Amended in Assembly September 4, 2015

Amended in Assembly September 1, 2015

Amended in Assembly July 9, 2015

Amended in Assembly June 23, 2015

Amended in Senate April 6, 2015

Senate Bill No. 172

Introduced by Senator Liu

February 5, 2015

An act to amend Section 60640 of, to add Section 60851.5 to, and to add and repeal Section 60851.6 of, the Education Code, relating to pupil testing.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 172, as amended, Liu. Pupil testing: high school exit examination: suspension.

Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with the approval of the State Board of Education, to develop a high school exit examination in English language arts and mathematics in accordance with state academic content standards. Existing law requires, commencing with the 2003-04 school year and each school year thereafter, each pupil completing grade 12 to successfully pass the high school exit examination as a condition of receiving a diploma of graduation or a condition of graduation from high school.

This bill would suspend the administration of the high school exit examination and would remove the high school exit examination as a condition of receiving a diploma of graduation or a condition of graduation from high school for each pupil completing grade 12, for the 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18 school years. The bill would, until July 31, 2018, require the governing board or body of a local educational agency, as defined, and the State Department of Education on behalf of state special schools, to grant a diploma of graduation from high school to begin delete a end delete begin insert any end insert pupil who begin insert completed grade 12 in the 2003-04 school year or a subsequent school year and end insert has met all applicable graduation requirements other than the passage of the high school exit examination.

Existing law establishes the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress as the statewide system of pupil assessments, under which various assessments are required or authorized to be administered in public schools, as specified. Existing law requires the Superintendent, on or before March 1, 2016, to submit to the state board recommendations on expanding the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress to include additional assessments, for consideration at a regularly scheduled public meeting, and to also submit those recommendations to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature and to the Director of Finance in accordance with specified requirements.

This bill would add a new requirement, that the Superintendent convene an advisory panel consisting of specified individuals to provide recommendations to the Superintendent on the continuation of the high school exit examination and on alternative pathways to satisfy specified high school graduation requirements, to those recommendations to be submitted by the Superintendent.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 60640 of the Education Code is amended
to read:

60640.  

(a) There is hereby established the California
Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, to be known as
the CAASPP.

(b) Commencing with the 2013-14 school year, the CAASPP
shall be composed of all of the following:

(1) (A) A consortium summative assessment in English
language arts and mathematics for grades 3 to 8, inclusive, and
grade 11 that measures content standards adopted by the state
board.

(B) In the 2013-14 school year, the consortium summative
assessment in English language arts and mathematics shall be a
field test only, to enable the consortium to gauge the validity and
reliability of these assessments and to conduct all necessary
psychometric procedures and studies, including, but not necessarily
limited to, achievement standard setting, and to allow the
department to conduct studies regarding full implementation of
the assessment system. These field tests and results shall not be
used for any other purpose, including the calculation of any
accountability measure.

(2) (A) Science grade level assessments in grades 5, 8, and 10
that measure content standards adopted pursuant to Section 60605,
until a successor assessment is implemented pursuant to
subparagraph (B).

(B) For science assessments, the Superintendent shall make a
recommendation to the state board as soon as is feasible after the
adoption of science content standards pursuant to Section 60605.85
regarding the assessment of the newly adopted standards. Before
making recommendations, the Superintendent shall consult with
stakeholders, including, but not necessarily limited to, California
science teachers, individuals with expertise in assessing English
learners and pupils with disabilities, parents, and measurement
experts, regarding the grade level and type of assessment. The
recommendations shall include cost estimates and a plan for
implementation of at least one assessment in each of the following
grade spans:

(i) Grades 3 to 5, inclusive.

(ii) Grades 6 to 9, inclusive.

(iii) Grades 10 to 12, inclusive.

(3) The California Alternate Performance Assessment in grades
2 to 11, inclusive, in English language arts and mathematics and
science in grades 5, 8, and 10, which measures content standards
adopted pursuant to Section 60605 until a successor assessment
is implemented. The successor assessment shall be limited to the
grades and subject areas assessed pursuant to paragraph (1) and
subparagraph (B) of paragraph (2).

(4) The Early Assessment Program established by Chapter 6
(commencing with Section 99300) of Part 65 of Division 14 of
Title 3.

