BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 359
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB
359 (Mitchell)
As Amended August 28, 2015
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE: 40-0
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Education |7-0 |O'Donnell, Chávez, | |
| | |Kim, McCarty, | |
| | |Santiago, Thurmond, | |
| | |Weber | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |17-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, | |
| | |Bloom, Bonta, | |
| | |Calderon, Chang, | |
| | |Nazarian, Eggman, | |
| | |Gallagher, Eduardo | |
| | |Garcia, Holden, | |
| | |Jones, Quirk, Rendon, | |
| | |Wagner, Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SB 359
Page 2
SUMMARY: Requires local educational agencies (LEAs) and charter
schools serving students entering grade nine to adopt a fair,
objective, and transparent mathematics placement policy.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Makes findings and declarations regarding students'
inappropriate placement in mathematics courses at the
secondary level.
2)States that the act shall be known as the California
Mathematics Placement Act of 2015.
3)Requires governing boards of LEAs serving students entering
grade 9 that do not have a fair, objective, and transparent
mathematics placement policy as of January 1, 2016, to develop
and adopt in a regularly scheduled public meeting a fair,
objective, and transparent mathematics placement policy before
the beginning of the 2016-17 school year that:
a) Systematically takes multiple, objective academic
measures into consideration.
b) Defines "objective academic measures" to mean measures
such as statewide mathematics assessments, including
interim and summative assessments; placement tests that are
aligned to state-adopted content standards in mathematics;
classroom assignments and grades; and report cards.
c) Includes at least one placement checkpoint within the
first month of the school year to ensure accurate
placement.
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d) Requires annual examination of aggregate pupil placement
data to ensure that students who are qualified to progress
in mathematics courses based on their performance on
objective academic measures are not held back in a
disproportionate manner on the basis of their race,
ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic background.
e) Requires LEAs to report the aggregate results of this
examination to their governing boards.
f) Offers clear and timely recourse for each student and
his or her parent or guardian who questions the student's
placement.
g) For non-unified school districts, addresses the
consistency of mathematics placement policies between
elementary and high school districts.
1)States that LEAs serving students who are transitioning
between elementary and middle or junior high schools may
develop and implement policies meeting the criteria above.
2)Requires LEAs to post their mathematics placement policies on
their Web sites.
3)Defines "local educational agency" to mean a county office of
education, school district, state special school, or charter
school.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
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Committee, unknown Proposition 98/General Fund state mandated
costs, likely in the low millions, 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. For illustration, assuming
roughly half of all school districts, county offices of
education, and charter schools serving students entering 9th
grade were required to implement a policy, statewide costs would
range from $2.8 million to $5.8 million. This assumes average
LEA administrative costs in the range of $4,000 to $8,000 per
LEA.
COMMENTS:
Need for the bill. According to the author's office, "Math
misplacement occurs when 9th grade students are held back to
repeat their 8th grade math course despite achieving a "B" grade
or better, or testing at proficient or advanced on state
assessments, instead of being placed in the next course in the
recommended math sequence as a freshman in high school. Most
universities, including the California State University and the
University of California, require at least three years of math
for college eligibility and prefer students who have taken
high-level math courses such as Calculus or Advanced Placement
Statistics. Failing to take high level math classes in high
school can have significant ramifications on the student's
future economic success."
Study finds many students who successfully pass algebra in 8th
grade placed in same course in 9th grade. A 2010 study by the
Noyce Foundation which examined the math placement practices of
nine school districts and their effect on 1,700 students found:
1)Forty-six percent of 8th grade algebra students who earned a
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grade of B- or better were placed in Algebra again in 9th
grade, or dropped to a less advanced course.
2)Forty-five percent of 8th grade algebra students who met or
exceeded standards on standardized assessments (California
Standards Test or the formative Mathematics Assessment
Resource Service assessments) were placed in algebra again in
9th grade.
3)Nearly half of the students who were successful in algebra in
the 8th grade and who were placed again in Algebra in 9th
grade were no more successful in their second experience.
4)Evidence suggesting (but is not generalizable because of the
methodology of this study) that Latino, African American, and
Pacific Islander students who were successful in 8th grade
algebra were less likely than other students to be placed in
algebra again in 9th grade.
A new definition of "math misplacement". Prior to the
publication of the above data, "math misplacement" was typically
considered to mean the placement of students in courses for
which they were academically unprepared. The state's
Mathematics Framework states that "[math] misplacement is
common," and devotes the discussion of this problem
predominantly to the problem of students' lack of readiness for
the course.
Enrollment in 8th grade algebra has increased dramatically in
recent years, from 32% to 54% between 2003 and 2009, according
to the CDE. Scores on the California Standards Test in algebra
increased for students overall during this period, but scores
have risen more dramatically for low income, English learner,
African American, and Latino students, as well as students with
disabilities.
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Yet concerns persist about inappropriate placement in this
course. These concerns are based in part on proficiency scores
on the California Standards Test, but also on the observations
that many students retake algebra in 9th grade, and that many
retake the algebra CST (which occurs each time a student takes
the course). The misplacement data presented above raises the
question: could some part of California's students' math
"failure" actually be success in disguise?
How do schools determine math placement? Current law is silent
with regard to mathematics placement policies and practices.
