BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 725|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 725
Author: Hancock (D), et al.
Amended: 8/20/15
Vote: 27 - Urgency
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 4/22/15
AYES: Liu, Runner, Block, Hancock, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning,
Pan, Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/28/15
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen
SENATE FLOOR: 40-0, 6/3/15
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Berryhill, Block,
Cannella, De León, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Glazer, Hall,
Hancock, Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson,
Lara, Leno, Leyva, Liu, McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning,
Moorlach, Morrell, Nguyen, Nielsen, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Runner,
Stone, Vidak, Wieckowski, Wolk
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-1, 8/20/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Pupil testing: high school exit examination:
exemption
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill, an urgency measure, exempts from the
requirement to pass the California High School Exit Examination
students in the Class of 2015 who have met all other high school
graduation requirements.
Assembly Amendments (1) delete the contents of the bill relative
to academic content standards in visual and performing arts, and
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insert language to exempt students in the Class of 2015 from the
requirement to pass the high school exit exam as a condition of
graduation if the student has met all other graduation
requirements; and (2) add an urgency clause.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
develop, and the State Board of Education (SBE) to adopt, a
high school exit examination 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 high school 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)Establishes the Academic Content Standards Commission for the
purpose of developing the California Common Core Standards in
English language arts and mathematics, and requires the SBE to
reject or adopt those standards by August 2, 2010. (EC §
60605.8)
4)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)
5)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))
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This bill:
1)Prohibits the high school exit exam from being 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.
2)Includes in urgency clause in order to ensure that pupils who
have not passed the high school exit exam but have met all
other high school graduation requirements receive a high
school diploma as soon as possible.
Comments
Contract issues. According to the California Department of
Education (CDE), the contract for the California High School
Exit Examination (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 would
not have been in place to ensure administration of the CAHSEE in
July, October and possibly November 2015 test dates.
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
was necessary in the event that legislation fails passage or is
amended to keep the CAHSEE requirement in place for future
school years. However, the CDE also maintains that renewing the
contract at this point will also miss the October and possibly
November 2015 test dates.
Absent any action, the CAHSEE will remain a high school
graduation requirement yet is no longer being administered to
students. Students who need to pass the CAHSEE to earn a
diploma have no opportunity to do so. It is estimated that
approximately 5,000 students have met all coursework
requirements to graduate but have not passed the CAHSEE.
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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 has
served a valuable purpose by ensuring students demonstrate
competency on standards, providing remediation opportunities
prior to grade 12, and helping to overall narrow 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 and, for
mathematics, alignment of some items to the common core
standards 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 SBE 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
SBE 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
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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
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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, this bill
imposes unknown, likely minor costs to local education agencies
to modify graduation policies to reflect the removal of the
CAHSEE as a requirement for graduation from high school.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/21/15)
Association of California School Administrators
Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
SIATech
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/21/15)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to SIATech, "we have a
growing list of students who are caught in a Catch 22 where
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SIATech cannot issue a diploma because it is legally impossible
to take and pass the CAHSEE. Our students are former dropouts,
very low income, and 'risk immersed.' They do not have the
option of waiting at home for a semester. They have made
incredible personal journeys to earn their diplomas and move on
into living wage careers. It would be truly tragic for the
Department's [CDE] action to inadvertently ruin the
opportunities they have earned."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-1, 8/20/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta,
Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez,
Chiu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo
Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove,
Hadley, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer,
Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis,
Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
Wood, Atkins
NOES: Travis Allen
NO VOTE RECORDED: Chu, Harper
Prepared by:Lynn Lorber / ED. / (916) 651-4105
8/21/15 16:06:57
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