BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 172|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 172
Author: Liu (D)
Amended: 9/4/15
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 6-2, 4/15/15
AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Leyva, Mendoza, Pan
NOES: Huff, Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 5-2, 5/28/15
AYES: Lara, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza
NOES: Bates, Nielsen
SENATE FLOOR: 25-14, 6/1/15
AYES: Allen, Beall, Block, De León, Galgiani, Hall, Hancock,
Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Jackson, Lara, Leno, Leyva,
Liu, McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Pan, Pavley, Roth,
Wieckowski, Wolk
NOES: Anderson, Bates, Berryhill, Cannella, Fuller, Gaines,
Huff, Moorlach, Morrell, Nguyen, Nielsen, Runner, Stone, Vidak
NO VOTE RECORDED: Glazer
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 51-27, 9/04/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Pupil testing: high school exit examination:
suspension
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill suspends the administration of the high
school exit examination (exit exam), and the requirement that
students pass this exam as a condition of graduation from high
school, during the 2015-16 through 2017-18 school years, and
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requires local educational agencies (LEAs) to grant a diploma to
any student who completed grade 12 in the 2003-04 or subsequent
school year and met all applicable graduation requirements other
than passage of the exit exam.
Assembly Amendments add to the workgroup a representative of a
dropout recovery charter school; modify the student member from
being the student member on the State Board of Education (SBE)
to one of the two finalists who were not appointed as the
student member of the SBE; modify the school years of
suspension, from the 2016-2019 school years to the 2015-2018
school years; and requires LEAs to grant a diploma to any
student who completed grade 12 in the 2003-04 or subsequent
school year and met all applicable graduation requirements other
than passage of the exit exam.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
develop, and the SBE to adopt, an exit exam in English
language arts and mathematics in accordance with the academic
content standards adopted by the SBE. (Education Code §
60850)
2)Requires pupils to successfully pass the exit exam as a
condition of receiving a diploma of graduation, in addition to
completing state and local graduation requirements. (EC §
60851, 51225.3 and 51224.5)
3)Specifies that the exit exam is not required as a condition of
receiving a diploma of graduation or a condition of graduation
from high school for a student completing grade 12 in 2015 and
who has met all other high school graduation requirements.
(EC § 60851.1)
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4)Establishes the Academic Content Standards Commission for the
purpose of developing the California Common Core Standards
(CCCS) in English language arts and mathematics, and required
the State Board of Education to reject or adopt those
standards by August 2, 2010. (EC § 60605.8)
5)Revamps the State's assessment system by eliminating several
assessments that were aligned to prior academic content
standards, transitioning to assessments that are aligned to
the common core standards in English language arts and
mathematics, and requiring existing assessments for English
language development and primary language to be revised for
alignment with the common core standards. (EC § 60640)
6)Requires the SPI, by March 1, 2016, to submit to the SBE, the
appropriate legislative policy and fiscal committee and the
Director of Finance, recommendations on expanding the
California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress to
include additional assessments. The SPI is required to
consult with specified stakeholders, and make recommendations
regarding assessments including the grade level, content, and
type of assessment. (EC § 60640(c))
This bill:
1)Suspends the administration of, and requirement to pass, the
exit exam as a condition of receiving a diploma of graduation
or a condition of graduation from high school, for the
2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18 school years.
2)Requires the governing board or body of a LEA, and the
California Department of Education on behalf of state special
schools, to grant a diploma of graduation from high school to
any student who completed grade 12 in the 2003-04 or
subsequent school year and met all applicable graduation
requirements other than passage of the exit exam. Sunsets
this provision on July 31, 2018 (to coincide with the period
of suspension).
3)Requires the SPI to convene an advisory panel to provide
recommendations to the SPI on the continuation of the exit
exam, and on alternative pathways to satisfy the high school
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graduation requirements.
4)Requires the recommendations of this advisory panel to be
included in the currently-required report by the SPI on the
expansion of the State's assessment system, which is due to
the SBE, appropriate legislative policy and fiscal committees,
and the Director of Finance by March 1, 2016.
5)Requires the advisory panel to consist of, but not be limited
to:
a) Secondary teachers.
b) School administrators.
c) School board members.
d) Parents.
e) A student chosen from among the two finalists who were
not appointed by the Governor to serve as the student
member on the SBE.
f) Representatives of a dropout recovery charter school.
g) Measurement experts.
h) Individuals with expertise in assessing English learners
and students with disabilities.
6)Defines "local educational agency" as a school district,
county office of education, or charter school.
Comments
Purpose of the high school exit exam. According to independent
evaluations conducted by the Human Resources Research
Organization (HumRRO), California's high school exit exam
(CAHSEE) has served a valuable purpose by ensuring students
demonstrate competency on standards, providing remediation
opportunities prior to grade 12, and helping to overall narrow
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the achievement gap between subgroups. The findings of HumRRO's
2014 Biennial Report include:
1)Performance on the CAHSEE continues to improve, but remains
low for English learners and students with disabilities.
2)CAHSEE passage rates for students with disabilities have been
mixed, and the availability of an exemption or waiver to the
requirement appears to influence passing rates.
3)Graduation rates have continued to improve and dropout rates
continue to decrease. Over time, more students persisted into
grade 12 and beyond.