The state's Mathematics Framework states:
Most districts typically rely on teacher recommendations
and course grades to determine course placement (Bitter
and O'Day 2010, page 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. [emphasis added]
What causes math misplacement? There are several factors which
have been identified as leading to students' misplacement in math
courses in 9th grade. Among them are:
1)Over-reliance on subjective measures. Use of subjective
measures to determine placement may be a significant factor in
math misplacement. Research on math placement illustrates the
potential consequences of over-reliance on subjective
judgments in placement decisions:
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a) A 2014 longitudinal study of placement of students in
algebra in 8th grade investigated the relationship between
standardized test scores and teacher evaluation of
students' math skills on math placement. It found that
African American students had two-thirds the chance of
being placed in algebra than other students of the same
ability. For white students, test scores were a stronger
predictor of algebra placement than teacher evaluation, but
for African American students, teacher evaluations
significantly outweighed test scores. Students who had
high test scores but low teacher evaluations had only
one-tenth the rate of algebra placement as students who had
high test scores and high teacher evaluations. For
high-achieving African American students, the rate of
algebra placement was 40% lower than for high-achieving
white students. Even for African American students with
high test scores and high teacher evaluations, the rate of
placement was no higher than for those African American
students with average scores and evaluations.
b) Another study of math placement in an urban school
district found that among 8th grade students scoring in the
highest quartile on a statewide standardized assessment of
mathematics, placement in the 9th grade "gatekeeper"
mathematics courses differed dramatically by schools within
the same district. Overall, 27% of high scoring students
were not placed in appropriate courses, and low
socio-economic students were three times as likely as
wealthier students to be denied appropriate placement. The
school observed to have a culture of low expectations
placed the least number of high-achieving students in the
appropriate courses.
2)Poor timing of data availability from some objective measures.
Data from statewide assessments has historically been
available only after placement recommendations have been made.
This should improve, however, with the state's new,
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computer-based assessments, which will produce test scores for
non-performance items within weeks after test administration.
3)Absence of consistently-applied policies. There is no
statewide data on school districts' math policies. Some
districts, such as Capistrano Unified School District, do have
clear placement policies posted on their Web sites. But
anecdotal evidence suggests that some school districts either
lack a formal, publicly-accessible placement policy, or that
their existing policies are not applied consistently.
4)Lack of coordination between middle and high schools. A 2012
report by WestEd, "College Bound in Middle School and High
School? How Math Course Sequences Matter," found poor
coordination between middle and high schools in math
placement, reporting that of the districts studied, "none had
focused on the relationship between students' math performance
in early middle school and later course taking and
achievement," reflecting a "disjuncture, or lack of
communication, between middle- and high-school staff." It
noted that "middle-school staff never learned how their
students fared in high school; high-school teachers do not
systematically seem to know how their students had performed
in middle school before transitioning to high school."
5)Wide variation in course names. As noted above, there are
many names for mathematics courses used by school districts,
and this variation may result in improper course placement in
the transition between schools and districts.
6)Parental involvement. Research has demonstrated that more
educated parents are more likely to intervene in mathematics
course placement decisions affecting their children.
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7)Concern in high schools about quality of 8th grade algebra
courses. A 2009 EdSource report notes a concern, expressed by
the CDE, that "some students who pass algebra I in grade eight
might be placed in the course again by high schools that
criticize the quality of 8th grade courses."
8)Non-unified districts. For non-unified school districts, math
placement policies may not consistently align between
elementary feeder districts and high school districts.
9)Lack of sufficient counselors. Likely contributing to the
problem of math misplacement is California's poor
counselor-to-student ratio. In 2010-2011, the state ranked
last in the nation, with one counselor for every 1,016
students.
What happens when districts implement a math placement policy
based on objective measures? According to the Silicon Valley
Community Foundation, twenty-two school districts are actively
working to improve their math placement practices. One of
these, the Sequoia Union High School District, reviewed its math
placement practices and found that math misplacement was
occurring almost exclusively among students of color coming from
a lower income area. They examined the reasons why teachers
were recommending that students who had succeeded in algebra
were being placed in algebra again, and found a variety of
reasons, from concerns that students didn't pay enough attention
in class, to poor homework completion, to a general perception
that students weren't ready to face academic challenges.
Sequoia Union High School District began placing students in
math courses based on test scores, and within a year had
achieved "accurate placement" aligned to ability between 96% and
99% of the time.
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Math misplacement may begin even earlier than 8th grade. While
there is no statewide data on math placement practices in the
transition between elementary and middle school, limited
evidence suggests that math misplacement may occur at this
juncture as well. For example, the Fremont Unified School
district Web site states that sixth grade students must take a
math placement test, and that "no changes may be made to a
student's math course pathway until after 9th grade." It also
states that absent students must take the placement test on the
day they return to school or they will "will lose the
opportunity to accelerate and will automatically be placed in
the non-accelerated course." While the 8th to 9th grade
transition is a critical one, math misplacement may occur long
before. This bill includes a permissive statement on the
inclusion of the elementary to middle school transition in math
placement policies.
Analysis Prepared by:
Tanya Lieberman / ED. / (916) 319-2087 FN:
0001829