BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 172
Page 1
Date of Hearing: July 1, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Patrick O'Donnell, Chair
SB
172 (Liu) - As Amended April 6, 2015
SENATE VOTE: 25-14
SUBJECT: Pupil testing: high school exit examination:
suspension
SUMMARY: Suspends the requirement to pass the California High
School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) as a condition of receiving a high
school diploma and requires the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) to make recommendations regarding the
continuation of the CAHSEE and alternative pathways to
satisfying high school graduation requirements. Specifically,
this bill:
1)Suspends the CAHSEE as a condition of receiving a high school
diploma for the 2016-17 through the 2018-19 school years,
inclusive, or when it is no longer available.
2)Requires the SPI to convene an advisory panel consisting of,
but not necessarily limited to, secondary teachers, school
administrators, school board members, parents, the student
member of the state board, measurement experts, and
individuals with expertise in assessing English learners and
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pupils with disabilities to provide recommendations on the
continuation of the CAHSEE and on alternative pathways to
satisfy the high school graduation requirements.
3)Adds these recommendations to recommendations the SPI is
required to make to the State Board of Education (SBE)
regarding the expansion of the California Assessment of
Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) by March 1, 2016.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes the CAHSEE, which assesses pupils in English
language arts and mathematics and which pupils must pass as a
condition of receiving a high school diploma.
2)Establishes the CAASPP, which replaced the Standardized
Testing and Reporting Program (STAR) and which consists of the
following components:
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) Science grade level assessments in grades 5, 8, and 10;
c) 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;
d) The Early Assessment Program; and
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e) A primary language assessment aligned to the English
language arts standards, if a local educational agency
chooses to administer one.
3)Requires the SPI to make recommendations to the SBE regarding
expanding the CAASPP to include additional assessments.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, "The suspension of the high school exit examination
results in estimated savings of up to mid tens of millions in
Proposition 98 General Fund and Federal fund savings over a
multi-year period. CDE estimates that this bill will result in
one-time costs between $123,000 and $200,000 to convene an
advisory panel, depending on the number of panel members. The
recommendations that derive from this panel could create a
potentially significant cost pressure to implement them.
COMMENTS:
Background. The CAHSEE assesses pupils in the areas of English
language arts and mathematics. It was established by SB 2X
(O'Connell, Chapter 1, Statutes of 1999). SB 2X was part of a
package of school reform bills that established new curriculum
content standards, a new statewide assessment program, and
related professional development and instructional programs.
The requirement to pass the exam as a condition of receiving a
high school diploma was originally to take effect with the class
of 2004. However, the State Board of Education (SBE) determined
that a high failure rate in the pilot year was due to the fact
that the new, standards-based instruction had not been in place
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long enough to give pupils an adequate amount of time to prepare
for the exam. Accordingly the SBE voted to defer the
requirement to the class of 2006.
The CAHSEE is evaluated annually by the Human Resources Research
Organization (HumRRO). The most recent annual report (November
24, 2014) covers the class of 2014. The report notes that the
pass rate has increased from year to year, and in 2014 it was
97.2% among all pupils (this includes pupils who had to take the
test more than once before they passed it). By ethnicity, the
pass rate ranged from 96.1% for Latino/Hispanic pupils to 99.3%
for while pupils. The pass rate for students with disabilities
was 67.0%. The highest subgroup pass rate was 99.7% for English
learners who had been reclassified as fluent English.
New standards. The CAHSEE is aligned to the content standards
for English language arts and mathematics that were adopted
pursuant to the 1999 education reform package of bills. In 2010
the SBE voted to adopt the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
The adoption of the CCSS led to the development of new statewide
assessments that are aligned to the new standards. However, the
CAHSEE is still aligned to the old standards. This misalignment
is discussed in the 2014 HumRRO biennial report (January 31,
2014, pages 228-229):
Of the approximately 22,000 ELA and mathematics items
in the entire CAHSEE item bank, only about 16,000
(73%) were initially considered to be associated with
California content standards that could be
cross-walked to CCSS, according to ETS. HumRRO
observed review meetings ETS held to evaluate the
16,000 items for alignment at the item-to-CCSS level.
Approximately half or more of the items were judged
not aligned when evaluated directly to a CCSS
standard, and an additional number of mathematics
items were judged to align to a CCSS standard at an
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earlier grade than the California content standard
did. These results indicate that the CAHSEE item bank
would need to be substantially revised (e.g.,
replacing or modifying a significant number of items)
to align the CAHSEE to the CCSS rather than to the
previous California Content Standards.
Impact of the CAHSEE. HumRRO reports that the CAHSEE has
resulted in "greater alignment of instruction to the state's
content standards and improved student learning,...to a large
extent." However, Policy Analysis for California Education
(PACE) concluded that the CAHSEE "had no positive effects on
students' academic skill," and has led to "a large negative
impact on graduation rates for students in the bottom quartile
of achievement, and that this impact was especially large for
minority students and for girls" (Sean Reardon and Michal
Kurlaender, "Effects of the California High School Exit Exam on
Student Persistence, Achievement, and Graduation," August 2009).
A more recent report from the National Bureau of Economic
Research came to a similar conclusion: "We find relatively
modest effects of high school exit exams except on
incarceration. Exams assessing academic skills below the high
school level have little effect. However, more challenging
standards-based exams reduce graduation and increase
incarceration rates" (Olesya Baker and Kevin Lang, "The Effect
of High School Exit Exams on Graduation, Employment, Wages and
Incarceration," June 2013).
This bill suspends the CAHSEE requirement for the three-year
period beginning in 2016-17, or when the exam is no longer
available. The exam was last administered in May 2015 and,
because the contract with Educational Testing Service (ETS-the
exam contractor) has expired, will not be administered again.
Accordingly, the exam is no longer available for class of 2015
test takers who failed the May administration and cannot retake
it. Then intent, then, is to suspend the CAHSEE requirement
beginning with those members of the class of 2015 who have not
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passed it. However, the language may not be clear enough to
achieve this goal. Accordingly, staff recommends that the bill
be amended to explicitly begin the suspension with the 2014-15
school year (i.e., the class of 2015). In addition, staff
recommends the bill be amended to correct references to the
other school years, to provide that the suspension ends with the
2017-18 school year, and not the 2018-19 school year. With
these amendments, the suspension will begin with the class of
2015 and end with the class of 2018.
In addition, this bill requires the SPI to convene an advisory
panel to provide recommendations on the continuation of the high
school exit exam and on alternative pathways to satisfy high
school graduations requirements and to submit the
recommendations to the SBE by March 1, 2016.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
California School Boards Association
Bay Area Council
Business Council of San Joaquin County
East Bay Economic Development Agency
California State PTA
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California Teachers Association
East Bay Leadership Council
EdVoice
Inland Empire Economic Partnership
Joint Venture Silicon Valley
Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce
Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation
North Bay Leadership Council
Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce
Orange County Business Council
Riverside County Superintendent of Schools
San Diego Chamber of Commerce
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San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation
San Diego Unified School District
San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
San Francisco Unified School District
San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce
Santa Clara County Office of Education
School Employers Association of California
SIATech
Silicon Valley Leadership Group
Small School Districts' Association
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson
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Opposition
Public Advocates
San Bernardino City Unified School District
One individual
Analysis Prepared by:Rick Pratt / ED. / (916)
319-2087