4)A very strong relationship was discovered between CAHSEE
achievement and college enrollment.
5)Preliminary screening of the CAHSEE item bank indicated
limited alignment to the Common Core Standards (CCSS) and, for
mathematics, alignment of some items to CCSS at a lower grade
level.
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/hs/documents/cahsee14biennlrpt.pdf#
search=cahsee%20contract&view=FitH&pagemode=none
Alignment with curricular standards. The State Board of
Education adopted the California Common Core Standards in
English language arts and mathematics in August 2010. The
CAHSEE is aligned to English language arts and mathematics
standards that were adopted by the State Board of Education in
1997. The CAHSEE has not been updated for alignment with
current academic content standards. AB 484 (Bonilla, Chapter
489, Statutes of 2013) revamped the State's assessment system
to, among other things, transition to assessments that are
aligned to the common core standards, including subject-matter
exams, the English language development test and the primary
language assessment.
The 2014 Biennial Report provided by HumRRO states that the
evaluators observed review meetings held by the exit exam
contractor to evaluate the 16,000 items the contractor
considered to be associated with the common core standards.
According to HumRRO, approximately half of those items were
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judged not aligned when evaluated directly to common core
standards, and an additional number of mathematics items were
judged to align to common core standards at an earlier grade
than the California content standard did. HumRRO reports that
these results indicate that the exit exam item bank would need
to be substantially revised (e.g., replacing or modifying a
significant number of items) to align to the common core
standards.
Contract issues. According to the CDE, the contract for the
CAHSEE will expire on October 31, 2015. Pursuant to this
contract, the last administration of the CAHSEE was in May 2015.
The CDE maintains that the Department of General Services is
prohibiting the CDE from extending the contract for the CAHSEE,
and instead is requiring the CDE to issue a Request for
Proposal. This process can be time consuming; even if initiated
immediately, a new contract will not be in place to ensure
administration of the CAHSEE in July and possibly October and
later in 2015.
The 2015 Budget Act includes language to specifically authorize
the CDE to extend the CAHSEE contract for one year, contingent
upon the continuation of the CAHSEE requirement. This language
is necessary in the event that this bill fails passage or is
amended to keep the CAHSEE requirement in place for another
school year.
Absent any action, the CAHSEE will not be administered to
students beginning July 2015, yet the requirement to pass the
exit exam remains.
Why suspend? This bill suspends the administration of the high
school exit exam, and the requirement that students pass this
exam as a condition of graduation from high school. According
to the author, this bill does not eliminate the high school exit
exam, specifically requires the exit exam to be updated or
replaced, or provide for a replacement or alternative during the
term of suspension because the decisions of whether the exit
exam should be updated, replaced with other measurements, or
eliminated should be carefully considered by the workgroup
established by this bill.
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Used for federal accountability. The federal Elementary and
Secondary Education Act requires States that participate in
Title I (provides funding to schools to educate low-income
students) to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) criteria. The
required AYP indicators (at the school, local educational agency
and State levels) for California's 2014 AYP reports are all of
the following:
1)Participation rate - requires a 95% participation rate on the
statewide assessments in order to make AYP.
2)Annual Measurable Objectives, also known as percent proficient
- requires that 100% of students perform at the proficient or
above level on statewide assessments in English language arts
and mathematics by 2014.
3)Graduation rate - requires the State to use the graduation
rate as an additional indicator for all schools and local
educational agencies with grade 12 students.
California currently reports CAHSEE data as part of AYP for
purposes of calculating participation rates and percent
proficient. Four years of enrollment and exit data are used to
calculate the graduation rate for schools and local educational
agencies. Absent the availability of CAHSEE data, the State may
report data from the State Board-adopted assessments that are
aligned to the common core. The absence of CAHSEE data will not
compromise the State's ability to meet federal accountability
requirements.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:
General Fund costs of approximately $200,000 for the CDE to
convene an advisory panel to provide recommendations on the
continuation of the CAHSEE and on alternative pathways to
satisfy the high school graduation requirements. These
recommendations could create significant cost pressures in the
millions of dollars depending on the scope of the
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recommendations.
Proposition 98/GF savings in 2015-16 through 2017-18,
potentially in the range of $10 million to $12 million, due to
the suspension of the test. The 2015 Budget Act required the
CDE to develop a plan to utilize any savings for other
assessment needs.
SUPPORT: (Verified9/4/15)
None received
OPPOSITION: (Verified9/4/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 51-27, 9/04/15
AYES: Alejo, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brown, Burke, Calderon,
Campos, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd,
Eggman, Frazier, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto,
Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Roger Hernández,
Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lopez, Low, McCarty,
Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, O'Donnell, Perea, Quirk, Rendon,
Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Weber,
Williams, Wood, Atkins
NOES: Achadjian, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Brough, Chang,
Chávez, Dahle, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Grove, Hadley, Harper,
Jones, Kim, Lackey, Linder, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes,
Melendez, Obernolte, Olsen, Patterson, Steinorth, Wagner,
Waldron
NO VOTE RECORDED: Ridley-Thomas, Wilk
Prepared by:Lynn Lorber / ED. / (916) 651-4105
9/8/15 18:57:15
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