BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 359|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 359
Author: Mitchell (D)
Amended: 6/2/15
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 8-0, 4/15/15
AYES: Liu, Huff, Block, Hancock, Leyva, Mendoza, Pan, Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/28/15
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen
SUBJECT: California Mathematics Placement Act of 2015.
SOURCE: California State Conference of the NAACP
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
DIGEST: This bill requires each local educational agency
serving grades 8 or 9 to develop and implement a fair,
objective, and transparent mathematics placement policy.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Requires students to successfully complete two courses in
mathematics as a condition of graduation from high school.
(Education Code § 51225.3)
2)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)
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3)Established the Academic Content Standards Commission for the
purpose of developing the California Common Core Standards 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)
This bill:
1)Establishes the California Mathematics Placement Act.
2)Requires the governing board of each local educational agency
(LEA) serving grade 8 or grade 9, or both, to develop and
implement a fair, objective, and transparent statewide
mathematics placement policy that does all of the following:
a) Systematically takes current academic objective measures
into consideration, such as statewide assessments, student
grades, and diagnostic placement tests.
b) Includes at least one progress checkpoint during the
academic year to permit reevaluation of individual student
progress.
c) Requires examination of student placement data annually
to ensure that there is no disproportionate impact in the
course placement of students by race, gender, ethnicity, or
socioeconomic background.
d) Requires the LEA to report the aggregate results of this
examination to the LEA's governing board and prominently
post the examination results on the LEA's website. This
report may be included as part of the LEA's accountability
report of its local control and accountability plan.
e) Offers clear and timely recourse for each student and
his or her parent who questions the student's placement.
3)Requires the governing boards of each LEA to adopt the
mathematics placement policy in a regularly scheduled public
meeting.
4)Requires each LEA to ensure that its mathematics placement
policy is posted prominently on the LEA's website.
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5)Clarifies that this bill applies only to LEAs that do not have
a mathematics placement policy as of January 1, 2016.
6)Defines "local educational agency" as a county office of
education, school district, state special school, or
direct-funded charter school.
7)States legislative findings and declarations relative to
mathematics misplacement.
Comments
How do schools currently determine math placement? Current law
is silent with regard to mathematics placement policies or
practices. According to Appendix A of the 2013 Mathematics
Framework, which was adopted by the State Board of Education on
November 6, 2013:
Most districts typically rely on teacher recommendations
and course grades to determine course placement (Bitter and
O'Day 2010, p. 6), with standardized mathematics test
scores, student/parent preferences, and counselor
recommendations also factoring into the decision (Hallinan
2003). Teacher and counselor placement
recommendations include subjective judgments about
"students' personalities, behavior and motivation" in
addition to test score performance.
[http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ma/cf/documents/aug2013apxacoursep
lace.pdf]
Why include grade 8? This bill requires each LEA serving grades
8 or 9 to develop and implement a mathematics placement policy.
This bill includes grade 8 because many students take Algebra I
in grade 7, or earlier, and are affected by placement decisions
in grade 8. This bill sunshines math placement practices by
requiring LEAs to have a policy with specific elements, ensuring
schools consistently use objective measurements, apply the
practice uniformly, and make students and parents aware of the
placement policies. This bill does not require the policies of
LEAs to accept completion of Algebra I in middle school as
satisfying high school graduation requirements. Students who
successfully complete Algebra I in grade 8 and are not required
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to take Algebra I in high school would still be required to
complete two mathematics courses while in high school.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, this bill
imposes 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.
SUPPORT: (Verified6/1/15)
California State Conference of the National Association for the
Advancement of
Colored People (co-source)
Silicon Valley Community Foundation (co-source)
Association of California School Administrators
Bayer
California School Boards Association
Education Trust-West
Equal Justice Society
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay
Area
Public Advocates
San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce
San Mateo County Office of Education
St. James Community Foundation
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/1/15)
None received
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ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the Education Trust-West,
some students are disadvantaged by unfair math placement
practices that require students to repeat Algebra or other
classes after having already passed the course in the eighth
grade. Due to bias or opinions that are not based on data or
evidence, some high schools require entering freshmen to retake
their college preparatory math course. This reduces the total
number of college preparatory courses taken in high school,
weakens the student's preparation for university-level
coursework, and potentially threatens his or her chances for
admission to competitive institutions.
Prepared by:Lynn Lorber / ED. / (916) 651-4105
6/2/15 12:52:20
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