BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2548| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 2548 Author: Weber (D), et al. Amended: 8/19/16 in Senate Vote: 21 SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 8-0, 6/29/16 AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Huff, Leyva, Monning, Pan, Vidak NO VOTE RECORDED: Mendoza SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/11/16 AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 75-1, 6/1/16 - See last page for vote SUBJECT: School accountability: statewide accountability system SOURCE: Children Now Education Trust-West DIGEST: This bill requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to establish state performance standards for key indicators and adopt an accountability system for K-12 public schools that is aligned to the requirements of federal law, relies upon data from specified key indicators, and ensures the creation of a data and reporting system that provides meaningful and accessible information on school and school district performance. Senate Floor Amendments of 8/19/16 add the requirement for AB 2548 Page 2 specified information to be translated to the extent already required by law, and expands measure of English proficiency to include additional data when available. ANALYSIS: Existing federal law: 1) Establishes the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which requires states to establish accountability systems that include the following indicators: a) Proficiency in reading and math; b) Graduation rates for high schools; c) English language proficiency; d) For elementary and middle schools, student growth or another indicator that is valid, reliable, and statewide; and e) At least one other indicator of school quality or success, such as measures of safety, student engagement, or educator engagement. 2) Requires the accountability system to have substantial weights on indicators a) through d) and, in aggregate, indicators a) through d) must have much greater weight than indicator e). 3) Requires states, at least once every three years, to identify the lowest performing 5% of Title I schools and all high schools with a graduation rate that is below 67% for comprehensive support. (United States Code, Title 20, § 6301, et seq.) Existing state law: 1) Establishes the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), AB 2548 Page 3 requires local educational agencies (LEAs) to adopt and annually update a Local Control and Accountability Plan that includes a description of: a) The annual goals, for all students and each subgroup, to be achieved for each of the state priorities and for any additional local priorities. b) The specific actions the school district or county office of education will take during each year to achieve the goals, including any specific actions to correct any deficiencies in regard to the state priorities. (Education Code § 42238, et seq., § 52060 and § 52066) 2) Requires the SBE to adopt evaluation rubrics to assist: a) A school district, county office of education or charter school in evaluating its strengths, weaknesses, and areas that require improvement. b) A county superintendent of schools in identifying school districts and charter schools in need of technical assistance and the specific priorities upon which the technical assistance should be focused. c) The Superintendent of Public Instruction in identifying school districts for intervention. 3) Requires the SBE to adopt, as part of the evaluation rubrics, standards for school district and individual school performance and expectations for improvement in regard to each of the state priorities. (EC § 52064.5) This bill: 1) Requires the SBE to adopt a statewide accountability system, to ensure alignment and fidelity with the state priorities and federal law, that meets all of the following requirements: AB 2548 Page 4 a) Is a single, integrated system that aligns local, state, and federal accountability requirements. b) Satisfies the accountability system requirements of the federal ESSA. c) Aligns the state's local control framework, which is focused on identifying and supporting local educational agencies with the additional need to identify, support, and improve the highest need schools. d) Relies upon data from specified key indicators (see #2 below) established pursuant to the evaluation rubrics. e) Provides the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE), county superintendents of schools, and the public with data to be used in a multi-tiered system of review and assistance. f) Ensures the creation of a data and reporting system that provides meaningful and accessible information on school and school district performance that is displayed through an electronic platform. Key indicators 2) Requires the key indicators for the accountability system to include, if not already included by the SBE, all of the following: For elementary and middle schools a) A measure of student achievement in at least English language arts, mathematics and science. b) A measure of academic growth. c) A measure of progress toward English proficiency, including but not limited to, data on the reclassification rates of English learners and long-term English learners when available. d) A measure of chronic absenteeism. e) A measure of school climate. For high schools AB 2548 Page 5 f) A measure of student achievement in at least English language arts, mathematics and science. g) A measure of graduation rates. h) A measure of progress toward English proficiency, including but not limited to, data on the reclassification rates of English learners and long-term English learners when available. i) A measure of college and career readiness. j) A measure of chronic absenteeism. aa) A measure of school climate. 3) Requires the academic indicators in a)-c) and f)-h) above to receive substantial weight and, in aggregate, much greater weight than is afforded to all other indicators. 4) Requires the performance of subgroups to receive substantial weight. 5) Provides that the SBE is not precluded from including additional statewide measures that can be disaggregated by subgroup in the accountability system for purposes of meaningful differentiation of all schools or from grouping the measures into common clusters. 