BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 429|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 429
Author: Brownley (D), et al
Amended: 9/1/09 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 8-0, 7/15/09
AYES: Romero, Huff, Alquist, Hancock, Liu, Padilla,
Simitian, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Maldonado
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 13-0, 8/27/09
AYES: Kehoe, Cox, Corbett, Denham, Hancock, Leno, Oropeza,
Price, Runner, Walters, Wolk, Wyland, Yee
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 79-0, 6/2/09 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : School accountability
SOURCE : Association of California School Administrators
DIGEST : This bill states the intent of the Legislature
to have the advisory committee, that the Superintendent of
Public Instruction has established under current law, make
recommendations for generating a measurement of academic
performance that can provide a more accurate and valid
measure of a pupil's academic achievement growth over time
and use the pilot study of academic growth measures,
pursuant to Provision 10 of Item 6110-113-0890 of Section
2.00 of the 2007 Budget Act, in making recommendations to
CONTINUED
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the Superintendent for this purpose.
ANALYSIS : Current law requires the Superintendent of
Public Instruction to establish a broadly representative
committee to advise the Superintendent and the State Board
of Education (SBE) on the creation of the Academic
Performance Index (API) and make recommendations on the
feasibility of measuring academic performance utilizing
unique pupil identifiers.
The API was established pursuant SB 1X (Alpert), Chapter 3,
Statutes of 1999-2000, First Extraordinary Session. The
API was proposed as a means of combining multiple
indicators of school performance into one easy-to-compare
index. A school's API score is based on the test scores of
pupils on several statewide tests, including scores from
the California Standards Tests of pupils in grades 2
through 11, and the California High School Exit
Examination.
This bill states the intent of the Legislature that the
advisory committee mentioned above do both of the
following:
1. Make recommendations for generating a measurement of
academic performance that can provide a more accurate
and valid measure of a pupil's academic achievement
growth over time.
2. Use the pilot study of academic growth measures,
pursuant to Provision 10 of Item 6110-113-0890 of
Section 2.00 of the Budget Act of 2007, in making
recommendations to the Superintendent for this purpose.
This bill states that if recommendations are made by the
advisory committee, it is the intent of the Legislature
that the Superintendent forward the recommendations of the
advisor committee to the state board, the appropriate
policy committees of the Legislature, and the Department of
Finance. It is further the intent of the Legislature that
each recommendation include a cost estimate and a timeline
for implementation.
This bills states that no recommendation made pursuant to
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the above or any other proposal to develop a longitudinally
valid assessment system may be implemented unless and until
funds are appropriated by the Legislature in the annual
Budget Act or another statute enacted specifically for that
purpose.
Comments
Measuring academic growth . The California Standards Tests,
that make up the heart of the state's Standardized Testing
and Reporting Program, measure pupil performance against
the statewide standards adopted by the SBE for each grade
level. Although the standards are considered among the
best in the nation, they were not designed to track pupil
performance in specific skills from one grade to the next.
Each grade has a unique set of standards and the tests for
that grade are designed to measure pupil performance
against those standards, but aligned as they are to the
standards at each grade level, the tests are not
"vertically aligned" so that a pupil's performance on any
particular set of skills may be tracked over time. As a
result, this system does not allow an accurate comparison
of a pupil's growth or decline in performance between grade
levels.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 9/1/09)
Association of California School Administrators (source)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees
California County Boards of Education
California Federation of Teachers
California School Boards Association
California Teachers Association
Californians Together Coalition
EdVoice
Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
Los Angeles County Office of Education
San Francisco Unified School District
Santa Clara County Office of Education
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ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Blumenfield,
Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter,
Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon,
DeVore, Duvall, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher,
Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani,
Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi,
Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight,
Krekorian, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza,
Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, John A.
Perez, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Price, Ruskin, Salas,
Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Audra
Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran,
Villines, Yamada, Bass
NO VOTE RECORDED: Block
DLW:mw 9/1/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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