(5) (A) A local educational agency may administer a primary
language assessment aligned to the English language arts standards
adopted pursuant to Section 60605, as it read on January 1, 2013,
to pupils who are identified as limited English proficient and
enrolled in any of grades 2 to 11, inclusive, until a subsequent
primary language assessment aligned to the common core standards
in English language arts adopted pursuant to Section 60605.8 is
developed pursuant to subparagraph (E).

(B) If a local educational agency chooses to administer a primary
language assessment to pupils identified as limited English
proficient and enrolled in any of grades 2 to 11, inclusive, pursuant
to subparagraph (A), it shall notify the department in a manner to
be determined by the department and the costs shall be paid by the
state and included as part of the testing contract, and the department
shall provide the local educational agency a per pupil
apportionment for administering the assessment pursuant to
subdivision (l).

(C) The Superintendent shall consult with stakeholders,
including assessment and English learner experts, to determine
the content and purpose of a stand-alone language arts summative
assessment in primary languages other than English that aligns
with the English language arts content standards. The
Superintendent shall consider the appropriate purpose for this
assessment, including, but not necessarily limited to, support for
the State Seal of Biliteracy and accountability. It is the intent of
the Legislature that an assessment developed pursuant to this
section be included in the state accountability system.

(D) The Superintendent shall report and make recommendations
to the state board at a regularly scheduled public meeting no sooner
than one year after the first full administration of the consortium
computer-adaptive assessments in English language arts and
mathematics summative assessments in grades 3 to 8, inclusive,
and grade 11, regarding an implementation timeline and estimated
costs of a stand-alone language arts summative assessment in
primary languages other than English.

(E) The Superintendent shall develop, and the state board shall
adopt, a primary language assessment. The Superintendent shall
administer this assessment no later than the 2016-17 school year.

(F) This paragraph shall be operative only to the extent that
funding is provided in the annual Budget Act or another statute
for the purpose of this section.

(c) No later than March 1, 2016, the Superintendent shall submit
to the state board recommendations on expanding the CAASPP
to include additional assessments, for consideration at a regularly
scheduled public meeting. The Superintendent shall also submit
these recommendations to the appropriate policy and fiscal
committees of the Legislature and to the Director of Finance in
accordance with all of the following:

(1) In consultation with stakeholders, including, but not
necessarily limited to, California teachers, individuals with
expertise in assessing English learners and pupils with disabilities,
parents, and measurement experts, the Superintendent shall make
recommendations regarding assessments, including the grade level,
content, and type of assessment. These recommendations shall
take into consideration the assessments already administered or
planned pursuant to subdivision (b). The Superintendent shall
consider the use of consortium-developed assessments, various
item types, computer-based testing, and a timeline for
implementation.

(2) The recommendations shall consider assessments in subjects,
including, but not necessarily limited to, history-social science,
technology, visual and performing arts, and other subjects as
appropriate, as well as English language arts, mathematics, and
science assessments to augment the assessments required under
subdivision (b), and the use of various assessment options,
including, but not necessarily limited to, computer-based tests,
locally scored performance tasks, and portfolios.

(3) The recommendations shall include the use of an assessment
calendar that would schedule the assessments identified pursuant
to paragraph (2) over several years, the use of matrix sampling, if
appropriate, and the use of population sampling.

(4) The recommendations shall include a timeline for test
development, and shall include cost estimates for subject areas, as
appropriate.

(5) Upon approval by the state board and the appropriation of
funding for this purpose, the Superintendent shall develop and
administer approved assessments. The state board shall approve
test blueprints, achievement level descriptors, testing periods,
performance standards, and a reporting plan for each approved
assessment.

(6) The Superintendent shall convene an advisory panel,
consisting of, but not necessarily limited to, secondary teachers,
school administrators, school board members, parents, a student
chosen from among the two finalists who were not appointed by
the Governor to serve as the student member on the state board
pursuant to Section 33000.5, representatives of a dropout recovery
charter school operating pursuant to subdivision (g) of Section
47605.1, measurement experts, and individuals with expertise in
assessing English learners and pupils with disabilities, to provide
recommendations to the Superintendent on the continuation of the
high school exit examination, described in Chapter 9 (commencing
with Section 60850), and on alternative pathways to satisfy the
high school graduation requirements pursuant to Sections 51224.5
and 51225.3.

