BILL ANALYSIS
AB 465
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 6, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 465 (Coto) - As Introduced: February 24, 2009
SUBJECT : Parent Involvement
SUMMARY : Encourages school districts to review and, if
appropriate, contract with nonprofit community-based
organizations that meet specified criteria to encourage parent
involvement in schools. Specifically, this bill :
1)Specifies that the nonprofit community-based organization a
school district is encouraged to contract with must have a
proven track record and can provide evidence of its success in
educating parents and building direct collaboration with
school districts, administrators, and educators through
external longitudinal evaluations.
2)Specifies that a nonprofit community-based organization that
contracts with a school district shall demonstrate and provide
a culturally and linguistically competent parent involvement
program using best practices that address the diversity of the
school district.
3)Encourages a low-performing school district to submit an
annual report to the Superintendent of Public Instruction that
demonstrates its efforts to promote parent engagement and the
outcomes that result from contracting with the nonprofit
community-based organization.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Finds and declares that parental involvement and support in
the education of children is an integral part of improving
academic achievement.
2)Requires the governing board of each school district to
establish a parent involvement program to engage parents
positively in their children's education by helping parents to
develop skills to use at home that support their children's
academic efforts at school and their children's development as
responsible future members of our society, to inform parents
that they can directly affect the success of their children's
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learning, and to develop a consistent and effective
communication between home and school.
3)Authorizes a school district, to the extent permitted by
federal law, to contract with nonprofit organizations and
agencies experienced in administering parent involvement
programs to design or implement, or design and implement, a
school's parent involvement program.
4)Specifies that parents and guardians of pupils enrolled in
public schools have the right and should have the opportunity,
as mutually supportive and respectful partners in the
education of their children within the public schools, to be
informed by the school, and to participate in the education of
their children as specified.
5)Establishes various monetary and non-monetary parent
involvement programs, including the Nell Soto Parent/Teacher
Involvement Program, the Teresa P. Hughes Family-School
Partnership Award and Grant Program, and the Tom Hayden
Community-Based Parent Involvement Grant Program.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Legislative Counsel, this bill
is non-fiscal.
COMMENTS : Existing law recognizes the impact parents can have
in the educational success of children and requires districts to
establish parent involvement programs to educate parents on the
importance of their involvement and to provide education on what
they can do at home to support their children's education at
school. Existing law authorizes a school district, to the
extent permitted by federal law, to contract with nonprofit
organizations to design and implement parent involvement
programs. Funds have been provided in the budget acts in the
past for teacher home visits with parents (Nell Soto
Parent/Teacher Involvement Program) and to provide training to
parents to enhance their involvement in the education of their
children (Tom Hayden Community-Based Parent Involvement
Program).
This bill encourages school districts to review and if
appropriate, contract with a nonprofit community-based
organization that has shown success in educating parents and
building collaboration with district and school staff. The bill
specifies that the organizations districts are encouraged to
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contract with must have documentations of their success through
longitudinal evaluations by a third party. One of the sponsors
of this bill is the Parent Institute for Quality Education
(PIQE), which has received an evaluation by the San Diego State
University's (SDSU) College of Business Administration's
Marketing Department. The Mexican American Legal Defense and
Education Fund (MALDEF), which offers the Parent School
Partnership (PSP) program, also has received an evaluation by
educational researchers at the University of California, San
Diego (UCSD) and University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).
It is unclear whether there are other organizations that meet
this criterion.
PIQE . PIQE was started in 1987 in San Diego and provides a
nine-week parent involvement education program taught by
professional facilitators trained by PIQE. Sessions are free
and are offered in the morning or evening to accommodate work
schedules. The program has been taught in 16 languages and has
expanded beyond San Diego to Los Angeles, Fresno, San Jose,
Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Monterey, Sacramento,
Stanislaus, Alameda, San Francisco, and Shasta counties.
According to PIQE's Web site, over 375,000 parents have
graduated from the program.
The SDSU study, conducted in 2004, surveyed 241 Latino parents
who participated in the program between 1997-98 and reported the
following results:
The children of parents attending and graduating from
the PIQE program achieved a high school graduation rate of
93%;
The student dropout rate was only 7% versus 41% in San
Diego County;
The college bound was 79.2%, 51.4% of whom enrolled in a
Community College and 27.8% were admitted to a four-year
University;
Of the students who were admitted to a four-year college
out of high school, 52.7% went to SDSU, 16.5% UCSD, 3.3%
University of San Diego and 27.5% other, including other
private universities; and,
Study participants admitted to a four-year college was
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19% versus 7% in San Diego County.
MALDEF's PSP program . The PSP program was initiated 20 years
ago to educate and develop the skills of parents to be involved
in ensuring that their children had adequate education for
access to higher education. The UCSD and UCSB study collected
data through a survey of parents in Los Angeles, Houston,
Atlanta and Chicago. The study reports that the PSP prescribes
to the belief that if parents are provided with information on
how the school system works and become engaged in community- and
school-based action projects, they will be empowered to become
active leaders in the schools and communities and stronger
supporters of their children's education. With leadership
development, parents will be able to gain a voice and exercise
their rights to have schools offer the educational programs and
services needed by their children. The study found an alignment
with PSP's espoused theory of action and its implementation of
the program.
Findings from the survey data indicated that PSP positively
influenced parents' knowledge; parents' college expectations;
parents' self-efficacy; parents' actions at home, school and
community; and children's academics.
Families in Schools (FIS) . The bill's co-sponsor, FIS, created
in 2000 by the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project,
received an evaluation of its "Read with Me/Lea Conmigo" program
in 2002, which showed that the project successfully increased
parent reading time with their children. The project provided
backpacks with five books every week to children and provided
teacher training on how to help parents work with their children
at home. According to the author's office, the evaluation was
not conducted by an external source, and consequently, FIS does
not meet the criteria of organizations that this bill encourages
school districts to review and contract with.
Committee Amendments . This bill promotes parental involvement
and specifically, encourages school districts to seek assistance
from nonprofit community-based organizations with expertise in
engaging and increasing parent involvement in schools. However,
while the goal of identifying successful organizations is a
laudable, this bill's encouragement that districts only work
with organizations that have had an "external longitudinal
evaluation" is limiting. There are likely other nonprofit
community-based organizations that are successful in increasing
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parental involvement that have not had external longitudinal
evaluations. Staff recommends striking this requirement. On
page 2, lines 5 and 6, strike "can provide external longitudinal
evaluations that."
Arguments in Support . The author states, "Drugs, violence,
broken homes and poverty all have a direct effect on
California's poor academic achievements and high drop out rates.
In addition, studies show that economically disadvantaged and
ethnically diverse students are more susceptible to educational
inequity. About 50% of African Americans and Latinos graduate
from high schools, compared with 72% of white students. An
approach is needed that will have a profound impact on this
crisis. AB 465 looks to use a valuable resource: parents.
Research shows that children get higher grades and are more
likely to graduate from high school and continue on to college
when their families are involved in their education.
"In areas with large immigrant populations, parents frequently
have difficulties communicating with their children's school,
and may lack the knowledge and experience to help their children
succeed. Many parents may be confused by school district
bureaucracy and feel disconnected from teachers and
administrators."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Teachers Association
One individual
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087