BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2086|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2086
Author: Coto (D)
Amended: 8/17/10
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/23/10
AYES: Romero, Huff, Alquist, Emmerson, Liu, Price,
Simitian
NO VOTE RECORDED: Hancock, Wyland
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 70-1, 5/24/10 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Cal Grant Program: qualifying institutions:
publication of
license examination passage rates
SOURCE : Ed Voice
DIGEST : 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 provides information on where to
access license examination passage rates for the most
recently available year for graduates of its program if
that data is electronically available through the Internet
Web site of a state licensing or regulatory agency, as
specified.
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Senate Floor Amendments of 8/17/10 (1) require teacher
preparation programs to provide information to prospective
candidates regarding license examination passage rates; (2)
authorize the information to be provided by means of
Internet Web sites, as specified; (3) require the
Commission on Teacher Credentialing to provide teacher
preparation programs with an Internet Web site link that
will enable candidates to access program pass rate
information; and (4) clarify that required license
examination pass rate data, for purposes of the Cal Grant
Program, applies to undergraduate programs.
ANALYSIS : Current law establishes in the California
Department of Education the California Education
Information System, consisting of the California
Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System and the
California Longitudinal Teacher Integrated Data Education
System. Current law specifies that the function of the
California Education Information System is to establish,
conduct, and by continuous concern keep up to date, a
basic, integrated, statewide information system for
education.
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 result in
eligibility for transfer from a community college to a
baccalaureate degree program.
Current law provides that a "qualifying institution" for
purpose 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
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Program.
2.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 2000-0l academic year.
D. Meets any other state-required criteria adopted by
regulation by the CSAC in consultation with the
Department of Finance.
This bill:
1.Modifies codified legislative intent language regarding
the California Education Information System.
Specifically, the bill:
A. Declares that it is necessary to integrate the
data collected by existing data systems to provide an
understanding of the teacher workforce in the state
and the effectiveness of teacher preparation
programs.
B. Declares that it is important that policymakers
and teacher candidates have access to information on
the quality of teacher preparation programs.
C. Declares that the quality indicators include the
extent to which teachers are prepared to work
effectively with all pupils, including English
language learners, special education pupils, and
socio-economically disadvantaged pupils.
D. Declares that access to public information already
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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
accessible to the public in a consolidated manner.
2.Requires all teacher preparation programs, regardless of
program sponsor, including, but not limited to, local
educational agencies or other programs that are not
accredited by the Western Association of Schools and
Colleges, to provide information to prospective
candidates regarding the license examination passage
rates of completers of its programs for the most recently
available year, if that data is available electronically
through the Internet Web site of the Commission on
Teacher Credentialing (CTC).
3.Defines "provide" in #2 above to include placement of an
Internet Web site address labeled as an access point for
data on the passage rates of program completers on the
Internet Web site of the program where enrollment
information for the program is located, on an Internet
Web site that provides centralized admissions information
for postsecondary educational systems or programs with
multiple campuses, or on an application for enrollment or
other program information distributed to prospective
candidates.
4.Requires the CTC to provide teacher preparation programs
with the appropriate electronic link to comply with the
provisions of #2 above. The link may also include access
to additional data form the CTC and from the California
Longitudinal Teacher Integrated Data Education System
regarding the types of programs offered and data on
program effectiveness.
5.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
undergraduate programs for which passage of a state
licensing exam is required, if the data is available
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electronically through the Internet Web site of a state
licensing or regulatory agency.
3.Authorizes the requirement in #2 above to be met by
placing a link to this data on the Internet Web site
where an institution's enrollment and application for
other program information is distributed to prospective
students.
6.Assigns responsibility for certification of compliance
with this requirement to the postsecondary educational
institution.
7.Makes other technical and conforming changes.
Comments
Under federal law, institutions that participate in the
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, license
exam passage rates by institutions are not currently
collected or reported.
While private postsecondary institutions operating in
California are already required to provide license exam
passage rates to students and the public, this bill imposes
a means for imposing a similar, but new, requirement on
California's public postsecondary institutions.
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 regulation.
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This bill makes its disclosure requirements contingent upon
whether the state licensing or regulatory agency makes this
information available via its Internet Web site. 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.
Disconnect for Teacher Credentialing 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 the Legislature have not provided funding for
these awards since the 2002-03 academic year.
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 date. Based
on those reports, CTC identifies programs that need
technical assistance or monitoring, which includes at least
one site visit every seven years.
Prior Legislation
AB 48 (Portantino), Chapter 210, Statutes of 2009,
established the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education
(BPPE) to provide for the approval, regulation,
enforcement, and reporting requirements for private
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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
Internet Web site by June 30, 2010.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/18/10)
EdVoice (source)
Board of Behavioral Sciences
California State Student Association
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/10/10)
University of California
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
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 postsecondary education program, license
exam passage rates, is made publicly available by
postsecondary institutions.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : In opposition, the University
of California (UC) states, "While UC is supportive of the
bill's call for greater transparency in higher education,
we object to the provisions of the bill that would tie an
institution's eligibility to participate in the Cal Grant
program to certain reporting requirements. UC believes
that "Tying undergraduate financial aid provided through
the Cal Grant program to the accessibility of passage rates
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for licensing exams taken by graduate and professional
school students would appear to be misdirected and
inappropriate."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Arambula, Beall, Bill Berryhill, Tom
Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter,
Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon,
DeVore, Emmerson, Eng, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes,
Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore,
Hagman, Harkey, Hayashi, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries,
Jones, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza,
Miller, Monning, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, Norby, V.
Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Silva, Skinner,
Smyth, Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson,
Torres, Torrico, Tran, Yamada, John A. Perez
NOES: Anderson
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bass, Evans, Hall, Hernandez, Knight,
Nava, Saldana, Villines, Vacancy
CPM:cm 8/18/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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