BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 359 (Mitchell) - California Mathematics Placement Act of 2015
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|Version: April 23, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 8 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: May 28, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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SUSPENSE FILE. AS AMENDED.
Bill
Summary: This bill requires each local educational agency (LEA)
serving students in grade 8 or 9 to develop and implement a
fair, objective, and transparent mathematics placement policy.
Fiscal Impact (as approved on May 28, 2015):
Mandate: Unknown, potentially significant costs for LEAs
without a mathematics placement policy to develop and
implement one in accordance with the requirements of this
bill. Costs to the state would depend on the number of LEAs
that would be required to develop a placement policy as these
activities, as well as implementing the policy, could be
determined to be a reimbursable state mandate.
Background: Current law requires students to successfully complete two
courses in mathematics as a condition of graduation from high
school. (Education Code § 51225.3)
SB 359 (Mitchell) Page 1 of
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Current law also requires that one of those courses, or "a
combination of the two courses" required for graduation meet or
exceed the rigor of the 1997 content standards for Algebra 1.
(EC § 51224.5)
Current law is silent with regard to mathematics placement
policies or practices.
Proposed Law: This bill requires each LEA serving students in
grade 8 or 9, or both, to develop and implement a fair,
objective, and transparent mathematics placement policy.
Specifically, the policy must be adopted in a regularly
scheduled public meeting and must: (1) take current academic
objective measures into consideration, such as student grades;
(2) include multiple progress checkpoints throughout the
academic year to permit reevaluation of individual student
progress; and (3) offer clear and immediate recourse for each
student and their parent who questions the placement.
The policy must also include an examination of student placement
data to ensure that there is no disproportionate placement of
students by race, gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic
background. The LEA must report the aggregate results of the
examination to its governing board and prominently post this
information on its website. This bill authorizes that this
report be included in the LEA's local control and accountability
plan.
Related
Legislation:1. AB 220 (Holden, 2015) allows the course Mathematics 1, which is
aligned to the state's adopted academic content standards, to
satisfy a mathematics graduation requirement. AB 220 is pending
in the Senate Rules Committee.
SR 60 (Mitchell, 2014) asks local school boards to develop, adopt,
and monitor a fair, objective, and transparent mathematics
placement policy.
Staff
Comments: This bill could result in a reimbursable state mandate as it
requires each LEAs to develop and implement a new mathematics
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placement policy, including the required components.
The plan requires, among other things, multiple checkpoints
throughout the academic year to permit reevaluation of student
progress and the examination of student placement data that
would first have to be gathered and then monitored, to ensure no
there is no disproportionate impact on the placement of students
among student demographic groups. The LEA is also required to
submit a report of the aggregated results of this examination to
its governing board. Finally, the LEA must provide immediate
recourse if a parent or student disagrees with the placement.
Assuming additional staffing is needed at each LEA (1,044) for
examining student placement data as well as for addressing
appeals in each high school (1,305) and middle school (1,267),
local costs Proposition 98 General Fund costs could be in the
mid hundreds of millions. Costs would vary by LEA depending on
its size and need for additional staff.
Even if LEAs currently have their own mathematics placement
policy, which may differ, they would be required to amend their
policy to comply with this new law and could receive a
reimbursement for this activity if it is deemed a reimbursable
state mandate.
Committee amendments (as adopted on May 28, 2015): Amendments
reduce requirements to apply to LEAs that do not have a
mathematics placement policy. In addition, amendments reduce
the minimum number of checkpoints required to reevaluate pupil
progress and provide other technical changes.
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