BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 2086
AUTHOR: Coto
AMENDED: June 16, 2010
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 23, 2010
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Kathleen
Chavira
SUBJECT : Licensing Exam Passage Rates
KEY POLICY ISSUE
Should postsecondary educational institutions be required
to provide information on how to obtain license examination
passage rates for its graduates, as a condition of
participation in the Cal Grant Program?
SUMMARY
This bill expands the requirements that must be met by all
postsecondary educational institutions for purposes of
participation in the Cal Grant Program to include a
requirement that would provide information on where to
access license examination passage rates for the most
recently available year for graduates of its programs if
that data is electronically available through the Internet
website of a state licensing or regulatory agency, as
specified.
BACKGROUND
Current law authorizes the Cal Grant Program, administered
by the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC), to provide
grants to financially needy students to attend college.
These grants are awarded to assist with the costs of a
program of study that results in the award of an associate
or baccalaureate degree or certificate requiring at least
24 semester units or the equivalent, or that results in
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eligibility for transfer from a community college to a
baccalaureate degree program.
Current law provides that a "qualifying institution" for
purposes of participation in the Cal Grant Program, must be
one of the following:
1) A California private or independent postsecondary
educational institution that participates in the Pell
Grant program and at least two of the following:
a) Federal Work-Study.
b) Perkins Loan Program.
c) Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant
Program.
1) A nonprofit institution headquartered and operating in
California that:
a) Certifies to the CSAC that 10 percent of its
operating budget, as demonstrated in an audited
financial statement, is expended for
institutionally funded student financial aid in
the form of grants.
b) Demonstrates the capacity to administer the
funds.
c) Is accredited by the Western Association of
Schools and Colleges, or is regionally accredited
and was deemed qualified to participate in the
Cal Grant Program by CSAC for the 2000-01
academic year.
d) Meets any other state-required criteria
adopted by regulation by the CSAC in consultation
with the Department of Finance.
1) Any California public postsecondary educational
institution.
ANALYSIS
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This bill :
1) Modifies codified legislative intent language
regarding the California Education Information System.
Specifically it:
a) Declares that data from the California
Education Information System will allow teacher
candidates to make informed decisions about
choosing a teacher preparation program by
providing aggregate information on the
effectiveness of teacher preparation programs and
the related academic proficiency of specified
subgroups.
b) Declares the Legislature's intent that, to
the extent practicable, the Student Aid
Commission and the California Department of
Education facilitate institutional compliance
with the reporting requirements around licensing
passage rates required by the bill.
1) Expands the requirements that must be met by a
California postsecondary educational institution in
order to participate in the Cal Grant Program to
include the requirement that the institution provide
information on where to access license examination
passage rates for the most recently available year
from graduates of its program for which passage of a
state licensing exam is required, if the data is
available electronically through the internet website
of a state licensing or regulatory agency.
2) Authorizes the requirement in (2) to be met by placing
a link to this data on the Internet website where an
institution's enrollment and application or other
program information is distributed to prospective
students.
3) Assigns responsibility for certification of compliance
with this requirement to the postsecondary educational
institution.
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4) Makes other technical and conforming changes.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author,
California currently has no easy public way to compare
the effectiveness of professional preparation programs
in postsecondary institutions of higher education.
The purpose of this bill is to make students, parents,
taxpayers, policy makers, and employers aware of
whether or not the institutions and programs they
attend, support, and/or finance are effective in terms
of student learning and imparting of the skill
necessary to be successful in the workplace. This bill
ensures that one measure of the effectiveness of a
postsecondary education program, license exam passage
rates, is made publicly available by postsecondary
institutions.
2) Other information requirements ? AB 48 (Portantino,
Chapter 210, Statutes of 2009) established the Bureau
for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE) to provide
for the approval, regulation, and enforcement, and
reporting requirements for private postsecondary
educational institutions. Among other things, these
institutions are required to provide information on
completion rates, placement rates, license examination
passage rates, and salary and wage information. This
information must be disclosed to prospective students
on a School Performance Fact Sheet, to the BPPE in an
annual report, and be made publicly available on the
BPPE web site by June 30, 2010.
Under federal law, institutions that participate in
Federal Title IV student
aid programs are required to report information to the
National Center for
Education Statistics (NCES) for incorporation into the
Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).
Although the collected
information is made publicly available, staff notes that
license exam
passage rates by institution are not currently collected or
reported.
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Staff further notes that, while private postsecondary
institutions operating in California are already required
to provide license exam passage rates to students and the
public, this bill would impose a means for imposing a
similar, but new, requirement on California's public
postsecondary institutions.
3) Do licensing entities provide this information ? The
Department of Consumer Affairs consists of more than
40 boards, bureaus, committees, commissions, and other
programs that set minimum standards of competence,
education, and skills for an array of professions and
vocations. These entities regulate diverse industries
including, but not limited to, nursing, cosmetology,
contracting, automotive repair, engineering, and
psychology. These regulatory boards and bureaus
license, register, certify, permit, or approve
individuals or businesses according to qualifications
established by legislation and regulations.
This bill makes its disclosure requirements contingent
upon whether the state
licensing or regulatory agency makes this information
available via its
website. It is unclear how many of these licensing
entities currently make
license exam passage rates by school of graduation publicly
available in this manner, if at all.
4) Disconnect for teacher credentialing programs . This
bill was recently amended to modify intent language
regarding the California Education Information System
and the requirements of the bill as they apply to
teacher preparation programs. Teacher credentialing
programs are typically post-baccalaureate programs and
ineligible to participate in the current Cal Grant
Program. The Cal Grant T program, specifically
designed to help post-baccalaureate students pursue
their initial California teaching credential, no
longer accepts applications since, due to severe
budget constraints, the Governor and Legislature have
not provided funding for these awards since the
2002-2003 academic year.
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Additionally, while the goal of providing information
on the effectiveness of these programs is worthwhile,
it is questionable whether exam passage rates are
useful for this purpose. Not all teachers take the
same examinations. Because of the various pathways
into the teaching profession (all meeting the same
standards) teachers can meet requirements by exam,
coursework, or proxy (as with CBEST). Currently,
through its accreditation system, CTC reviews and
evaluates the effectiveness of teacher preparation
programs. Under the system, all teacher preparation
programs, including those that are district-based,
provide information on an ongoing basis about
candidate competence and program effectiveness.
Programs must submit biennial reports to the CTC that
include an analysis of candidate competence data and
the improvements made to the program based on that
data. Based on those reports, CTC identifies programs
that need technical assistance or monitoring, which
includes at least one site visit every 7 years.
Staff recommends the bill be amended to delete the
most recent amendments to Education Code 10600 and to
instead insert the following:
"The Legislature finds and declares that it is
important that policy makers and teacher candidates
have access to information on the quality of teacher
preparation programs. It is also the intent of the
Legislature that the quality indicators include the
extent to which teachers are prepared to work
effectively with all students including, but not
limited to, English Language Learners, special
education and socio-economically disadvantaged
students.
It is the intent of the Legislature that as the
California Education Information System is implemented
over time, access to public information already
available on various measures of the quality of
teacher preparation programs be available in
electronic format and be accessible to the extent
practicable through downloadable pages and reports
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accessible to the public in a consolidated manner."
SUPPORT
Board of Behavioral Sciences
California State Student Association
EdVoice
OPPOSITION
None received.