6) States legislative intent that the state will continue to use the evaluation rubrics and all indicators identified as state priorities and subgroups for purposes of continuous improvement and to guide the provision of technical assistance, support and intervention. Alignment of state and federal accountability 7) Requires the SBE to do all of the following: a) Set clear, ambitious, statewide standards for performance and expectations for improvement toward each AB 2548 Page 6 of the key indicators described in #2 for students overall and for each numerically significant subgroup. b) Establish a mechanism to meaningfully differentiate the performance of all public schools, to identify school districts and county offices of education for intervention or technical assistance on an annual basis based on outcomes for all students and for each subgroup using the key indicators (#2) and to do all of the following: i) Distinguish multiple levels of performance for purposes of continuous improvement, transparency, meaningful stakeholder engagement, recognition, and support, as specified. ii) Support parents in making informed school decisions on behalf of their children. iii) Enable school districts, county offices of education, the California Department of Education, and the CCEE to identify schools for recognition, support, and assistance and ensure that support and assistance is provided to at least those schools identified pursuant to i). c) Comply with all notification, stakeholder engagement, school support, and improvement activities required by the federal ESSA, and to the extend required by state and federal law, ensure notifications are translated in the top five languages as identified by the California Department of Education. 8) Requires the standards for improvement to be differentiated by subgroup so that subgroups that start off at lower performance levels make greater growth to achieve the statewide standards. Multiple levels of performance 9) Provides that the multiple level of performance includes the identification of the following: a) Not less than the lowest-performing 5% of all schools receiving federal Title I funds and all public high schools in the state failing to graduate one-third or more AB 2548 Page 7 of their students. b) All schools in which any subgroup of students is consistently underperforming, as determined by the SBE, based on all of the key indicators in #2 and the accountability system established pursuant to this bill. c) All schools where any one subgroup of students, on its own, would lead that school to be in the lowest 5% of schools for students overall. Technical assistance and intervention 10)Requires the CCEE and county superintendents of schools, in identifying appropriate assistance for a school or LEA, to analyze data aligned with all the state priorities in order to align the level of support, collaboration, and intervention to the needs of LEAs or individual schools. Digital dashboard 11)Requires that parents and the public have the ability to easily access, compare, analyze, and summarize school reports, student performance results, and the progress made by schools and school districts in reaching all of the state's LCFF and Local Control and Accountability Plan priority areas. 12)States legislative intent to ensure that any Web-based data and analysis tools should enable all stakeholders to readily identify strengths and weaknesses, identify inequities between schools and subgroups of students across multiple measures, monitor academic achievement and improvement, provide for meaningful differentiation, and enable users to download data and reports in machine-readable formats. Comments Status of the new accountability system. The LCFF, among other AB 2548 Page 8 things, requires school districts and county offices of education to develop and annually update a Local Control And Accountability Plan that includes a description of the annual goals to be achieved for each of the eight state priorities and a description of the specific actions that will be taken to achieve the identified goals of the district or county office of education. Pursuant to the LCFF, the SBE is developing a new accountability system that relies upon multiple measures (rather than solely on test scores), and encompasses a system of continuous improvement and support for schools. According to the SBE, the new accountability system will build on the foundations of the LCFF, consisting of the Local Control And Accountability Plan, the evaluation rubrics, and the CCEE support structure. The SBE has taken several actions related to the development of the new accountability system; some notable recent actions include: 1) Approved a set of indicators that form the foundation for the new multiple measures accountability system: a) Student test scores and individual growth. b) Progress of English learners toward English proficiency. c) Graduation rates. d) Measures of student engagement including suspension rates (and chronic absence when available at the state level). 2) Approved a measure of college and career readiness, as specified. 3) Approved a methodology for establishing standards for specified state priorities. 4) Approved inclusion of a standard for the use of local climate surveys to support a broader assessment of performance. AB 2548 Page 9 5) Approved inclusion of an Equity Report, which identifies instances where any student subgroup is in the two lowest performance categories on a state indicator. 6) Directed staff to develop, in advance of the September 2016 SBE meeting, a proposed timeline through the end of the 2017 calendar year that addresses the further developmental work after approval of the initial phase of the evaluation rubrics, as specified. 7) Approved a method for calculating performance as a combination of outcome and improvement, allowing performance to be differentiated at the school, district and county office of education levels as well as for student subgroups. FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.:YesLocal: Yes According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: Unknown, but likely significant costs in the hundreds of thousands, to the California Department of Education related to the creation of a data and reporting system on school performance according to the specifications provided in this bill. (General Fund) Possible reimbursable state mandate costs for county superintendents of schools to analyze data related to the state priorities to align the level of support and intervention provided to the needs of the LEAs. See staff comments. (Proposition 98) SUPPORT: (Verified8/18/16) AB 2548 Page 10 Children Now (co-source) Education Trust-West (co-source) OPPOSITION: (Verified8/18/16) None received ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 75-1, 6/1/16 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Rendon NOES: Medina NO VOTE RECORDED: Hadley, Rodriguez, Thurmond, Wood Prepared by:Lynn Lorber / ED. / (916) 651-4105 8/22/16 23:05:45 **** END ****