging
technologies and state-of-the-art equipment.
b) Staff development opportunities to ensure that teaching
staff have the opportunity to be trained in the use of
emerging technologies and become familiar with new
equipment and current practices in STEM fields.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes the California Partnership Academies (CPA) program
as a state-school-private sector partnership to provide
combined academic and occupational training to eligible
at-risk students in grades 10-12, inclusive.
2)Establishes funding and grant amounts to be awarded to school
districts for purposes of planning, establishing and
maintaining academies, and expresses legislative intent to
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expand the CPA program.
3)Requires the SPI to ensure that the planning grants are
equitably distributed among high-wealth and low-wealth school
districts in urban, rural, and suburban areas.
4)Requires districts and participating businesses to each
provide 100% matching funds for all state funds received;
provides that the match may be in the form of direct and
in-kind support; and requires the district to establish an
advisory committee consisting of specified individuals and
representatives.
5)Requires each district operating academies to annually certify
information to the SPI regarding the number of qualified
students enrolled during the just completed school year, by
grade level, and for each academy operated by the district.
6)Establishes the Green Technology Partnership Academies and the
Goods Movement Partnership Academies, commencing with the
2009-10 school year, and requires, when funds become available
for additional partnership academies, the SPI to issue grants
for the establishment of such partnership academies in each of
the nine economic regions established by the state.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
Need for the bill. The author's office states, "Right now, not
enough of our youth have access to quality STEM learning
opportunities, and too few students see these disciplines as
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springboards for their careers. Although 81 percent of
Asian-American high school students and 71 percent of Caucasian
high school students attend high schools where the full range of
math and science courses are offered, access to these courses
for American Indian, Native Alaskan, African-America and
Hispanic high school students is significantly worse.
A child's race, zip code, or socioeconomic status should never
determine their STEM fluency. Children must be provided with the
opportunity to be career and college-ready and to thrive in a
modern STEM economy. Furthermore, only 16 percent of American
high school seniors are proficient in math and interested in a
STEM career. Even among those who do go on to pursue a college
major in the STEM fields, only about half choose to work in a
related career.
By providing funding for 100 STEM Partnership Academies, AB 2237
would provide stronger access to quality STEM learning
opportunities in school so that students are better prepared for
the jobs and careers of the future."
Overview of California Partnership Academies. A CPA is a small
learning community within a larger high school that contains
college-preparatory curriculum organized around a career-related
theme. Under the CPA model, a team of teachers work with the
same group of students over several years, aligning instruction
across disciplines, while employers provide internships and
other opportunities for students to learn outside the classroom.
Each CPA frames its curriculum around one of the 15 industry
fields established for Career Technical Education by the CDE.
The most common themes are Health Science and Medical
Technology; Arts, Media and Entertainment; Finance and Business;
Engineering and Design; and Public Services.
According to a report prepared for the CDE by the Career Academy
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Support Network at UC Berkeley, 467 CPAs submitted reports to
the CDE for the 2009-10 school year. These academies operated in
278 of the state's 1,264 comprehensive high schools. Most high
schools with CPAs ranked below average on the state's Academic
Performance Index. The 437 CPAs that provided student-level
data enrolled 48,436 students in grades 10-12-about 3% of the
state's 1.6 million students in these grades. CPAs serve 36 of
California's 58 counties, and the state's six most populous
counties-Los Angeles, Sacramento, Alameda, Riverside, San Diego,
and Contra Costa-have a total of 287 CPAs.
In order to receive the full amount of state funding, an academy
must show that at least 50% of the students in each incoming
class of CPA sophomores meet three of the following six
"at-risk" criteria: 1) having a poor attendance record; 2) being
significantly behind in credits; 3) demonstrating low motivation
for the regular school program; 4) being economically
disadvantaged; 5) having low state test scores; or 6) having a
low grade point average.