(d) For the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years, the department
shall make available to local educational agencies Standardized
Testing and Reporting Program test forms no longer required by
the CAASPP. The cost of implementing this subdivision, including,
but not necessarily limited to, shipping, printing, scoring, and
reporting per pupil shall be the same for all local educational
agencies, and shall not exceed the marginal cost of the assessment,
including any cost the department incurs to implement this section.
A local educational agency that chooses to administer an
assessment pursuant to this subdivision shall do so at its own
expense, and shall enter into an agreement for that purpose with
a contractor, subject to the approval of the department.

(e) The Superintendent shall make available a paper and pencil
version of any computer-based CAASPP assessment for use by
pupils who are unable to access the computer-based version of the
assessment for a maximum of three years after a new operational
test is first administered.

(f) (1) From the funds available for that purpose, each local
educational agency shall administer assessments to each of its
pupils pursuant to subdivision (b). As allowable by federal statute,
recently arrived English learner pupils are exempted from taking
the assessment in English language arts. The state board shall
establish a testing period to provide that all schools administer
these tests to pupils at approximately the same time during the
instructional year. The testing period established by the state board
shall take into consideration the need of local educational agencies
to provide makeup days for pupils who were absent during testing,
as well as the need to schedule testing on electronic computing
devices.

(2) For the 2013-14 school year, each local educational agency
shall administer the field tests in a manner described by the
department in consultation with the president or executive director
of the state board. Additional participants in the field test beyond
the representative sample may be approved by the department, and
the department shall use existing contract savings to fund local
educational agency participation in one or more tests per
participant. Funds for this purpose shall be used to allow for
maximum participation in the field tests across the state. To the
extent savings in the current contract are not available to fully fund
this participation, the department shall prorate available funds by
test. Local educational agencies shall bear any additional costs to
administer these assessments that are in excess of the contracted
amount. With the approval of the state board and the Director of
Finance, the department shall amend the existing assessment
contract to accommodate field testing beyond the representative
sample, and to allow for special studies using information collected
from the field tests.

(g) From the funds available for that purpose, each local
educational agency shall administer assessments as determined by
the state board pursuant to paragraph (5) of subdivision (c).

(h) As feasible, the CAASPP field tests shall be conducted in
a manner that will minimize the testing burden on individual
schools. The CAASPP field tests shall not produce individual pupil
scores unless it is determined that these scores are valid and
reliable.

(i) The governing board of a school district may administer
achievement tests in grades other than those required by this section
as it deems appropriate.

(j) Subject to the approval of the state board, the department
may make available to local educational agencies a primary
language assessment aligned to the English language arts standards
adopted pursuant to Section 60605, as it read on January 1, 2013,
for assessing pupils who are enrolled in a dual language immersion
program that includes the primary language of the assessment and
who are either nonlimited English proficient or redesignated fluent
English proficient until a subsequent primary language assessment
aligned to the common core standards in English language arts
adopted pursuant to Section 60605.8 is developed pursuant to
paragraph (5) of subdivision (b). The cost for the assessment shall
be the same for all local educational agencies and shall not exceed
the marginal cost of the assessment, including any cost the
department incurs to implement this section. A local educational
agency that elects to administer a primary language assessment
pursuant to this subdivision shall do so at its own expense and
shall enter into an agreement for that purpose with the state testing
contractor, subject to the approval of the department.

(k) Pursuant to Section 1412(a)(16) of Title 20 of the United
States Code, individuals with exceptional needs, as defined in
Section 56026, shall be included in the testing requirement of
subdivision (b) with appropriate accommodations in administration,
where necessary, and the individuals with exceptional needs who
are unable to participate in the testing, even with accommodations,
shall be given an alternate assessment.

(l) (1) The Superintendent shall apportion funds appropriated
for these purposes to local educational agencies to enable them to
meet the requirements of subdivisions (b) and (c).

(A) For the CAASPP field tests administered in the 2013-14
school year or later school years, the Superintendent shall apportion
funds to local educational agencies if funds are specifically
provided for this purpose in the annual Budget Act.

(B) The Superintendent shall apportion funds to local
educational agencies to enable them to administer assessments
used to satisfy the voluntary Early Assessment Program in the
2013-14 school year pursuant to paragraph (4) of subdivision (b).

