BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2307
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 19, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2307 (Carter) - As Amended: April 28, 2010
Policy Committee: EducationVote:9-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI) and the State Board of Education (SBE) to allow a dropout
recovery high school (DRHS) to use an individual pupil growth
model that is proposed by the school and certified by the SPI.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Defines a "dropout recovery high school" as a high school in
which 50% or more of its pupils are designated as dropouts
pursuant to the exit and withdrawal codes developed by the
State Department of Education (SDE) and the school provides
instruction in partnership with any of the following:
a) the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA);
b) federally affiliated Youthbuild programs;
c) federal job corps training or instruction provide
pursuant to a memorandum of understanding with the federal
provider;
d) the California Conservation Corp (CCC) or local
conservation corps certified by the CCC, as specified.
2)Requires the SPI to review the individual pupil growth model
proposed by the DRHS and certify the model, if it meets all of
the following requirements: (a) measures learning based on
valid and reliable nationally normed or criterion-referenced
reading and mathematics tests; (b) measures skills and
knowledge aligned with state standards; (c) measures the
extent to which a pupil scored above an expected amount of
growth based on the individual pupil's initial achievement
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score; and (d) demonstrates the extent to which a school is
able to accelerate learning on an annual basis.
FISCAL EFFECT
GF administrative costs, likely less than $100,000, to SDE to
review and recommend approval to the SBE of an individual growth
model for DRHS, as specified.
COMMENTS
1)Background . K-12 pupils have several alternative education
options available to them other than traditional public
schools, including independent study, continuation education,
community day schools, juvenile court schools, and dropout
recovery schools. Many of these alternative education options
have specified requirements that cause the pupil to attend one
of these programs. For example, pupils in the criminal
justice system are educated in a juvenile court school.
Current law requires the SPI to establish an alternative
accountability system (i.e., the Alternative School
Accountability Model (ASAM) for schools under the jurisdiction
of a county board of education or county superintendent of
schools, community day schools, nonpublic schools, and
alternative schools serving high risk pupils (continuation
high schools, dropouts, etc). Statute also authorizes schools
in the alternative accountability system to receive an
Academic Performance Index (API) score, but not be included in
the API rankings. Participation in the alternative
accountability system is voluntary, unless a school enrolls
70% (at a minimum) of high-risk pupils.
The ASAM is a voluntary accountability program where
qualifying schools select three of 14 reporting indicators
measuring student learning readiness, transition, and academic
performance. Participating schools annually report on these
three indicators. Schools select their reporting indicators
from a list adopted by the SBE in 2001.
ASAM serves more than 1,000 community day schools,
continuation schools, county community schools, county court
schools, Division of Juvenile Justice schools, opportunity
schools, and alternative schools of choice and charter schools
that meet the eligibility requirements approved by the SBE. It
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is estimated that the total number of students annually served
by ASAM is approximately 450,000 (280,000 unduplicated)
primarily in grades 8-12. According to SDE, over 1,000
schools participated in ASAM in 2008-09.
This bill would allow DRSH to utilize an approved growth model
to measure the school's success in addition to the ASAM, as
specified.
2)Purpose . According to the California Dropout Research Project
report: The Economic Losses of High School Dropouts in
California (Belfield and Levin, August 2007), California
experiences $46.4 billion in total economic losses from each
cohort of 120,000 20- year-olds who never complete high
school; this is the equivalent of 2.9% of the annual state
gross product. The authors further state that the average high
school graduate earns $290,000 more over a lifetime than a
high school dropout and pays $100,000 more in federal, state,
and local taxes. Likewise, more the two-thirds of high school
dropouts will use food stamps during their working lifetime
and a high school graduate is 68% less likely to be on any
welfare program.
The California Standards Tests (CSTs), which comprise the
majority of Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program,
measure pupil performance on the state academic standards for
each grade level. Each grade has a unique set of standards
and the CSTs for that grade are designed to measure pupil
performance against those standards. If the STAR assessments
were designed in a manner that enabled performance levels to
mean the same thing at each grade level, the state could
accurately measure student gains or losses across years. This
change in the assessment system would eventually affect the
state's API because the majority of the index is calculated
utilizing assessment scores. As a result, a school would be
held accountable for pupil performance over time (i.e., a
growth model).
According to the author, "Dropout recovery high schools
typically operate on an open entry, open exit model rather
than a traditional school year model. As a result, students
enter and exit as they complete their individual course work
requirements and many are not enrolled at the single point in
time necessary for typical standardized tests. An individual
growth model tracks each student's growth in terms of actual
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learning gains. [This bill] provides that, as part of the
ASAM for schools, the SPI and the SBE will allow a dropout
recovery high school, to use an individual student growth
model that meets certain criteria."
3)Governor's April 2010 proposal eliminates ASAM . The
Department of Finance (DOF) proposes to eliminate the ASAM and
fold alternative schools into existing federal accountability
reporting. Specifically, DOF states "While the state permits
alternative schools to participate in an alternative
accountability model to comply with state accountability
requirements, it is not required by state or federal law.
Under federal requirements established by the No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001, all alternative schools are required to
meet the same adequate yearly progress reporting criteria as
other mainstream schools." As a result of this proposal, the
state would save approximately $775,000 in GF/98.
4)Related legislation . AB 2013 (Arambula), pending in this
committee, requires schools that enroll 100% of their pupils
in independent study (IS) programs to be included in the
state's alternative accountability system and makes changes to
require mandatory participation by all alternative schools, as
specified.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081