CPA students are 53% female and 47% male. CPA student gender
balances vary considerably among industry sectors, from Fashion
and Interior Design (2 academies) which is 79% female to
Manufacturing and Product Development (8 academies) which is 78%
male. Compared to the state as a whole, CPAs enroll larger
percentages of Hispanic and African American students: 59% of
students enrolled are Hispanic, 16% are Caucasian, 10% are
Asian, and 9% are African American.
Focus on CTE in California has grown. With dramatic changes in
industry and workforce demands, as well as renewed focus on
supporting career readiness, policymakers, business leaders and
educators have enacted numerous reforms to increase student
access to CTE courses in recent years.
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In addition to the Regional Occupational Centers and Programs
(ROC/Ps) and the CPAs, the Legislature recently established the
Career Pathways Trust and the CTE Incentive Grant programs. The
Legislature has also made courses in CTE an option to meet state
graduation requirements. In January, 2013, the SBE adopted
revised CTE Model Curriculum Standards, which reflect the
specific conditions and expectations of each industry sector.
The standards are organized into 15 industry sectors, which each
contain three to seven different pathway learning approaches.
Underrepresentation in STEM education. STEM education includes
four specific disciplines-science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics-in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. STEM
teaches and trains students to engage in critical thinking,
inquiry, problem solving, collaboration, and what is often
referred to in engineering as design thinking. In recent years
the state has undertaken a number of policy reforms to address
STEM teaching and assessment practices, curriculum, and policies
that expand STEM opportunities for all students.
According to a 2009 report from the Institute for Higher
Education Leadership & Policy at California State University,
Sacramento titled Technical Difficulties: Meeting California's
Workforce Needs in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math
(STEM) Fields, the supply of STEM-educated workers is not
keeping pace with the employment demand in STEM fields. To
ensure that there are enough STEM workers, the report concluded
that increasing STEM achievement by underrepresented groups is
essential. The report noted that only three percent of STEM
majors in the state are African-American, and 18% are Latino.
The gender gap in many STEM fields has been widely recognized
for years, and in several fields has remained stagnant or
worsened in recent years. This gap is reflected in CTE STEM
programs at the high school level, degree attainment in higher
education and employment in STEM professions:
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According to the U.S. Department of Education, girls are
significantly less likely to be enrolled in CTE programs
which focus on STEM occupations. The Department reports
that in 2009-2010, girls made up only 24% of enrollment in
science, technology, engineering, and math CTE programs
nationally.
Women remain far less likely to earn STEM degrees in
several fields, including engineering and computer science,
and this gap has remained relatively stagnant over the last
ten years. According to the National Student Clearinghouse
Research Center, between 2004 and 2014 women earned
bachelor's degrees in engineering at the rate of 20% and
19% respectively, and the rate of degrees earned in
computer sciences dropped from 23% to 18% over that decade.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that in the
occupation of computer programmer (one of the professions
specified in this bill), women represent only 23% of the
workforce in 2012, a slight decline from the rate of 25% in
2002. The representation of women in a number of
engineering professions is even lower, from 1% to 18%.
Current law requires the SPI to ensure that CPA planning grants
are equitably distributed among high-wealth and low-wealth
school districts in urban, rural, and suburban areas. The law
also requires that at least 50% of students enrolled in
partnership academy are "at-risk." However, current law and
this bill do not require programs to address issues of
underrepresentation in the fields for which they are preparing
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students. Staff recommends an amendment requiring the SPI to
grant priority to STEM Partnership Academy proposals, authorized
by this bill, that address the participation of students
traditionally underrepresented in STEM education and
professions.
Sources of CPA support. There are three sources of supplemental
support for CPAs: grants from the state; financial or in-kind
support from the host district, required to be at least equal to
the State grant; and financial or in-kind contributions from
local employers, also required to be at least equal to the state
grant. The state grant is therefore leveraged at least
two-to-one by local matching contributions. In total, state
grants amounted to $26.5 million in 2009-10, while school
districts matches totaled $41.3 million and employer matches
totaled $48.3 million. Thus, on average, CPAs received about 23%
of their supplemental support from state grant funds, 35% in
matching district support, and 42% in matching employer
contributions.