(2) The state board annually shall establish the amount of
funding to be apportioned to local educational agencies for each
test administered and annually shall establish the amount that each
contractor shall be paid for each test administered under the
contracts required pursuant to Section 60643. The amounts to be
paid to the contractors shall be determined by considering the cost
estimates submitted by each contractor each September and the
amount included in the annual Budget Act, and by making
allowance for the estimated costs to local educational agencies for
compliance with the requirements of subdivisions (b) and (c). The
state board shall take into account changes to local educational
agency test administration activities under the CAASPP, including,
but not limited to, the number and type of tests administered and
changes in computerized test registration and administration
procedures, when establishing the amount of funding to be
apportioned to local educational agencies for each test
administered.

(3) An adjustment to the amount of funding to be apportioned
per test shall not be valid without the approval of the Director of
Finance. A request for approval of an adjustment to the amount
of funding to be apportioned per test shall be submitted in writing
to the Director of Finance and the chairpersons of the fiscal
committees of both houses of the Legislature with accompanying
material justifying the proposed adjustment. The Director of
Finance is authorized to approve only those adjustments related
to activities required by statute. The Director of Finance shall
approve or disapprove the amount within 30 days of receipt of the
request and shall notify the chairpersons of the fiscal committees
of both houses of the Legislature of the decision.

(m) For purposes of making the computations required by
Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution, the
appropriation for the apportionments made pursuant to paragraph
(1) of subdivision (l), and the payments made to the contractors
under the contracts required pursuant to Section 60643 or
subparagraph (C) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section
60605 between the department and the contractor, are “General
Fund revenues appropriated for school districts,” as defined in
subdivision (c) of Section 41202, for the applicable fiscal year,
and included within the “total allocations to school districts and
community college districts from General Fund proceeds of taxes
appropriated pursuant to Article XIII B,” as defined in subdivision
(e) of Section 41202, for that fiscal year.

(n) As a condition to receiving an apportionment pursuant to
subdivision (l), a local educational agency shall report to the
Superintendent all of the following:

(1) The pupils enrolled in the local educational agency in the
grades in which assessments were administered pursuant to
subdivisions (b) and (c).

(2) The pupils to whom an achievement test was administered
pursuant to subdivisions (b) and (c) in the local educational agency.

(3) The pupils in paragraph (1) who were exempted from the
test pursuant to this section.

(o) The Superintendent and the state board are authorized and
encouraged to assist postsecondary educational institutions to use
the assessment results of the CAASPP, including, but not
necessarily limited to, the grade 11 consortium summative
assessments in English language arts and mathematics, for
academic credit, placement, or admissions processes.

(p) Subject to the availability of funds in the annual Budget Act
for this purpose, and exclusive of the consortium assessments, the
Superintendent, with the approval of the state board, annually shall
release to the public test items from the achievement tests pursuant
to Section 60642.5 administered in previous years. Where feasible
and practicable, the minimum number of test items released per
year shall be equal to 25 percent of the total number of test items
on the test administered in the previous year.

(q) On or before July 1, 2014, Sections 850 to 868, inclusive,
of Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations shall be revised
by the state board to conform to the changes made to this section
in the first year of the 2013-14 Regular Session. The state board
shall adopt initial regulations as emergency regulations to
immediately implement the CAASPP assessments, including, but
not necessarily limited to, the administration, scoring, and reporting
of the tests, as the adoption of emergency regulations is necessary
for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety,
or general welfare within the meaning of Section 11346.1 of the
Government Code. The emergency regulations shall be followed
by the adoption of permanent regulations, in accordance with the
Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with
Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government
Code).

SEC. 2.  

Section 60851.5 is added to the Education Code, to
read:

60851.5.  

Notwithstanding Section 60851, the administration
of the high school exit examination, and the requirement that each
pupil completing grade 12 successfully pass the high school exit
examination as a condition of receiving a diploma of graduation
or a condition of graduation from high school, shall be suspended
for the 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18 school years.

SEC. 3.  

Section 60851.6 is added to the Education Code, to
read:

60851.6.  

(a) Notwithstanding begin insert Section 60851 or end insert any other law,
the governing board or body of a local educational agency, and
the department on behalf of state special schools, shall grant a
diploma of graduation from high school to begin delete a end delete begin insert any end insert pupil who
begin insert completed grade 12 in the 2003-04 school year or a subsequent
school year and end insert has met all applicable graduation requirements
other than the passage of the high school exit examination.

(b) For purposes of this section, “local educational agency”
means a school district, county office of education, or charter
school.

(c) This section shall remain in effect only until July 31, 2018,
and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that
is enacted before July 31, 2018, deletes or extends that date.