This bill is an expansion of one of the few categorical programs
left in the era of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF).
With the establishment of the LCFF in 2013, approximately
three-quarters of all categorical programs were eliminated, and
the funds previously dedicated for the programs were
incorporated into the LCFF. The retention of this program
indicates the Legislature's priority to maintain a separate and
dedicated funding stream for CPAs.
State-of-the-art requirement may disadvantage some areas. This
bill requires that in order to be eligible for funding, each
proposed partnership academy must focus significant time on the
use of emerging technologies and state-of-the-art equipment, as
well on staff development to ensure that teachers are familiar
with how to use the equipment. The Committee may wish to
consider if all districts competing for the grants established
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by this bill will have the equal means to provide use of this,
presumably, very expensive equipment and technology.
Arguments in support: Microsoft Corporation writes, "By
providing funding for 100 STEM Partnership Academies, AB 2237
would provide stronger access to quality STEM learning
opportunities in schools so that students are better prepared
for the jobs and careers of the future. We believe AB 2237 is an
important tool in preparing students for careers in the
knowledge-based economy."
Implementation date. The bill authorizes the CDE to issue
grants for the establishment of 100 partnership academies
starting in the 2016-17 school year. If this bill is enacted it
will require an appropriation, which would not be available
until July 2017. Staff recommends that this bill be amended to
delay the establishment of the partnership academies until the
2017-18 school year.
Related legislation: AB 2072 (Chang) of this Session would
establish the State Seal of STEM, to be affixed to high school
diplomas of qualified students, to recognize students who have
attained a high level of proficiency in the STEM subjects. This
bill is currently pending in this Committee.
AB 2275 (Dababneh) of this Session would authorize a person who
holds a single subject credential in business, industrial and
technology education, mathematics or science to teach courses in
computer science. This bill is currently pending in this
Committee.
AB 2329 (Bonilla) of this Session establishes a computer science
strategic implementation advisory board to develop a K-12
computer science strategic implementation plan. This bill is
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approved by this Committee on a vote of 7-0 and has been
referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 1258 (Chau) of this Session would have established a Computer
Science Start-Up Courses Grant Pilot Program and a Computer
Science Educator Training Grant Pilot program, for the purposes
of providing grants to school districts to establish and
maintain computer science courses and provide professional
development for educators to teach computer science. This bill
was held in Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 252 (Holden) of this Session would have established a grant
program to award funds to cover the costs associated with a high
school establishing or expanding its Advanced Placement STEM
curriculum. This bill was held in Senate Appropriations
Committee.
Prior legislation: SB 1354 (Hancock), Chapter 650, Statutes of
2010, revised the criteria for identifying pupils that are "at
risk" for purposes of enrollment in California Partnership
Academies and required school districts to provide an assurance
that each CPA pupil will be provided with career technical
education courses that are part of an occupational course
sequence that targets comprehensive skills and meets specified
requirements.
AB 2855 (Hancock), Chapter 685, Statutes of 2008, establishes,
commencing with the 2009-10 school year, the Green Technology
Partnership Academies and the Goods Movement Partnership
Academies as two new categories of CPAs.
AB 999 (Hancock) of the 2007-08 Session would have established,
commencing with the 2008-09 school year, the Green Technology
Partnership Academies and the Goods Movement Partnership
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Academies as two new categories of CPAs. This bill was held in
the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 830 (Kehoe) of the 2007-08 Session would have provided for
the expansion of the number of CPAs, revised funding formulas
and requirements for school districts operating academies, and
revised the eligibility criteria to allow for the participation
of 9th grade students. This bill was held in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
AB 2529 and AB 1570 (Salinas) of the 2005-06 Session, would have
expanded the CPAs, changed the per-pupil and per-academy grant
amounts, and revised student eligibility criteria and district
requirements for participation. These bills were held in the
Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees, respectively.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Microsoft Corporation
Opposition
None received
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Analysis Prepared by:Christine Aurre and Tanya Lieberman / ED.
/ (916) 319-2087